Is the College Farm Sustainable? a Reflective Essay from Davidson College
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Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development ISSN: 2152-0801 online https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org Is the college farm sustainable? A reflective essay from Davidson College Amanda Green,a * David Martin,b and Gracie Ghartey-Tagoe c Davidson College Submitted June 3, 2020 / Revised July 27, September 2, September 22, and October 5, 2020 / Accepted October 8, 2020 / Published online November 30, 2020 Citation: Green, A., Martin, D., & Ghartey-Tagoe, G. (2020). Is the college farm sustainable? A reflective essay from Davidson College. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 10(1), 133–149. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2020.101.024 Copyright © 2020 by the Authors. Published by the Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems. Open access under CC-BY license. Abstract Farm at Davidson College in Davidson, North Campus farms and gardens are proliferating across Carolina, to encourage other analysts to similarly college and university campuses. While they may assess the interactions among these missions and have unique missions, at their core those missions sustainability’s environmental, economic, and social often include promoting student learning, campus pillars. We particularly emphasize the factors influ- sustainability, and strong campus-community rela- encing the Farm’s social sustainability, including tions. In this reflective essay, we share our perspec- the institution’s pedagogical mission, treatment of tive on the sustainability of one such farm, the Author Note Portions of this paper were originally written by Gracie a * Corresponding author: Amanda Green, Postdoctoral Fellow, Ghartey-Tagoe as part of her undergraduate capstone thesis in Environmental Studies, Davidson College. Environmental Studies at Davidson College. The capstone was Green is now an assistant professor of anthropology, supervised by her co-authors on this paper, David Martin and Eastern Kentucky University; Keith 220, 521 Lancaster Amanda Green. Avenue; Richmond, KY 40475 USA; +1-859-622-1646; [email protected] Funding Disclosure Amanda Green’s postdoctoral position and research at b David Martin, Professor, Environmental Studies and Davidson College were funded by the Duke Endowment. Economics, Davidson College; Box 6988; Davidson, NC Gracie Ghartey-Tagoe and David Martin received funding 28035 USA; [email protected] support from the Duke Endowment to attend a conference c Gracie Ghartey-Tagoe, Class of 2018, Environmental where portions of this research were presented. Studies, Davidson College. Acknowledgments Ghartey-Tagoe is now an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities in We are indebted to Farm Manager Theresa Allen, Director of Charlotte, North Carolina; [email protected] Facilities David Holthouser, Facilities Business Director Leslie Author Disclosure Urban, and Dining Services Director Dee Phillips for their Amanda Green was and David Martin is employed by support of this project. Relevant portions of this study were Davidson College, the college discussed in this essay. Gracie approved by Davidson College’s Human Subjects Institutional Ghartey-Tagoe is a graduate of Davidson College. Review Board. Volume 10, Issue 1 / Fall 2020 133 Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development ISSN: 2152-0801 online https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org farm labor, impact on the local food economy, and budget (Holthouser & Terry, 2012). In this reflec- equitable provision of food for students. We find tive essay, we evaluate how well the Farm at that the Farm administrators misconstrue “eco- Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, nomic” sustainability as “financial” independence meets its mission to promote sustainability, con- and profitability. This hampers the social mission nect with the community, improve student learn- of equitably supplying students with the farm’s ing, and meet financial goals. Our analysis serves food and offering curricular and extracurricular the larger goal of providing a template for other enrichment. We suggest ways forward that help schools wrestling with the difficult task of evalu- administrators recognize the diverse values that ating these multifaceted missions. fulfillment of additional social and environmental The difficulty associated with pursuing these missions might provide, beyond direct revenues. varied goals has been evident since the Farm’s We conclude with recommendations for institu- founding. The Farm was created so that the tions interested in pursuing a similar sustainability college’s Dining Services could serve students the assessment of their campus farm or garden. “local and organic food” they had been advocating for since the 2000s (Holthouser & Terry, 2012, p. Keywords 1) with the following stipulations: the Farm should Sustainable Agriculture, College Farms, Pedagogy, be a stand-alone, auxiliary business unit, “[causing] Sustainability, Environmental Education, Social no additional burden to the college’s operational Sustainability, Higher Education budget” nor “additional burden on the operating budget of Dining Services, nor the price of meals”; Introduction the Farm should not detract from the local food Over 300 campus farms and gardens, ranging in market; the Farm should enhance the ability of size from less than one acre to thousands of acres, other local vendors to sell to Dining Services; the have been created outside of the traditional land- Farm’s produce should not compromise the quality grant institutions (LaCharite, 2016). The majority and safety of food from Dining Services; the Farm (87%) were started after 2001 (LaCharite, 2016), should be a resource for student curricular and primarily driven by student and faculty interest in extracurricular activity; and the Farm should be a enhancing environmental sustainability, community positive marketing tool for Dining Services and the engagement, and food security within and beyond college (Holthouser & Terry, 2012, p. 2). It is their home institutions (Hoover & MacDonald, worth noting that the goals for the Farm to operate 2017). These farms and gardens were thus created independently and to add no burden to the col- to promote sustainability efforts on campus, to lege’s operational budget are explicitly financial, build links between the university and surrounding highlighting the emphasis Davidson College placed community, and to improve student learning on the financial independence of the Farm rather through hands-on practice and interdisciplinary than its overall sustainability. While perhaps more thinking (Hilimire, Gillon, McLaughlin, Dowd- directly stated than at other campuses, these varied Uribe, & Monsen, 2014). While teaching farms on goals reflect common concerns across many cam- college and university campuses are not new, the pus farms as their managers and partners try to emphasis on sustainability, including economic, evaluate their respective challenges and successes environmental, and social sustainability, as well as (LaCharite, 2016; Sayre, 2011). Consequently, we the contributions to emerging local food move- intend that the example of the Farm be illustrative ments, is relatively new and serves as an important of the sometimes-contradictory set of operating motivator to establish these farms for school goals and broader sustainability criteria used to administrators, faculty, staff, and students (Barlett, answer the guiding question, is the college farm 2011; LaCharite, 2016; Sayre, 2011). Along with sustainable, and, if not, what aspects need to be pursuing these missions, the farm must also meet a improved? specific budgetary demand that it not create an We evaluate the Farm’s sustainability within additional burden on the college’s operational the context of the traditional triad of environ- 134 Volume 10, Issue 1 / Fall 2020 Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development ISSN: 2152-0801 online https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org mental, social, and economic sustainability, com- up costs for the Farm. He collaborated on crafting monly described as the three pillars of sustainability a postdoctoral position at the Farm focused on or the triple bottom line (Elkington, 1998; World evaluating the Farm’s sustainability through re- Commission on Environment and Development, search and teaching. Amanda Green, a cultural 1987). Historical analyses of sustainable develop- anthropologist, filled the postdoctoral position ment ignored the pillar of social sustainability and from 2016 to 2018. Green designed and taught the its primary focus on human well-being, accessi- course, “Food and Sustainability: An Introduction bility, and equity (Jacobs, 1999). Similarly, sustain- to the Farm at Davidson,” where students volun- ability analyses of agriculture initially largely ig- teered at the Farm while learning about food sys- nored issues of social justice (Allen, Van Dusen, tems and sustainability. Martin served as Green’s Lundy, & Gliessman, 1991; Altieri, 1988). Begin- faculty mentor, and Gracie Ghartey-Tagoe com- ning in the 1980s, Allen and co-authors (1991) pleted an Environmental Studies undergraduate encouraged scholars and activists not to assume capstone under their mentorship. Given our train- that environmentally friendly agricultural produc- ing as social scientists, we have tended to focus on tion (such as organic practices) were synonymous the social science data at the expense of the natural with sustainable agriculture. Rather than assuming sciences and humanities data. Additionally, we are that environmental