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Regenerative Food, Farming and Enterprise MSC, PGDIP, PGCERT

Regenerative Food, Farming and Enterprise MSC, PGDIP, PGCERT

Different course options

Full time | Schumacher College | 1 year | JAN

Study mode

Full time

Duration

1 year

Start date

JAN

Key information
DATA SOURCE : IDP Connect

Qualification type

MSc - Master of Science

Subject areas

Enterprises Agriculture (General)

Course type

Taught

Course Summary

This radical new course is designed to help you develop your knowledge and understanding of resilient human-scale food systems and learn the skills needed to design, influence or develop resilient, productive food-based networks and businesses of your own. With an ecological and systemic approach, you will carve out a path towards making a positive contribution to the food economy.

Food production systems at present are ruining the planet and our health, enriching markets rather than the soil. “Regenerative” means to bring more to live ecologically and economically. Food and farming are major contributors to global warming change, when they could be contributing towards mitigating it. There is also a serious depletion of our most valuable resource: soils. This significant new programme will help you find new ways of thinking and doing, that can help encourage ecological systems to improve farm and food production for the benefit of people and the planet.

Regenerative Food, Farming and Enterprise is concerned with the growth of resilient human-scale food systems through inspiring, skilling and supporting a new generation of growers, entrepreneurs, organisations and activists.

It will help you develop your knowledge and understanding of regenerative agricultural systems based on biological and ecological processes and food production that addresses social, ecological and economic challenges. You will learn the skills needed to design, influence or develop food networks and food-based businesses that are both resilient and productive, and you will have the opportunity to study agriculture and food production in a deeply interdisciplinary environment that promotes debate and innovation with an emphasis on exploring current debates around food futures.

The challenges facing society that this programme will address include:

  • the multiple challenges that the food system currently faces - climate change, escalating fossil fuel and food prices, food insecurity, soil degradation, biodiversity loss, global poverty and inequality and their systemic links to the current economic model;
  • growing disillusionment with the dominance of mainstream food production approaches and solutions;
  • opportunities for new ecological and biological approaches to intensifying food production with an emphasis on ecosystem and human health.

The programme is rooted in an ecological and systemic approach within the holistic learning model of Schumacher College that attracts students and visiting teachers from all over the world. It explores the frontiers of new thinking and practices in Horticulture that together form a globally diverse effort to build resilient, sustainable and healthy food systems.

Schumacher College attracts people from all walks of life from across the globe – from growers and entrepreneurs to policymakers and social and environmental activists. This programme is designed to support a new generation of growers, leaders and activists to co-create the new food economy. It will be attractive to people at different stages in their life seeking to make a positive contribution to the food economy through enhancing their knowledge; acquiring practical skills; and sharing experiences with people from a diversity of regions.

Modules

This module explores how soils work and promotes a thorough understanding of the relations in the web of soil life that the programme builds on. It shows how improving the biodiversity of plants, fungi, fauna, and microorganisms can produce healthier soil structures, now called ‘soil health’ This benefits water, nutrients and carbon cycles. The module evaluates factors affecting soil health, and indicators of improvement, to judge the wider impacts on the environment, climate change, erosion and flooding.

Tuition fees

UK fees
Course fees for UK students

For this course (per year)

£11,515

International fees
Course fees for EU and international students

For this course (per year)

£16,950

Entry requirements

BA/BSc (Honours) Degree A first degree: Where the first degree is not a 2.1, or in an unrelated subject, further support of the application or experience may be required. Other non-standard awards or experience: A willingness engage with the field of Sustainable Farming & Enterprise. Candidates will be considered with prior credited learning and prior experiences subject to interview.