Honors Global Scholars Explore Sustainable Agriculture And Well-Being in Georgia and Ireland
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.
The geography professor 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 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 program is a cohort-based learning experience for first-year students from various academic disciplines. 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 making the money versus the family farm.”
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.
Propagating New Perspectives
Honors College Global Scholar Ellie Brown recalls not giving much thought to where her food comes from before coming to Georgia Southern.
“I knew absolutely nothing about agriculture, and even less about sustainability,” the Buford, Georgia, native said. “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.”
The 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.”
Weston Calhoun focused on agricultural sustainability when he participated in the first cohort as a freshman. He describes the program as incredibly impactful and a reason that he secured a summer internship at the Statesboro headquarters of AgSouth Farm Credit.
“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 really formed my freshman year and has been the highlight of my educational experience.”
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 the University’s 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.”
Enriching Farmers’ Lives
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 the challenges they face.
“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,” Potter said. “We also asked questions about how farmers feel about organizations like the European Union (EU).”
Early themes emerging from the survey indicate Irish farmers are skeptical of EU policy in promoting sustainable agricultural practices. In addressing mental health concerns, Potter said preliminary data indicate stress factors include extreme weather conditions, environmental challenges, heavy workload and long hours.
“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.
Sustaining the Future of Agriculture
Agricultural sustainability goes beyond environmentally friendly practices. It’s also about keeping farms in business, supporting farming communities, and preserving farms for future generations. While in Ireland, Calhoun learned that most Irish farms are family-owned, but there are fewer family members to pass the farm on to.
“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 helped Calhoun understand 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.”
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, Keeley noted. Potter believes Georgia Southern’s students’ contributions to Irish communities have been meaningful to farmers there.
“I think the most rewarding thing is seeing that we have formed these very close relationships with Irish farmers; they are close to our students, they’re close to our faculty,” she said. “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.”
— Crissie Elrick Bath