Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
A
Mineral fertilisers
Pesticides
1920-30s: farming
system focus
B
Today: food
system focus
Energy use
Food miles
Food safety
Mineral fertilisers
Pesticides
Food ethics
1920-30s: farming
system focus
Fair trade
Social justice
Figure 16.3
Changes in the focus of farming systems management from (A) the 1920s to the
1930s to (B) the situation today.
A new range of challenges has appeared on the agricultural scene. Important new areas are
energy use, not only in farming practices but the energy used to transport food, often across
continents; the whole issue of a fair trade with food, not only between developing and industr-
ialised countries but also between various industrialised countries competing in a globalised
economy; other social justice issues and food safety and food ethics, including animal welfare
(Figure 16.3B).
If ecological agriculture still has the ambition of having sustainable development as a goal,
it needs to embrace all these new areas. It is therefore important that education in ecological
agriculture takes on the wider food system dimension.
Conclusions
Based on the authors' experience in teaching organic farming in several universities, and on
the development of graduate courses and an MSc degree in agroecology in the Nordic region,
there is much to learn about education in this emerging arena. Much of the past and current
education and training has taken place in apprentice-type situations with farmers as teachers
and young people as learners in a practical, hands-on learning environment. Some of this
experience is being captured and joined with theory as courses are developed in organic agri-
culture in the universities. This is a process not easily followed in most universities, since there
is much doubt about the importance of organic methods and systems in the agricultural
mainstream.
Along with specific methods for plant protection and maintaining soil fertility, the authors
are using experiential learning methods for the study of organic farming. Accepting farmers
and others from the food industry as experts who have valuable information for students both
in the classroom and the field, the concept of 'faculty' is thus expanded. In a time of restricted
budgets, it is a challenge to reimburse these people for their time and to mobilise students off
