BSc Minor Sustainable Agriculture and Consumption (WUSAC) / BSc

Introduction

Food production is under ever-increasing pressure, as population numbers rise, the climate changes and non-renewable resources are depleting. There is a strong need for a world agriculture paradigm shift towards 'working with nature'. Many alternatives are being explored towards sustainable solutions and secure future food production, while adopting principles and practices that counter depletion of non-renewable resources, degradation of soils, the fading of biodiversity and pressure on underprivileged populations. Special attention will also be paid to the use of renewable resources in order to replace the dwindling supply of fossil energy. The BSc Minor Sustainable Agriculture and Consumption touches upon all aspects of sustainability: ecological, social and economic. It takes a step back to assess current dominant production, marketing and consumption patterns, while exploring other approaches.
The BSc Minor Sustainable Agriculture and Consumption is tailored to prepare for the Master Organic Agriculture (MOA), and suits several other programs equally well, such as MDR, MBI, MID, MPS.

Learning Outcomes

After successful completion of this minor students are expected to be able to:
- understand the different approaches to sustainable food production and consumption, such as organic agriculture, conservation agriculture and community supported agriculture;
- understand how food production systems are organized, on a local as well as on a global level - outline the impediments to sustainable agriculture in a given societal context;
- integrate environmental, agronomical and social issues and propose alternative ways of production and consumption;
- apply the concept of sustainability and its main components to food production, marketing and consumption;
- evaluate different land use options, including non-food-production (e.g. biofuels).

BSc Minor Coordinator

Drs C.A. Langeveld
Phone: 0317-(4)83571/82140
Email: cor.langeveld@wur.nl

Target Group

This minor is interesting for students of all BSc programmes except BIN.

Components of the BSc Minor

http://www.minors.wur.nl