Room to grow: Honors Global Scholars explore agricultural sustainability, rural well-being in coastal Georgia and Ireland

June 4, 2025

When Amy Potter, Ph.D., attended a panel discussion in Ireland about environmental changes in the summer of 2023, she didn’t expect to be inspired to create a cross-disciplinary learning experience for students in Georgia Southern University’s Honors College. 

A professor of geography, Potter had already been guiding her students through the history of Irish farming and agriculture at the University’s Learning Center in Wexford, Ireland. But it was the passion of one Irish farmer, Jer O’Mahony, who spoke on a panel about the challenges facing farmers, specifically those who operate family-owned farms, that truly resonated with her.

“That summer, two days after we met him at the panel, he came and gave a talk to our students in Ireland,” she said. “What was so interesting about his presentation was that it touched on mental health, geography and biology — all of these different groups that were in the room. He engaged everyone in the room.” 

When Potter took on the leadership of the Honors Global Scholars in 2024, she knew she wanted sustainability and agriculture to be central themes. 

Established in 2023, the Honors Global Scholars is a cohort-based learning experience for first-year students from a variety of academic disciplines. The program combines courses with multiple themes — including migration, nationalism, sustainability and belonging — to help students develop global perspectives and competencies. The coursework is team-taught by faculty from across the University, including Potter and Howard Keeley, Ph.D., director of Georgia Southern’s Center for Irish Research and Teaching.

“My class reads a journal article called, ‘The Precarity of the Irish Family Farm,’ which explores the different factors impacting the sustainability of the Irish farm,” Potter said. “When we talk about the Irish family farm, we can’t just talk about the farm itself — we have to talk about the grocery stores, the middlemen in terms of food distribution. There are so many layers of who’s actually making the money versus the family farm.”

Through the coursework, students begin to see how topics like agriculture, environmental changes, migration and culture are deeply intertwined — even if those connections aren’t immediately obvious at first.

“Whether it’s literature or understanding the importance of food and what food means, particularly in a post-famine culture, they get all these different elements to come at these ideas,” Potter said. “I feel like it’s a very well-rounded approach.”

Visiting farmers in Bulloch and surrounding Georgia counties, as well as in County Wexford, gives students firsthand insight into the people at the origin of food production — and the challenges they face in both local and global contexts.

In May, the 24 students in the 2024-25 cohort wrapped up a six-week trip to Ireland, where they conducted and presented survey-based analyses to a high-level visiting delegation that included Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns and his wife Dayle Burns, operators of a fifth-generation family farm from Effingham County, and Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, an Irish member of the European Parliament. The students’ work even caught the attention of Irish media, earning them a feature interview on South East Radio.

To deepen students’ understanding, they read and acted out “The Field,” a play by Irish author John B. Keane that explores land, inheritance and identity. They also examined food distribution systems, analyzed farming-system profits from an economic perspective, and studied how Ireland’s economic and environmental changes affect small farms.

“The students are becoming conversant in the discourse,” Keeley added. “For example, by reading an Irish novel from 1873, they gained insights into the economic and emotional significance of the family farm. Bringing that knowledge into conversations with practicing farmers shows respect. The students demonstrate they’ve taken the time to not only understand where farmers are now, but understand where their great-grandparents came from.”

Propagating New Perspectives

Honors College Global Scholar Ellie Brown recalls not giving much thought to where her food comes from prior to her time at Georgia Southern. 

“I knew absolutely nothing about agriculture, and even less about sustainability,” the Buford, Georgia, native said. “What really surprised me is how prevalent it is in everyone’s life. I really was naive to the fact that agriculture plays such a big part in society today, but through the program, I’ve taken a hands-on approach to what we’ve learned.”

Brown, a first-year student, is in the second cohort of the Honors Global Scholars. Part of the program includes experiential learning, where students visit family-operated farms in coastal Georgia and Ireland. 

“My goal when I go to these places is not to just sit there and observe,” she said. “I’ve really been trying to interact and learn as much as possible. It’s been very influential.”

This year’s cohort visited Brooklet-based family farm Hunter Cattle Company and Metter-based Better Fresh Farms, which utilizes space in Georgia Southern’s Business Innovation Group’s Metter Business Incubator and Georgia Grown Innovation Center. Brown said the farm visits have opened her eyes to the world of farming in a way she didn’t expect. 

“It’s completely changed the way I’ve thought about food and what I put in my body,” Brown said. “It’s changed the way I view how people care about their food and how farmers and people who work in agriculture do their work. In a lot of ways, I think people look down on farmers, and I don’t feel like that’s right. Farmers put so much heart and soul into what they do, and I think it’s really beautiful.”

As a finance major, Brown particularly enjoyed her visit to Hunter Cattle Company and was inspired to apply for an internship on a ranch in North Dakota. 

“Going to Hunter Cattle, I really enjoyed seeing not just the agriculture side, but the business side,” she said. “Learning about their new processing plant and hearing about how much that costs, the different steps they had to take to get there and how they’ve grown over the years, I was really inspired and thought it would be cool to work somewhere like that.”

Weston Calhoun, a sophomore who participated in the first cohort to focus on agricultural sustainability in his freshman year, describes the program as incredibly impactful and a reason that he later secured a summer internship at the Statesboro headquarters of AgSouth Farm Credit, a company specializing in loans to farmers. 

“There was no better learning experience for me than actually doing experiential learning with a group of professors who were dedicated to teaching us about the same thing with a group of students who are all on the same page,” Calhoun said. “It was just incredible for my learning experience. It really formed my freshman year and has been the highlight of my educational experience.”

Brown agrees, noting the ability to pursue her own interests, coupled with agricultural sustainability, is a unique learning experience. 

“The professors give us a lot of room to explore so many different fields and topics,” she said. “We have a learning baseline of sustainability and agriculture, but Dr. Keeley and Dr. Potter allow us to explore our own interests under that topic. So when we’re doing projects, some students take an approach to the humanities aspect, whereas I look at a more economic angle. 

“Within our major, we have the freedom to do a lot of different kinds of research based on our interests, which is super cool.”

Focusing on family farms means serving the communities in which Georgia Southern’s campuses are located with a focus on coastal sustainability and resilience, an area of focus for University research efforts.

“The family farm is absolutely critical,” Keeley said. “The average size of a family farm in Ireland is around 50 to 60 acres. We’re asking, ‘Is that a sustainable model in the present day?’ We have to decide that we value the family farm, and recognize that it’s so integral to our identity that we will commit to making it sustainable.” 

Though Georgia Southern does not have a dedicated agricultural program or school, many areas of study at the University support agriculture at its core. 

“Even though Georgia Southern is not an agricultural school, we have a multidisciplinary focus on sustainability,” Keeley said. “Look at what we do in biology, chemistry, the social sciences — even our literature department. We are constantly returning to the fact that what makes us work as a society is this wonderful tradition. 

“What we’re doing with our Institute for Water and Health, with the Institute for Health Logistics and Analytics — we’re building stronger communities, and all of that really comes down to agriculture,” he continued. “So agriculture may not have been named specifically, but it is very much there and part of the Georgia Southern mission.”

Enriching Farmers’ Lives

Building on experiential learning, a primary focus for students and faculty in the second cohort has been surveying Irish farmers. Led by Potter, the survey asked farmers to report on their mental health and challenges they face. 

“One of the goals with the survey is to understand what’s happening in terms of mental health,” Potter said. “It’s not uncommon to hear of farmers taking their lives, so we wanted to get an understanding of what’s happening on that front. We also asked questions about how farmers feel about organizations like the European Union (EU), and questions to better understand shifts like succession planning and some of the challenges they’re facing in farming.”

Mental health challenges in the farming community are a growing concern worldwide. In America, the National Rural Health Association reports that farmers are 3.5 times more likely to commit suicide than the general population. In a 2023 study of Irish farmers by University College Dublin, a national-level survey indicated 23.4% of respondents were considered at risk for suicide, and 55.5% of respondents reported experiencing moderate to extremely severe depression.

Early themes emerging in Georgia Southern’s survey results indicate skepticism among Irish farmers regarding EU policy in promoting sustainable agricultural practices. In terms of addressing mental health concerns among Irish farmers, Potter said preliminary survey data indicates some of the most frequently reported sources of stress include extreme weather conditions and environmental challenges like soil degradation, in addition to a heavy workload and long hours.

Potter said the survey was supported by O’Mahony, the Wexford chair of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), who presented on the panel that initially inspired Potter. He has become a huge advocate and resource for the Honors Global Scholars, she added. 

“Dr. Keeley and I are academics who really believe it’s important to give back to our communities and engage in community partnerships,” Potter said. “We don’t want to separate the University from the areas in which we live. We asked Jer, ‘What could we do that could be of benefit to you and to our students? What would be something that could show some reciprocity?’”

Soon after, Potter began drafting the survey with the help of O’Mahony, the IFA and Stephen Whelan, Ph.D., a faculty member at South East Technological University’s Wexford Campus. 

“The survey we’ve created is allowing farmers to be heard and be seen in ways that are social and emotional, and that is very important,” Keeley said. “One of the things we noticed about farming in both southeast Ireland and coastal Georgia is an aging demographic. Farming is often a very isolated kind of job, so there are high suicide rates among farmers. These are very important issues and farmers need to feel that they’re being acknowledged.” 

Keeley added that the Irish Department of Agriculture has highlighted the survey in the European Parliament as an important intervention. 

“We’re collectively working to make farming more sustainable in the long run,” he said.

Another benefit, Keeley said, is that Georgia Southern has the time and resources to help, whereas farmers do not. 

“Farmers are too busy to take on much more than they already are dealing with on an everyday basis,” he said. “We have the time, we have the bandwidth and we have the capacity to do that.”

Potter is hopeful this data will be used to inform the IFA and other policy-making organizations to create resources for Irish farmers. 

“What a powerful opportunity for students to be a part of examining data that isn’t just data, it’s data that could become policy,” Potter said. “It could help save lives.”

Sustaining the Future of Agriculture

Agricultural sustainability goes beyond environmentally friendly practices and protecting land. It’s also about keeping farms in business, supporting farming communities and preserving the viability of farming for future generations. 

During his time in Ireland, Calhoun was surprised to learn that the majority of Irish farms are family-owned, but the number of family members to pass generational work onto is decreasing.

“In a survey of Irish farmers, 51% said they didn’t know if they had someone to take over when they passed away,” Calhoun said, noting a vast majority of farmers are aged 60 and older. 

Visiting Irish family farms was impactful for Calhoun’s learning experience and understanding the importance of generational farming.

“Right when we got there, lambs were being born one after another,” he said. “We were able to see how even the youngest members of the family — these 5- and 6-year-old kids — are helping out on the family farm, which is a really common thing in Ireland.”

Another experience that was pivotal in his academic career was attending a panel discussion featuring government officials.

“The room was full of farmers and some other students, and it really stood out to me hearing those farmers ask their questions and raise their voices,” he said. “Jer O’Mahony pulled out a box with hundreds and hundreds of sheets of paper worth of regulations and inspections and showed it to the panel and to the audience, saying, ‘This is what we as farmers have to deal with. It’s good for the earth for sustainability, but it’s also important to sustain the people themselves who are producing the food.’ And that moment really stood out to me.” 

Calhoun believes in learning about practices and policies from sustainability and the future of agriculture. 

“I think it’s really valuable because in an increasingly globalized world where we are more interconnected than ever before through technology, geopolitics and the military, it’s giving us exciting opportunities to learn from each other, other cultures, other people and other governments,” he said. “To be able to easily compare Georgia to Ireland as far as farming goes is just a great way to learn from another side of the world because, when it comes down to it, sustainability is about the whole world itself and the people in it.” 

The impact of studying agricultural sustainability through this project has been lasting for Calhoun. He hopes to combine his passion for agriculture with his studies in political science.

“This shaped my career path because I’ve always been interested in agriculture and, in recent years, I’ve been really interested in politics and law,” he said. “By having discussions with Irish representatives in the European Parliament, I was able to grow my understanding of politics and how it actually relates to agriculture. It’s interested me in a career in law in the future with a focus on agricultural and environmental sustainability.”

He remains engaged with the Honors Global Scholars by mentoring first-year students, and he’s still involved with its agricultural sustainability project by capturing the big picture of the data collected and formatting it for government officials and Irish leaders to easily understand. 

“Farmers have a desire to preserve their land because their land is their livelihood, especially in a generational farming structure,” he said. “Farmers are conservationists and it is important not to scapegoat the Irish farmers for environmental changes that have been happening. We’re trying to learn more about the Irish farmers themselves and their practices so that they are better understood by the Irish government, the European Union and by the world.” 

Keeley believes this work will benefit coastal Georgia family farms and those in Ireland, along with the future of agriculture.

“We want to move forward while bringing the best parts of our tradition into the future. Not abandoning, but honoring,” Keeley said. “Sustainability means all sorts of things — it means being more energy efficient, being better stewards of where we live, but it also means asking questions like, ‘Can we sustain the social structures that mean so much to us?’”

Cultivating an International Community

Another important part of this research is building an international community between coastal communities in Ireland and Georgia, Keeley said. 

“At the most fundamental level, we’re bringing together the best practices from Ireland and Georgia by working with farmers who are our core constituency, but also by incorporating our experts in our Institute for Water and Health and Institute for Health Logistics and Analytics,” Keeley said. 

In Ireland, the program is working with the Irish Environmental Protection Agency and Teagasc, Ireland’s national agricultural research agency, both of which are headquartered in County Wexford and close to Georgia Southern’s campus there, he noted.

“We feel it’s a tremendous opportunity to be able to join both the farmer’s knowledge and the research knowledge from both sides of the North Atlantic,” he said. 

An integral part of the success of this program is the relationships that the faculty have formed with Irish partners, Potter added. In particular, O’Mahony not only helped with the creation of the survey for farmers, he has invested tremendously in the students.

“I can’t stress enough what a good friend he is to our program,” Potter said. “He cares for our students. Last year, he read all of their papers and he attended their presentations at the end of the semester in Ireland. He sent their papers on to the IFA so that they could see the kinds of work our students were doing, how excited they were about farming and how they were seeing in real time the challenges that Irish farmers were facing.” 

Potter believes the investment that Georgia Southern’s students are making into the Irish communities has been meaningful to farmers there. 

“I think the most rewarding thing is seeing we have formed these very close relationships with Irish farmers; they are close to our students, they’re close to our faculty,” she said. “They’re like family to us. We care about them. To have young people take an interest and care about what they’re doing, I think that’s also been very meaningful to them. It’s really a beautiful partnership that’s formed across the Atlantic.” 

For Keeley, the commitment to cultivating these partnerships in Ireland and coastal Georgia over an extended period of time is also vital. 

“The real power here is that we as a University have made a commitment to have physical infrastructure and courses we can teach on an ongoing basis,” Keeley said. “We didn’t just go to Ireland once. We started the work, but now we’re building on it and we will continue to build on it, and that means we can join people together in a long-term way. That, I think, is the magic of investment in Wexford — it’s the capacity to build over the long term and build out these mutually beneficial relationships to all partners.”