Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
more interdisciplinary course options in the agriculture curriculum and the recent restructur-
ing of the entire program have meant that these two courses were not offered in 2004.
'Ecological agriculture 1' is the title of an international course on offer at KVL under the
Socrates Common European Degree level specialisation in ecological agriculture. It is a 24
ECTS full semester course that fits the descriptions for a thematic course at the Danish agri-
cultural university. The aim of the course is to give students an understanding of the basis of
ecological agriculture from an integrated viewpoint. Ecological farming in Denmark is given
consideration followed by themes related to biodiversity, cropping system design and the tech-
nological aspects of organic farming. A three-day study tour and other one-day excursions
into the farming areas of Denmark enable the predominantly international students to gain a
good understanding of the state of organic farming in Denmark. Fifty per cent of the course
assessment is based on a group project, 20% on literature evaluation, and the balance on the
basis of a description of individual learning outcomes by the students.
Finland
The courses at the Helsinki University in Mikkeli make up a 70 ECTS program that aims to
give an overview of organic farming and food systems, create understanding and develop skills
towards sustainability according to its underlying principles. All the courses are interdiscipli-
nary and participatory and include the ecological, economic and social points of view. Exclud-
ing the optional literature-based courses, all courses have a study component which includes
interaction with farms, other organic enterprises or food systems as an essential starting point
for learning. One course (LUOMU 1 Organic agriculture) focuses on farming systems, another
(LUOMU 2 Organic food industry) on the rest of the food chain, while the remaining courses
deal with the whole food system, including the value dimensions (LUOMU 0.1 Introduction to
organic food and farming, LUOMU 3 A Readings, LUOMU 4 Practical training, LUOMU 5
Organic quality, LUOMU 6 Organic food systems, LUOMU 7 Case study, LUOMU 8 C
Readings and LUOMU 9 Practical training in a research group). Courses with numerical iden-
tification from 1 to 4 are Bachelor level courses and the rest are Masters level courses.
The emphasis in these courses is on progressive inquiry learning (Hakkarainen
et
al
. 2004)
with the focus on the learning process rather than on teaching specific content. Students set
their own learning goals and share expertise among themselves. As examples of interaction
with the practice besides lectures, discussions and readings, in LUOMU 1, students become
familiar with eight farms, in LUOMU 2 several other enterprises, and in LUOMU 6 they work
with one food system in the neighbourhood in a multidisciplinary student team. They complete
a series of exercises based on cases that include an analysis of sustainability and reasoned pro-
posals for further development. In LUOMU 4, students have 40 days of practical work on
organic farms or in other enterprises such as those trading or marketing in organic food, and
restaurants, and then prepare an analytical report on the experience. They add value to the
experiential field activity by analysing and evaluating their observations and putting this into
a logical framework in the report. In LUOMU 7, multidisciplinary student teams take a systems
approach to evaluating a case in developing an organic farming and food system and report
this as a tutored research project.
Sweden
Three courses have been designed at the Swedish University of Agricultural Science (Sveriges
Lantbruksuniversitet, SLU) to address theory, project management and systems research
methodologies. Although organic farming is not in the title, the courses often use organic
farms for the case studies in the field. The course 'Adaptive management - Theory' considers
