Hello! My name is Elena Kochmaruk and I am part of the 2022 Student Farm intern cohort. I am a Junior at Penn State pursuing a major in Community, Environment, and Development, with a focus in Social and Environmental Responsibility. I am also specializing in Spanish and International Agriculture, and have a Sustainability Leadership minor. I am from a small city on the Eastern border of Pennsylvania called Bethlehem, but have been residing in State College since I’ve attended Penn State. Spending copious amounts of time in the countryside of Central Pennsylvania during COVID lockdowns instilled in me a newfound love of agriculture. While I have always enjoyed being outdoors and feel most at peace in nature, I had rarely considered agriculture to be a field I was interested in pursuing until I learned about sustainable food systems as an environmental and communally beneficial alternative to normal produce markets
A preserved soybean and corn field adjacent to my apartment separates the beautiful and wild Appalachian mountains from the busy Whitehall Road that delineates the edge of State College. I frequently walk on a path through the field that connects to a hiking trail up the mountain. Though the field, no more than a mile long, is the only thing separating brand new subdivisions of overpriced apartments from an uninhabited wild forest, it feels as if it could be a different world entirely, far away from the demanding endeavors of student life. It was in this field where I would imagine a life different from the competitive and career focused existence I had been socialized to strive after. In many of my major’s classes, I had learned about the horrors of our global food system and the way its failures had materialized in food insecurity, impacting the populations with agriculture-based economies most heavily. The coupling of these realizations inspired me to look for opportunities in sustainable farming practices, as I desired autonomy over my food production and a severance from the corporate-dominated global food industry pursuing profit at the expense of farmers’ welfare.
When I found the Student Farm, I knew I had come to the right place. The goals of the farm align perfectly with my ideal vision of what community-supported agriculture should be. While I had previously known only the basics of gardening, this internship has taught me the skills and instilled in me the confidence to partake in small-scale farming. Growing produce is not only a marvelous and rewarding process, but has the power to help people connect with the food they eat on a deeper level than any grocery store produce ever could. Understanding the capacity of work that millions of international farmers partake in daily to support a ravenous food system of which the United States and other developed nations are the main beneficiaries can be dispiriting, especially considering the massive amount of food waste produced by these countries. While the current state of global farming is unlikely to change soon, sustainable and community-based farming is a feasible alternative to reducing reliance on these inequity-producing global food systems. As I approach graduation, I hope to carry with me the ideology behind sustainable farming practices to apply to my future career decisions. I am very excited to spend this summer further learning and applying these practices on the Student Farm!
