UNITY - Sometime this fall, some Unity College students will witness - and experience - the connection between their food and farming.

Thanks to a student initiative, some sheep and cattle now grazing on a field that is part of the campus will be slaughtered, butchered and served at the college cafe.

College officials applaud the initiative, saying it helps to bridge the growing disconnect between farming and food, while providing educational opportunities at the environmental college nestled in the hills of western Waldo County.

As for a college interested in treading lightly on the earth, the farm shows how the institution can reduce "food miles," the distance between a food producer and the end user, and thereby reduce pollution and reliance on fossil fuels.

The small livestock farm was created this summer after some prodding from the 40-plus students who make up the Unity College chapter of the National FFA Organization, formerly known as Future Farmers of America.

Eric Bragg, a 20-year-old sophomore who grew up on a dairy farm in Vermont, helped found the FFA chapter almost two years ago. He is now the group’s president.

Bragg and others identified 40 acres on campus that were mostly unused and suggested the acreage serve as a grazing area. During the summer, 11 beef cattle, seven sheep and two horses were brought to the field, and the college barnyard was established.

The horses won’t become burgers, Bragg is quick to point out, but rather were purchased to protect the sheep from predators such as coyotes.

Aimee Sawyer, 28, a 2001 Unity College graduate who works at the college as an administrative assistant, is adviser to the FFA group. She and her husband run a farm in Monroe, and the couple donated some of the beef cattle. The sheep also were donated.

The benefits of raising livestock on campus are many, Bragg and Sawyer said.

"One of the biggest things is it’s educational," Bragg said.

 Unity College freshman Laura Alexander (left) and sophomore

Krista Newell balance on a log as they cross a small stream

that swelled during recent rains. (Bangor Daily News/ Gabor Degre)

FFA members take turns with the twice-daily routine, doing a head count and checking that water troughs are full.

They also check the animals’ hoofs. "You have to make sure they don’t develop hoof rot, which is common up here," Bragg said.

Many of the major courses of study at the college have obvious tie-ins with animal care.

Students studying wildlife biology, landscape horticulture and conservation law enforcement, for example, learn how the livestock have the same digestive systems as deer and moose, and how overgrazing can destroy the viability of a pasture.

"We don’t want any degradation of the land," Bragg said, so rotational grazing is planned.

After the snow comes, the animals will be put on grain and hay, Sawyer said. Both will be sought locally.

A pole barn is under construction, the roof awaiting a final Department of Environmental Protection permit, which would afford the animals some protection from the elements. One side will be open, to allow the animals to choose to be undercover or not.

The animals have been vaccinated, also a learning experience for students, and students probably will have to respond to injuries.

A sheep-shearing demonstration is being considered for the spring, and in the summer, the animals may be taken to area shows. When students are away from campus during the summer, college staff and those affiliated with the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, which is based in Unity, will help tend the animals.

Bragg and Sawyer said many of their fellow students can learn about the connection between farms and food, a connection that may be fading in a culture where many are unable to identify the source of some packaged meats.

Mick Womersley, Unity College’s interim provost and associate professor of human ecology, applauded the project for its lessons.

"You really have a generation here that might think food grows on cafeteria shelves," he said. The college took a step toward reversing that trend several years ago when it established organic gardens, but the livestock connection takes it further, he said.

"Agriculture is more basic to culture than any endeavor you can think of. There’s a cultural value to knowing you can grow food right in your backyard," Womersley said, and so teaching students to be farmers is no small accomplishment.

Beyond that, having the livestock is another step toward ecological sustainability, a popular theme at Unity, and a subject that each student must study.

"It’s reducing ‘food miles.’ The more you drive your food, the more damage you do to the environment," he said, with fossil fuels being consumed and greenhouse gases being produced.

Also, the animals produce manure, which can be used in the gardens, another "closing of the circle," Womersley said.

The FFA group hopes to begin breeding sheep, thereby providing lessons in herd management, and also hopes to add pigs to the barnyard.