My Experience at Maine Coast Semester at Chewonki

I spent the spring semester of my junior year of high school attending a semester school in Wiscasset, Maine called Maine Coast Semester at Chewonki. During my semester, I took a variety of classes focussed on the environment, including Environmental Issues, Natural History and Ecology, and Farm and Food Systems. While the program is focussed on the ecology of coastal Maine, I was able to deepen my knowledge of food systems, both in a broad context and within the context of a rural community through the campus’ working farm, the Farm and Food Systems course, and students’ involvement in the kitchen.

Chewonki is not a vegan or even vegetarian campus. The farm raises chickens, cows, sheep, and pigs for their meat, and all students are involved in this process in some manner through the mandatory work program and morning chores. I was responsible for feeding and watering the chickens every morning, as well as collecting their eggs. Later, I was also responsible for feeding and mucking the stalls of the cows. These experiences provided me, and my peers, with a much stronger understanding of the workings of a farm and this allowed me to better understand the animal agriculture industry. I learned the time at which the majority of eggs are laid, I learned the difference between first and second cut hay, and the signs of sheep labor, among many other things.

In Farm and Food Systems class, we discussed the inner workings of the farm, including the triple bottom line (people, planet, and profit), and how it compares to an industrial farm. Having formed personal connections with many of the farm animals, many of us were horrified when we considered the cruel treatment towards the same species in the industrial agriculture industry. We were also shocked to learn about the tremendously greater costs that come with a smaller-scale operation and more manual labor. We learned a lot about the value of the farm’s outputs and whether Chewonki was saving or losing money by producing much of their own produce and meat.

Finally, we as students intersected with Chewonki’s food system in the kitchen, where we were responsible for cooking Saturday dinner and Sunday brunch. We were able to see how much food was consumed by a given number of people, and also how much food was wasted. It was fascinating to see how the kitchen and the farm worked together to devise a crop plan for the following year based on what was over and under-produced this year.

It was also very interesting to me the different ways my peers reacted to the meat which had been raised on the farm. Some of my peers were more willing to eat the meat knowing that it came from humane conditions, whereas others were deterred from the meat, because it felt too real. Overall, I felt much more in control of my body and my impact knowing where my food came from.