College proposes community-supported farm

Proposed "Clark Farm" to offer agricultural model for Lorain

A new Oberlin College proposal would allow a 76 acre tract of land, owned by Oberlin College, to become a center of agricultural and research practices within the next three years. The proposal was strongly supported by City Manager Robert Dispirito in a letter presented to City Council last week.

The area, located one mile from campus, currently consists only of ten acres of clover. They are tended to by members of Oberlin Sustainable Agriculture Project. But before long, they hope, it will become a community-supported farm and educational center.

OSAP, who provides food to OSCA and the local community, has been working with the Environmental Studies Program to develop what they call "Clark Farm." They feel that this project will be a model of sustainable land-planning strategies for Ohio and teach how to improve land management skills. Most importantly, it will be a model for Lorain County, where the threat by urban development is the seventh largest in the country.

There are four basic parts to the project: an organic farm supported by the community, a site for research on sustainable agriculture, a place for ecological restoration and a site to test shelters designed for their sustainability.

"Overall, I think this is an outstanding opportunity for students to learn a lot of different types of sustainable agricultural practices," said Dispirito.

OSAP will move its organic farm to a plot on the land, which will take up about 20 acres. In addition to their regular crops, they will grow small fruits, plant apple orchards an establish a greenhouse. Small livestock may also be present. OSAP will continue to distribute to the same customers, but will also sell at a roadside stand and to farmers' markets and track the distribution of food into low-income environments.

There will also be a wetland and forest, whose acreage will be determined in 1999. They plan for the project to be an interactive educational process, benefiting college students, public school students and the general Lorain community.

The contributors to this project hope that their model will provide an example for Lorain County and set a model for bringing the county out of its current depression.

"I really do care about whether this succeeds or not," said Dispirito. "The more I thought about it, the more good things came into mind about why this should be put into effect."