Lafayette College and Sustainability
Lafayette College, a private liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania, has been increasingly dedicated to sustainability and environmental responsibility. This commitment is evident in its academic programs, campus operations, and community engagement initiatives. As a signatory of the President’s Climate Commitment, Lafayette has been actively reducing its carbon footprint and has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035 (Second Nature, 2021).
Lafayette’s dedication to sustainability extends beyond energy and waste management to include sustainable food systems. The college has demonstrated this commitment through various dining service practices, like sourcing food locally, reducing food waste, and offering plant-based dining options, which support both environmental sustainability and public health (Lafayette Dining Services, 2022).
History and Current Functions of LaFarm
In its origin, the creation of the garden (not yet dubbed LaFarm) was led by a student named Jenn Bell in 2007 (Silverman & Peck, 2013). It began as a simple community farm and was designed to contribute to Lafayette’s food loop mission, or “sustainable food loop” (Silverman & Peck, 2013) This food loop entails taking waste from dining services and turning it into compost which is used for the farm and also for campus. The compost that goes into the soil at the garden then ends up helping to grow crops that are sent back to be used in dining halls and sold to students and Easton community members. This food loop is essentially a blueprint for using sustainable practices in food and farming at Lafayette. In 2009 the garden was officially established (Fechik-Kirk, 2018), and then In 2013, the farm became more “professional” wherein the first farm manager was hired. Around the same time, Lafayette switched its dining provider to Bon Appetit whose chefs said that they were “committed to purchasing as much produce as LaFarm could grow”, so with the financial support, LaFarm was able to expand (Todaro, 2022). This relationship has undoubtedly changed with the swap in dining providers to Parkhurst, but it is unclear how much the support of LaFarm is different.
According to LaFarm’s annual report from 2021, that was the first year in which LaFarm partnered with the Landis Center for Community Engagement, and the farm was included in the Pre-Orientation Service Program (POSP). At the start of LaFarm and through to today, other organizations at Lafayette have been integral partnerships, such as with the Society of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (SEES) and the Landis Center for Community Engagement (Russo, 2021), while other student groups and the volunteering process are still integral to the harvesting and maintenance process (LaFarm Annual Report, 2021). In addition to volunteers, LaFarm is also a host to research students and interns (Food & Farm, 2023). The farm is also home to some community garden plots, so there are a good amount of community members who pay for a section of land so that they can come in and take care of their crops or flowers (LaFarm Annual Report, 2021).
The food grown and harvested by LaFarm staff and volunteers is then distributed throughout the Lafayette and Easton communities. Outside of the academic year when dining halls are not open, some of the food goes to Pard Pantry, which is essentially like a food bank or a free source of food for students on campus (Season Highlights, 2022). Often, the items in Pard Pantry are non-perishable foods, so LaFarm provides some alternatives to canned goods for students who can’t afford to pay for fresh vegetables. Of course, during the academic year a large portion of the produce goes to supply the dining halls, but even so, in 2021 around 20% of LaFarm’s total production went to vegetable stands at 10th and Pine Street in Easton’s West Ward market, going back into the Easton community (LaFarm Annual Report, 2021).
The first farm manager at Lafayette was Sarah Edmonds, and following Sarah was Lisa Miskelly. Leaving in 2021, Miskelly was replaced by Josh Parr who is still the current farm manager of LaFarm (Goltra, 2021). Miskelly did a lot of work to bring LaFarm “from a grassroots organization to a fully-fledged farm,” or, a farm that is organized and produces a large number of produce (Goltra, 2021). During Parr’s tenure, he has focused a lot on no-till agriculture and preserving soil health while still farming effectively (Todaro, 2022).
Food Justice, Community Gardens, and “Place”
Food justice is a movement that seeks to depart from the understanding of hunger and food insecurity as individual problems and instead frames them as problems of the community at large (Barron 2016). Generally understood to have begun in the 1980s, the food justice movement now recognizes food as a “right of citizenship” and seeks to decommodify food as a means of providing this right and creating a more egalitarian society (Barron 2016). Food justice argues that commodification reduces food to only its trade capabilities and most marketable traits. In contrast, decommodifying food allows for more equal access, and a greater emphasis on older ways of viewing food that do not link it to the market economy (Kuljay et al. 2021). Community gardens lend themselves to food justice in that they promote food democracy, community involvement, and the creation of a “commons” or community place. It has also been argued that these gardens are not a “singular solution” to food injustice and food insecurity, as they often require labor and resources from citizens who are “resource-poor” (Barron 2016).
The community garden movement has its roots in the urban reform efforts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, aimed at providing green spaces and fresh produce in crowded cities. These gardens serve as a means to boost food production and community morale. Overall, they can have a substantial impact on the physical health of the people who use that space. (Marshall et al, 2011). At colleges and universities, community gardens serve as living laboratories for education and research in sustainable agriculture, food systems, and social justice (Duram & Klein, 2015). They provide hands-on learning opportunities and foster a sense of community among students, faculty, and staff while promoting environmental stewardship.
Community gardens on college campuses, such as the one at Lafayette, play a crucial role in the broader sustainability movement in higher education. According to Duram and Klein (2015), university food gardens are more than just sources of fresh produce; they are unifying places that embody the principles of higher education sustainability. These gardens facilitate interdisciplinary learning and collaboration, promote physical and mental well-being, and serve as models for ecological and social sustainability.
Community gardens “develop [a] sense of place that ties us to [the] local environment” (Duram and Klein 2015). Place, as defined by Jennie Barron, is as emotional as it is physical (2016). Compared to the purely physical space, the place involves community connection and meaning created by the space’s users (Barron 2016). Community gardens also exist within an institutional and political framework that can value economic growth over community development. It simultaneously creates a community place and conforms to the values of the institution it is situated in, which may not prioritize collective growth as much as other markers of institutional success. The place requires a level of community autonomy to allow for meaningful ties to form.
Community gardens also act as “commons,” or, a non-commodified third place shared and cultivated by the community. By “third place,” we are referring to any place outside of the first place (home) and second place (work). These gardens are not places of only consumption but rather places of creation and production. Community food gardens are a neutral ground, available to everyone in the community, yet not fully public or private by nature. While they may be within an institution, they are managed by the local community. The communication and collaboration required for the successful management of the community garden create and strengthen the community itself, bringing together different people from different groups under a shared purpose (Barron 2016).
Lafarm’s Position as a Community Garden
Food justice, a movement that ensures equitable access to healthy food for all, has found resonance at Lafayette College. The institution recognizes that access to nutritious food is a fundamental human right and has initiated programs to address food insecurity both on campus and in the surrounding community. Lafayette’s community garden and its partnership with local food banks are tangible efforts to support food justice (Lafayette College Office of Sustainability, 2020). At LaFarm, dependence on those who are “resource-poor” is partially alleviated through volunteerism on the part of students (Barron 2016). LaFarm employs and accepts volunteers from the student body at the college, tapping into a more resource-rich labor force. The college’s curriculum also reflects its commitment to food justice. Interdisciplinary courses in environmental science, policy studies, and ethics often examine the intersections between food systems, sustainability, and social equity, preparing students to engage with these issues critically and constructively (Lafayette College Catalog, 2021).
LaFarm is not only a space for growing food but also a venue for educational events, volunteerism, and advocacy. It underscores the college’s holistic approach to sustainability, connecting ecological practices with broader social issues and academic inquiry (Lafayette College Office of Sustainability, 2020). While owned by the college at an institutional level, it also belongs to the individuals who have created meaningful connections to the land and its mission. Whether the individuals are students, volunteers, or community members not affiliated with the college, LaFarm has become a place for them, rather than just a physical space. A project like the one we are proposing has to fit into this idea of place. It has to make sense within the community to understand what the place is. It has to be more than functional. Our proposed project will need to be implemented with community, and not for community for it to be useful and successful in the long term. Otherwise, we are creating an artifact that reflects a misunderstanding of the use of the space and the community’s understanding of LaFarm as a place.
Defining “Functional” Art
Throughout our research and conversations, we found many examples of different types of functional art, and in an attempt to find the best way to categorize these examples, we came to establish our definition of functional art as something of a contingency table. There is the art side and the functional side, both split between tangible and intangible.
| Tangible art | Intangible art | |
| Tangible function | ex. statue as lamp | ex. vibrations causing physical rxn |
| Intangible function | ex. Apotropaic art | ex. meditative music |
Figure 1: Forms of Functional Art
Each place the two types of art and function intersect represents different types of “functional art”. As shown in the table above, an example of tangible art with a tangible function would be something like a statue which also operates as a lamp. Intangible art with a tangible function could be a song or vibration that causes a physical reaction to occur. An example of tangible art with an intangible function would be apotropaic art, like that of Ancient Greece in which statues guarded the entrances to buildings to ward off evil spirits (Holloway, 1988). Intangible art with an intangible function could be something such as meditative music, where there is no tactile interaction and the purpose is not visible, but rather felt in the mind or body.
In terms of LaFarm, we are dealing with a very tactile, tangible, and functional space, so the art and function should also be tangible. Objectively, it is much more manageable for us to create a piece of art with a tangible function within the constraints of time as well as resources. In addition, in all our conversations and surveying of those who interact with LaFarm, none of the problems presented seemed able to be solved by any form of art or function that was intangible. We sent a survey to those from Lafayette who regularly use or have utilized LaFarm and only nine responses were returned, but the survey population included four students who have paid positions at LaFarm, four student volunteers, and one LaFarm board chair. In this survey, respondents were asked how they defined “functional”, and some common words were “efficient”, “effective”, “us” or “useful”, and “aesthetic value”. These responses support our move forward with a tangible functional art piece.