Goals

By bringing free-range chickens to the Swarthmore campus, the GoodFood Project hopes to accomplish the following goals:

• Provide students a hands-on agricultural educational opportunity they would not normally receive at a liberal arts college.

  Most students who enter a liberal arts college have very limited experience with agriculture. Having chickens at Swarthmore would give students the confidence and technical skills to take on their own small-scale agricultural project later on in life.

• Increase student awareness regarding sustainable and local food.

  Having free-range chickens visible to students will facilitate discussion and inquiry into local food. Informational signs at both the coop and Sharples will educate students on the importance of environmentally friendly food purchasing as well as the benefits of sustainable and local food production.

• Lead by example and become a model for other colleges and communities.

  While almost 3 in 10 colleges maintain a garden or farm, almost no colleges maintain sustainable poultry. Swarthmore needs to take the lead and become a model of simple sustainable egg production for other colleges and communities.

• Demonstrate the practicality of small-scale sustainable agriculture at an urban residential college.

  Farming chickens at Swarthmore will break down the common misconception that living sustainabily in an urban environment is difficult, expensive, or unpractical.

• Reclaim Swarthmore’s farming heritage.

  Swarthmore’s founders envisioned a college with an educational focus on the natural sciences and “the arts of agriculture and horticulture.” Swarthmore even operated a sustainable farm for milk and vegetable production until the early 20th century (for more information, see the Swarthmore Farming History section of this site). Having free-range chickens will allow students to partially reclaim Swarthmore’s farming heritage and some of the founding principles of the college.