Photos by Meghan Mazella JOHN BOKAER-SMITH, at left, a farmer from EcoVillage’s West Haven Farm, pours green beans at the Ithaca Farmer’s Market. At the top, people shop for fresh produce on a busy Saturday morning at the Farmer’s Market pavilion. And SENIOR ELIZABETH GARDINER picks parsley in the ICES organic garden.

Strawberries, parsley and corn stalks are nothing new along Route 79, but such crops rarely find themselves on Ithaca College grounds. As students make their way to The Bookstore, however, they will see (and smell) these items and more growing in the Ithaca College Environmental Society’s organic garden.

On a 30 x 30 plot of land next to Williams Hall, the fenced-in area is introduced by a hand-painted “Est. in 2004” sign. Marigolds and pansies, basil and thyme garnish the small rings of soil from which they grow. The garden’s success is beyond what any of the gardeners thought it would become, with overburdened tomato vines falling over because the vibrant, red globes grew too large too fast.

“Having a relationship with your food is just invaluable,” said senior Elizabeth Gardiner, co-president of ICES.

Gardiner was one of the six students to work on the garden throughout the summer.

After a not so fruitful gardening attempt behind the compost facility in the summers of 2002 and 2003, the group proposed the idea for another organic garden to the Office of the Physical Plant last spring. The plant granted the students one of the campus’ few pesticide and chemical-free plots of land.

The area was originally designed as a day care area for psychology department faculty and as a site for future studies on the children.

“As the environmental society, we wanted to avoid toxic pesticides,” Gardiner said. “Pesticides get into the ground and get into our drinking water. We wanted to be environmentally responsible.”

Gardiner, along with seniors Eric Leibensperger, Kathleen McCarthy, Kristina Plath and juniors Ryan Mauk and Andres Perez Charneco met every Monday to split the labor for the upcoming week. Using compost from the food on campus and a gift certificate to AGWAY, the six students quickly became enthusiastic for their project.

According to the Organic Trade Association’s 2004 Manufacturer Survey, sales of U.S. organic food and non-food items grew by approximately 20 percent during 2003 to reach $10.8 billion in sales.

Organic farming refers to systems of agriculture in which crops are grown using natural methods without the use of synthetic pesticides. Because these crops lack chemical fertilizers, environmental and long-term health damage is significantly less than most non-organic commercial farms.

But while the health benefits of organic living are an advantage, the high costs of this labor-intensive system deter some consumers from buying organic at all.

Cost aside, organic farming complements Ithaca College’s new sustainability initiative, a program designed to keep the campus’ environmental and social future in mind. Though the ICES garden is not specifically written into the initiative, it does present a positive example of how to make environmentally conscious land decisions today in order for a healthier campus in the future.

Mark Darling, the campus recycling supervisor and ICES adviser, said he believes there are lots of good reasons to choose organic produce, but it is equally important to choose sustainable organic produce.

“If you are choosing organic produce that’s out of season in this area, thinking primarily lettuce and strawberries in February, it would have to be trucked 3000 miles from California,” he said. “I think its better to make the choice for a strawberry that’s grown here in upstate New York.”

Darling also said gardening skills people had 100 years ago have been lost.

“Organic farmers want to reconnect both to the earth and community,” he said. “It’s a market economy now, it’s all about money. It’s not about what you can do for yourself.”

But Ithaca has supported organic farmers and encouraged healthy living for years. Every weekend from April to December, organic farmers and eager customers gather underneath a long wooden pavilion to buy and sell locally grown produce at the Ithaca Farmer’s Market along Cayuga Lake.

Another group of people dedicated to environmentally conscious decisions are the residents of the EcoVillage, a community of people working to create a sustainable housing and education environment.

Members of the EcoVillage have also maintained a 10-acre plot of land known as the West Haven Farm since 1992. They sell an array of produce at the market, including honeydews, cantaloupes, string beans, eggplants, squash and roma tomatoes.

Jen Bokaer-Smith, one of the farmers, said the group always intended to grow organically.

“Ithaca is a great place to be an organic farmer,” she said. “We have a lot of similar values within the community.”

But choosing organic does not just mean choosing to eat pesticide-free fruits and vegetables. It also includes free-range organic meat, dairy and poultry. Though products may be labeled “free-range,” animals may not necessarily be spending much time outside.

The McDonald family goes beyond just letting animals have access to the open air. Its 6,000 chickens and turkeys roam in a healthy, outdoor environment at all times. The farm is located 25 miles north of Ithaca in Romulus, N.Y., where the animals eat hormone-free food and live in a herbicide and pesticide-free environment.

“We allow the animals to live to their fullest created capacity,” Peter McDonald said. “The animals have a really good life.”

While the farmers make healthy decisions for their plants and animals, consumers make choices for themselves and their children.

Kendra Anderson, a resident of West Groton, N.Y., attends the Ithaca Farmer’s Market in order to receive the quality in organic produce that she doesn’t find in non-organic foods.

Since Anderson recently had a baby, she said she makes sure to stay away from foods with pesticides because she is breast-feeding. She also said the expensive cost of organic produce is hardly an issue.

“For another buck or two, it’s not a question,” she said.

Before having her baby, Anderson sold eggs to the local cooperative market, Greenstar. The co-op aims to support local farmers by paying them a fair wage.

“We try to make sure the farmers are being paid a fair price so that they can still afford to keep farmable land,” said Debbie Lazinsky, produce manager for Greenstar.

Lazinsky said that customers who shop organic support healthy farming practices that keep land workable for long periods of time.

“You’re thinking about the people, the land and yourself,” she said.

While the Ithaca community offers several ways for people to think consciously about their health and eating habits, the environmental society on campus is working to raise awareness among the student body toward supporting a healthy living environment.

ICES sold their produce at their annual “Take It Or Leave It” yard sale earlier this week and said students willing to work in the garden could take home some of the fruits of their labor.

Gardiner and Perez Charneco, vice-president of ICES, said the group tries to inform students about opportunities for action in the Ithaca area, but more importantly, ICES works for change on campus. The student-farmers hope the ICES garden will be maintained for summers to come and eventually be studied by future science classes.

“As a student organization, we try to keep the focus on the campus,” Perez Charneco said. “That’s the whole basis behind ‘Think global, act local.’ Try to do as much as you can at home because it will impact the Earth as a whole.”