Peggy Rockefeller Farm

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College of the Atlantic’s Peggy Rockefeller Farm- Mount Desert Island

Farmer C. J. Walke

The College of the Atlantic (COA), Peggy Rockefeller Farm is anchored within the largest remaining historic farming valley on Mount Desert Island and was donated to COA in 2010. C. J. Walke was hired as the farm’s first manager and overseer of educational programming in 2012 and transformed the farm into a diversified livestock operation. Most of his students don’t have prior farming experience and the program offers a chance to work with and see the challenges and joys of raising animals first-hand. Climate change, sustainability, and the communal role of local farms are at the forefront of C.J.’s thinking about the future of farming.

“There are challenges, but the future is bright in terms of people learning more about food production and the wrongs of an industrial system and how a more local small-scale system is supporting the community, supporting health, supporting the environment.” – C. J. Walke

“What’s going to be key is the ability to diversify and be flexible as climate change is happening because there will be good years and bad years. We’re going to see different pests, different pathogens, stuff is going to be shifting, and we just need to know about it and need to be prepared” – C. J. Walke

https://www.coa.edu/farms/peggy-rockefeller-farms/