Summary/Description
Field Analysis of Sustainable Food Systems – An Immersion Approach to Studying Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems
We have developed a university-level course to teach academic students and community members about food and farming systems from a systems perspective, and under the banner of understanding and learning about sustainability. The approach we use brings students and faculty together as co-learners in a week long immersion experience where students and faculty travel, work, observe, discuss, interview, live, and learn together. We visit several different aspects of, and approaches to, sustainable food systems (SFS) – including organic, conventional, and others – in order to give us all exposure to a large number of different components of our food systems.
This course is geared for the upper-level undergraduate or graduate student, and is also open to community members for continuing education units (CEUs). It is offered at both Washington State University (WSU) and University of Idaho (UI), through the departments of Crop and Soil Sciences, and Agricultural & Extension Education, respectively. The course includes both experiential and community learning activities, which are both recognized as being important for student learning. Using these together, we have developed an educational experience where students (and their instructors!) study sustainability and food systems in all their complexity!
During this intense week of data collection, analysis and interpretation, students have extensive opportunities to learn with and from each other, and from the sites and people visited. Students approach SFS analysis through a cooperative small group process, with faculty participating as co-learners. Students are responsible for designing their modes of inquiry and observation for the various sites, plus preparing oral and written analyses. The students are charged with developing a protocol or framework for understanding sustainability with respect to the various sites. This can be stressful at times, since there is no ‘right answer.’ Part of the exhilaration within this course is that students create and refine criteria during the course, sometimes finding that their own ideas are being challenged, and always finding the systems connections.
The course was originally developed and taught collaboratively by faculty at Iowa State University and Dordt College (IA), the University of Minnesota, and the University of Nebraska using a week-long immersion experience visiting a variety of farms and natural settings (Agroecosystems Summer Field Course). It has been offered many times now in the region surrounding the intersection of these three states. At WSU and UI, we have teamed up to extend this same teaching approach to our university students, as well as community members in WA and ID. We have also extended our scope to beyond the “farm gate” - such that we now include marketing, processing and transportation facilities and teach it under the title of Field Analysis of Sustainable Food Systems.
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