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COA, Germany, the United Kingdom
Food.
 It's a universal. Increasingly, it's a universal concern. For some there's not enough; for others it's poisoned, for many others, it's just not nutritious. To educate students to better understand - and possibly serve - the nutritional and energetic needs of an ever-expanding world, College of the Atlantic is initiating a food systems program that addresses the local within the global trends of food production.
Working with two venerable European institutions, the Organic Research Centre at Elm Farm, United Kingdom's primary center for research into organic food systems, and Germany's University of Kassel, in Germany, a premier graduate program in organic agriculture, COA has established the Trans-Atlantic Partnership in Sustainable Food Systems.
 Meanwhile, the college has created a Sustainable Food Systems chair and will be hiring a new faculty member to fill the position.
The entire package is being funded by a $3.5 million donation from the Partridge Foundation.
"This unique and innovative program will link some of the best minds in food systems research on both sides of the Atlantic," says David Hales, president of COA. "With food issues making headlines across the globe, the need for training critical and creative thinkers in the field of sustainable agriculture is absolutely crucial. We envision this program as a platform for creating national and international leadership in meeting the needs of providing healthy and affordable food in the 21st century, in understanding the role of international trade and finance, and in transforming the way that higher education approaches this subject."
Students at COA will be able to conduct research at the UK's Organic Research Centre (ORC); those who wish to obtain a master's degree in topics ranging from the specifics of organic farming to global food policy, can apply to study at the University of Kassel's graduate school and receive full funding for their education. Researchers at Kassel and the ORC can come to COA's Beech Hill Farm to study organic practices in the United States, or to meet with COA faculty, students and advisors. Faculty exchanges among the institutions have already begun, as has work on an international conference in sustainable food systems for next fall.
 COA's interest in organic agriculture and food systems reaches back to its origins. In 1972, its first year of classes, an extensive plot of land at the college was developed for an organic community garden. It is still being used and serves as a classroom for organic production techniques. In 1999, COA accepted the gift of Beech Hill Farm, a 73-acre organic farm, which has served as a center of education for local schools in addition to being a supplier of organic produce to COA's kitchen, local schools, restaurants, and the island community
The innovative Trans-Atlantic Partnership in Sustainable Food Systems will foster collaboration in thought, policy and action between the nations of Europe and the United States. Many students already choose the college so that they can obtain a hands-on study of organic methods along with a global investigation of food systems. Because of the college's extensive body of international students, this learning will spread around the world.
All photos taken at Beech Hill Farm, College of the Atlantic's organic farm.
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