Our Curriculum Philosophy

The Berry Center Farm and Forest Institute is a community education model. Through field days, workshops, and short courses at The Berry Center’s 200-acre farm and forest, Institute faculty and staff facilitate field days and trials that address farmers’ concerns about:

1.  livestock genetics and health,

2. pasture and woodland management, and 

3. economic diversification and stability.

The course offerings are orchestrated around the country year and merge the humanities and natural sciences with hands-on education. At the curriculum’s core is a community lecture series and extended study about agrarian literature, history, and arts: The Wendell Berry Agrarian Voices Series.

This program unites The Berry Center Archive’s lecture series, the Agrarian Literary League, Kentucky Arts and Letters Day, and Our Home Place Meat’s foundations with Wendell Berry’s writing and the agrarian education curriculum.