Dartmouth’s Foodscape: The O-Farm
Written by Sarah Jewett
What is your relationship with food?
For many young Americans, especially women, their “relationship with food” immediately correlates to hot-buzzing conversations about not just what we eat but how the media and culture around food correlates to our body-image, and thus to our self-worth.
But that could not be described as normal within all of human history. More people now have steady access to an abundance of food, but far from all. For our ancestors and modern people who frequently deal with a lack of nourishment, a relationship with food has priorities above consumerism and body-image. They ask many more questions: Where can I find food, will it be enough to sustain me, and how will I pay for it?
Innovations in genetically-modified food production, improved distribution, and widening access has disconnected people in the wealthiest countries from their literal roots. I ate some cantaloupe earlier today, and if you asked me where it came from, I would say the grocery store. I don’t know what farm, let alone what country, it was grown in or how it got to that grocery store. I, like many Americans, do not tend to prioritize the origins of my food when I purchase it.
Alejandro Morales ’24 found his way to the O-Farm in a similar way to Kali; as the president of his environmental club in high school, he gained some experience and wanted to get involved on a bigger scale operation. After going to the farm a few days in the fall, he realized he wanted to lead. This spring, he’s been leading work days once or twice a week, helping other students get involved too.
When asked what he enjoys most, Alejandro said, “It’s a great way to get out into nature, and the club is my favorite sub-branch of the DOC, along with Timber Team. When you’re farming, you’re not just experiencing nature but actually having an effect on it in a positive way. I really enjoy even just watching plants grow, plants that we seeded with our own hands grow week by week.”
I asked Alejandro and Kali about their relationships with food. My conversation with Kali turned to how her experience beekeeping has helped her work towards an overall greater awareness of where food comes from. “Once you start unraveling the many layers that go into that plate of food at your dinner table, you become much more aware of how complicated food and its origins are.”
Alejandro appreciates how the O-Farm has been a place for him to grapple with sustainability in practice. “Being able to be a part of that process [at the O-Farm] and see just how sustainable farming can be and has been great. Instead of just hearing, ‘oh, you should buy sustainably,’ you can actually compare methods and think, ‘well I wonder what they’re doing,’ and then ‘oh, we did that at the O-Farm.’ It’s such a great opportunity for college students that’s just three miles away; we should definitely be using it more.”
For Kali, this newfound awareness from her class and beekeeping work propelled her to eat a more plant-based diet. “I had no idea how, at first. I only knew how to cook five meals; I had to reconfigure my understanding of what a meal was. It started by making the occasional plant-based choice, watching YouTube videos about how to use tofu, trying different vegetables and soy milk because I’d never had them before. I learned to be very curious about what was on my plate and be okay with having my opinion changed by a podcast, people who knew more than me, books I read, or the taste of the food alone. I also actively try not to harshly critique myself or others for the choices they make around food.”
Both Alejandro and Kali have found their experiences at the O-Farm eye-opening in their perspectives on sustainability and what a relationship with food looks like. The isolation of the pandemic has helped Alejandro realize how much he enjoys sharing a meal with others. “Food really brings people together,” he says. Kali and her roommate, when trapped quarantining together, bonded over new recipes and comfort meals.
To me, these ideas touch on the cornerstones of what a relationship with food should be. Your own bodily health, the health of your ecosystem, and the health of your community. Do these observations solve the problems I set forth earlier? Far from it; the Dartmouth bubble is still as small as ever. While food is complicated, the joy that comes from sharing a meal with friends, enjoying a new recipe, or planting seeds with your hands is not. Heading over to the O-Farm has been on my periphery on that “things I want to do” list that Dartmouth students constantly have in mind, but this summer I’ll make it happen. I ask that you consider what you eat and your relationship with it, and the answer might be surprising.
Sincerely,
Sarah
*Please see the Student Assembly’s data collection on student food insecurity; it would be untrue to assume that all Dartmouth students have similar access to abundant and nutritious food.
Featured Image Courtesy of the Dartmouth Sustainability Office
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