Hello! My name is Sonia Bornemann and for my GLI Global Theme, I chose to work on Natural Resources and Sustainability. While there are a lot of options to choose from as far as out of classroom experiences go in this field, I spent my summer at the PEAS Farm. While here, I learned truly what natural resources are and how they can be used sustainably. I was able to have hands-on experiences with the earth in healthy ways while also helping good causes like the  food bank. While I didn’t get to experience different cultures, I did get to engage with my community like never before. Food and therefore farms really do have a way of bringing people together. It helped me to realize that I want to be a community leader in the sustainability movement. I want to help educate others and hopefully help to keep others healthy during these rapidly changing times. 

Food is a huge part of sustainability. I knew this before I started working at the farm, but now I know what actually has to be done in order to make food production sustainable. Many of my preconceived ideas about meat production and what farms looked like were proven wrong the more I learned. I realized that cattle ranchers could actually sequester carbon so long as they manage their fields properly. And If farms dont rotate their crops then the soil will be quickly depleted of essential nutrients. Many of the issues surrounding food production and it’s toll on the environment come from treating the land and animals on it poorly in the name of profits. This all could change if people learned what buying local is and the many benefits it has. 

While I learned a lot about Natural Resources and Sustainability, I also gained some very important leadership skills. Not in the manner I expected to though. Every day we worked at the farm, two people would branch off early to cook lunch for everyone. We all took turns so each of us had to cook about seven times throughout the experience. Most days we would also have to cook for instructors, guests, and the Youth Harvest Program as well. This adds up to usually around 20-25 people. And as far as ingredients, we had a few essentials like rice and oil, and then whatever we could harvest on the farm. Naturally, this took quite a bit of problem solving. I went from never having cooked for anyone but myself, to cooking for many strangers in an outdoor kitchen with chickens roaming around real quick. But I remember cooking in the first week and on the last day. I was at first very unsure of myself and trying to rely on others too much. On the last day I made sure to use everyone’s strengths to produce the best meal that I could for everyone ( and it was delicious). While I gained leadership experience from problem solving on the farm as well, when I was put into a situation outside of my comfort zone and forced to make do with what was available, I learned my own strengths and weaknesses as well as how to utilize others strengths. It’s not an experience I was expecting nor would I have expected to learn so much from it. But now I feel more confident about cooking for myself and others, as well as my own abilities.