Learning Opportunities, Certificate Programs, Sustainable Food Systems
Certificate Outline
The Sustainable Food Systems certificate is self paced and equivalent to 50 hours. This includes the time it takes to read, view and apply the concepts through the activities provided in each module. If you register for the certificate you will have access to the website for one year after registration. If you register for individual modules, you will have access for six months. If you are unable to complete the certificate / modules within these timeframes, your access will be cancelled and you must re-register if you wish to continue.
Module 1: Introduction to Local and Global Food Systems
Topics
1. History and Development of Agriculture
2. Sustainable Agriculture
3. Eating in the 21st Century
History and Development of Agriculture
Objectives:
- Know the history of the United States Agriculture: indigenous practices, industrial revolution, Dust Bowl, Victory Gardens, Farm Bill, and Post WWII Era
- Identify Cultural Practices (Anthropology of Foods)
- Explore the impacts of modern technologies and land use practices
- Understand the current demands upon agricultural ecosystems
- Sample Environmental and Human Health Issues in Modern Agriculture
Sustainable Agriculture
Objectives:
- Identify different models in sustainable agriculture: IPM, organic, beyond organic, biodynamic, rotational grazing, permaculture, perennial grains, localization, and urban agriculture
- Describe key features in sustainable farming systems: soils, water, and biodiversity
- Understand social and economic factors impacting sustainability in food and agriculture systems
Eating in the 21st Century
Objectives:
- Explore current issues: obesity, population growth, water shortages, food prices, and climate change
- Embark on the Food Circle journey: farm fields to food factories to farmers markets and restaurants, to the dinner table and back to the beginning via composters and landfills
- Identify food system changes that are needed: regionally, globally, politically, economically, and ecologically
Module 2: Sustainable Farming and Urban Agriculture
Topics
1. Principles of Sustainable Agriculture
2. Practices and Farm Technologies
3. Urban and Community Agriculture
Principles of Sustainable Agriculture
Objective:
- Survey key scientific concepts in sustainable agriculture.
Practices and Production Technologies
Objective:
- Explore the best practices of sustainable farmers to apply what we know about agricultural ecosystems or “agroecosystems.”
Urban and Community Agriculture
Objectives:
- Examine several models of social ways to organize agriculture.
- Consider ways that agriculture can be practiced in unusual places or during unusual seasons.
Module 3: Between Farm and Table
Topics
1. Food Production at a Regional Level: Developing a Plan
2. Local Food Businesses/Infrastructure
3. Incorporating Local Food Options
4. The Business of Region Food Systems: Factors and Best Practices
Objectives:
- Articulate the components of the food system after goods leave the farm
- Outline the relationship between demand and supply
- Describe a range of business models that support a sustainable food system
- Articulate some of the cultural and policy barriers to food distribution
- Describe key components in a local food system
- Explore the perspective of a range of producers and distributors in a local food system
Module 4: Food Justice
Topics
1. Access to Quality Food
2. Labor and the Food System: Fair Trade
3. Biodiversity and Biopiracy
4. Climate Change and Peak Oil
5. Land Access
6. Gender and Farming
Objectives:
- Understand the relationship between global inequity and local practices
- Outline a number of examples of community development to counter issues of food justice
- Gain experience creating a small change in your community
- Reflect on the process of creating that change
- Develop a sense of hope and agency
Module 5: Food System Policy and Trends
Topics:
1. Local state and federal policies that shape the current food system
2. Connections between learners and the policies of your community
3. Local governance for agriculture policy
4. Impact of policies on local communities
Objectives:
- Through readings and interviews, learners are able to describe local, state, and federal policies that shape the food system.
- Identify the positions of their local officials on agriculture policy
- Describe the impact of policy on their local communities and give examples
- Reflect on their own position on agriculture policy and support their position with evidence and examples
