By Maggie Edwards

Tuscaloosa County School System (TCSS) is cultivating the future of agriculture with its new Agriscience Teaching Farm in Northport. 

When plans to build a new elementary school changed, land purchased for that project needed a new purpose. TCSS Northport Career Tech Annex (NCTA) Administrator Hannah Costanzo saw its future as a 105-acre farm for hands-on learning.

“When we first started, the land was completely grown up,” Costanzo said. “The students and NCTA agriscience teacher Greer Williams have worked hard to get it to where we are now.”

The farm covers a multitude of commodities. From crops and cattle to timber and honeybees, students experience agriculture’s diversity, Williams said. 

“This is like ag teacher heaven,” said Williams, who teaches students from across the county. “I bus in about 125 high schoolers during the week. They learn to build fences, feed animals and pick produce.”  

Student Cade Holcomb said being involved with daily operations since its beginning in fall 2023 has been rewarding.

“I was one of the first to come here and cut fences,” said Holcomb, a summer co-op worker. “I’ve been around gardens and tractors my whole life, but I’d never dove deep into it. Now, I want to have my own farm.”

Holcomb and his classmates agree practical lessons make the teaching farm worthwhile. 

“I’m a hands-on learner,” Holcomb said. “I’m not a good PowerPoint learner, but I bet I’ve had a 100 in every class taken on this farm.”

Support from the Tuscaloosa County Farmers Federation (TCFF) and Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES) helps ensure students develop a passion for the state’s No. 1 industry.  

“We have to back the future of agriculture,” said TCFF board member Joe Anders, who also serves on the Alabama Farmers Federation state board. “We must get young people involved because someone has to produce food. Everyone wants to dig in the dirt and learn; this just gives them that opportunity.”

TCFF donated a tractor to the farm, while ACES’ Neal Hargle helped provide plasticulture equipment.

“A lot of our vegetables start at the NCTA greenhouse and then get transplanted,” Williams said. “The produce gets used in our districts’ summer feeding program.” 

Hargle and the ACES team emphasized the strong impact of workforce development. 

“We don’t want students to look at ag through tunnel vision,” said Hargle, the county Extension agent. “It’s not a hoe and a plow anymore. Technology plays a big role in farming.”

The goal is to change the concept of what the future looks like for all students, Costanzo said. TCSS plans to use the farm for elementary school field trips and build an on-farm classroom to incorporate more STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) activities. 

“It’s important to educate children at an early age,” Costanzo said. “Everything we do here is standards-based. They are learning, and there is proof of that. We want to plant fulfillment and joy in their lives through agriculture.”

TCFF President Jim Lavender said he’s in awe of the teaching farm’s progress in just one year. 

“It gives me hope,” Lavender said. “Kids are generations removed from the farm. This is educating them where food comes from. Hopefully they’ll go on to become farmers or foresters.”