You are what you farm

One thing that we often take for granted as busy college students is the food we eat. Our thoughts about food rarely extend beyond the occasional complaint about the choice of dining options on campus or the lack thereof. Only a select few think about where their food comes from, who made it and what goes into it.

Enter the Duke Campus Farm: once a field used for harvesting tobacco, the Duke Campus Farm has been converted to a multi-crop facility that supports indigo, peanut, cotton and field corn production. This humble farm is responsible for the production of a significant amount of food that comes through Duke, and it’s located only a few minutes from campus. Since its establishment in 2011, the farm has gradually grown and transformed, taking on new projects as well as a new infrastructure.

The Board would like to commend the Duke Campus Farm for its effort to bring food sustainability to Duke. The numbers show that the farm produces food for Bon Appetit, which is responsible for 30 to 40 percent of the food on campus. With that said, we are skeptical that Duke will ever become 100 percent self sufficient thanks to the farm. It seems that the farm, while serving as a sustainable resource at face value, serves an even higher purpose—education. By bringing these ideas and issues to light and educating people about food, the farm has achieved a significant goal. And the educational opportunities abound when it comes to the Duke Campus Farm. Not only does the farm focus on public outreach and education programs, it has also sparked a semester-long program that discusses food and also has partnered with the Nicholas School of the Environment. Overall, we see the benefit of the farm coming more from its role as an educator rather than its role in sustainability.

We also want to call attention to the different side of food that often goes unnoticed. We often don’t think about where our food comes from, who makes it and how it is made. But these issues can have huge implications in our lives and the lives of others. We applaud the Duke Campus Farm for helping to bring issues like these and many others to the forefront and for educating people more about them.

This begs the question: If the farm is so important, then why don’t more students get involved? It may be that working on a farm is simply not attractive to Duke students because it will likely not stand out on a resume. Given the choice, Duke students probably feel that their time is better spent volunteering elsewhere than at the farm. The Board, however, disagrees with this logic. We see this as a great opportunity to volunteer and get involved in the Durham community. So grab your gloves and shovels, and go get your hands dirty.