Short-term investments can bring long-term profits. What may seem for a moment to be not immediately practical may prove to be invaluable with the passage of time. These seem like basic tenets, do they not? As Gustavus claims to “green” and even receives accolades for the accomplishment, it seems many core areas of potential development in this vein are not being exploited to their full potential. In particular, one aspect of the Gustavus campus that could be a game-changing and remarkable facet of the campus is the Big Hill Farm.

Make no mistake, the farm has received an outpouring of support from some key players on the Gustavus campus. With the help of the Jim Dontje of the Johnson Center for Environmental Innovation, Steve Kjellgren of Dining Services and Bruce Volek of Physical Plant, the farm would not exist at all.

But as a $44 million capital project starts at Gustavus that includes the new academic building, couldn’t the farm somehow receive but a portion of these funds and become a feature that the Gustavus campus could benefit from both practically and abstractly? And while we’re at it, it might even advance the prestige and renown of the college.

Not just a student organization, the possible institutional benefits of the farm within the college structure are myriad. Imagine the farm becoming a part of curriculum. How perfectly liberal arts. Bio or ES majors could study plant and soil life. Liberal arts students like me who knew nothing about farming could get muddy and learn first-hand. Food, intimately connected to so many broad issues, provides a framework for study that perfectly aligns with the liberal arts environment here. Philosophy, history, chemistry, biology, management—all are present out at the farm.

I also feel that the farm is immensely practical on a material level. Think about it. Vegetables in large quantities, grown right on our own campus. Literally thousands of tomatoes and hundreds of peppers were delivered to the Market Place during the inaugural year. On a larger scale and with further momentum, these numbers could grow expontentially.

Also, I feel that the farm is a practical response to the impending climate and resource crisis that faces the planet, and even a baby step such as the farm’s first season is what is needed if a place like Gustavus is going to remain sustainable (to use that overused buzzword). Moreso than even a LEED-certified academic building, the farm allows true sustainability.

The farm is such a simple thing and such a seeming no-brainer, but the farm’s power comes from its simplicity, for with more support or energy, could become so much more than what it already is. Imagine greenhouses, fruit trees and chickens. Some day.

However, besides its practicality, the farm offers other benefits. In a college environment, pure profitability and practicality should not motivate all decisions. There is a place for the peripheral aspects of something like the Big Hill Farm just as there is a place for the peripheral aspects of something like the athletic department or the Chapel. As the athletics department is not strictly necessary to the existence of campus, but adds peripheral benefits to the college that heighten the overall spirit and environment, so too does the farm add these aspects. As a community space not for just curricular learning, the farm allows contemplation and is a true community space. Its mere existence forces one to ponder issues of sustainability and confront questions of food in a modern era. In time it could become as crucial to Gustavus as the Chapel or sports teams.

As both a practical functioning farm, and as a more symbolic space of community and learning, the farm could (and should) become a centerpiece of Gustavus. It could be a new academic building of sorts, a new location for new learning. It is an opportunity the campus should not miss, lest we regret it in twenty years.