Cecilie Macpherson graduated from Dickinson College in 2020 with a degree in Environmental Science and the Food Studies Certificate.

When looking at Dickinson as a potential college, the main draw for choosing was the college farm. Based on what she learned during her pre-orientation, she knew she wanted to grow food in her future career. With her interest in the Dickinson farm, she conducted agroecology

Cecilie, while working with TerraCorps

research there, monitoring fly pests with the cattle, and helping with farm chores. 

During her time abroad in Denmark, she took an eight-month culinary course that instilled in her a desire to study food. This led her to pursue the Food Studies Certificate. Through the certificate, she took a variety of food-related courses. But the course that impacted her the most was Professor Pawly’s history of food course. She was fascinated to learn how food got to where it is currently.  

After Dickinson, her first farming job was at TerraCorps, where she worked as a Sustainability Agriculture Coordinator. Cecilie describes “​​TerraCorps was my first farming, like full season farming, so I really learned the process of seeing crops grow all the way through, in all stages of life. How important it was to take care of the soil and utilize integrated pest management systems.” This job allowed her to put into practice the skills she learned while at Dickinson. In addition to farming, she also worked with local youth, teaching high schoolers to grow food in the summer and delivering food-related lessons at elementary schools. Where she could put into practice the knowledge from working in a Dickinson program, teaching third graders about food.  

While working at TerraCorps, she became increasingly interested in saving seeds. Cecilie reflects, “I thought it’d be really cool to work for a seed company and see that process of saving seeds on a larger level.” This led her to look at seed companies to work for. The two seed companies she researched were Hudson Valley Seed Company and High Mowing Organic Seeds. Cecilie chose High Mowing because the company aligned with her values. “I really love the outreach that they have and what they are doing for the company.” She states, when asked why High Mowing. 

At High Mowing, she helps trial seeds that are not yet on the market and determine which ones are the best. Then she helped advocate for the seeds to be organic and sometimes added them to the company’s catalog. 

A typical day for Cecilie at High Mowing is that, in the spring and summer, there is a lot of seeding and greenhouse maintenance. Then, as the season progresses, she transplants the seeds, taking care of them until it is time to harvest. During the off-season, she works in customer service: answering questions from a question inbox, talking to customers on the phone, and taking seed orders.