August 2017 — Shannon Herlihy is a rising senior at UNC-Asheville. She is majoring in Environmental Studies, minoring in Health and Wellness, and has designed her own concentration focusing on Food, Land, and Community. Growing up outside of Baltimore, MD, Shannon was not exposed to farms or farmers, but developed an interest in agriculture after attending a magnet arts high school for culinary arts. She hopes to combine her interest in cooking with her interest in environmental protection and the outdoors.
Shannon was excited to apprentice with TRACTOR Food and Farms because their work relates very closely to her major and to the kind of food systems work she would like to pursue after college. Shannon has enjoyed the site visits and farmer interviews she has worked on, as it has been a unique opportunity to get to know farmers. “I have been really interested in buying local food but besides the farmers market I haven’t had any background in knowing farmers,” says Shannon.
Talking to TRACTOR’s growers has also broadened her perspective on local foods systems. “I think coming into it I was mostly thinking about local food from an environmentalist standpoint – in terms of less transportation and saving energy” says Shannon. “Now after talking to a bunch of farmers about it, it’s made me appreciate local food even more because of how it can stimulate the local economy and support small scale farmers,” she adds.
Overall, Shannon is excited to have found the apprenticeship program, noting, “It’s hard to find jobs like this – I looked really hard last summer for something related to what I wanted to do and ended up working at a grocery store…I think this is an awesome program, it’s great that this is available for people my age.”
This article originally appeared in the August 2017 NC Growing Together Newsletter.