MSc Sustainable Horticulture and Food Production - growing low input, diverse and resilient food systems

Schumacher College is the first in the world to offer a postgraduate programme in Sustainable Horticulture and Food Production. A full-time one-year programme that has been developed in association with the Eden Project, the Centre for Alternative Technology and Plymouth University PG Cert and PG Dip.

Applications open for 2012/13 – please apply before 28 February 2012.

Join the growers, leaders and change agents at the forefront of new thinking in Horticulture for resilient and healthy food systems.This course explores the frontiers of research and practice that will meet the social, ecological and economic challenges our food systems face in the 21st Century.We offer you a unique and transformative blend of academic and practical learning opportunities from Schumacher College, the Eden Project, the Centre for Alternative Technology and Plymouth University.

Sustainable Horticulture

As global population hits 7 billion in 2011, we urgently need to consider how our food systems will cope in the coming years. Can they produce enough? And are they resilient to an unpredictable climate and reduction in fossil fuels and other high-energy inputs on which they’re currently dependent?

This MSc brings together the thinking, research and practice at the cutting-edge of a global food revolution. Drawing from many different projects and schools of thought around the world, and looking at the roles of large scale food production, biotechnology, ‘human scale’ horticulture and botanical diversity, our starting point is natural systems.

How can we work with nature and biological cycles to improve our horticultural production? And how do we do it without increasing environmental degradation, climate change or consumption of finite resources, the pressing questions of our time.

Since 1991, Schumacher College has pioneered radical thinking in sustainable living, of which food is central. We have attracted the leading teachers, practitioners and activists and have inspired, supported and led thousands of organisations and individuals from many different countries in their quest to achieve a more sustainable and equitable world.

This course is for growers, entrepreneurs and leaders who want to progress food systems that are ecologically, socially and financially sustainable.
You will have the opportunity to further develop your technical, strategic, and critical skills and the space to regenerate and hone your passion and creativity for a better world.

We are looking for enthusiastic agents of change who are ready to co-create a new sustainable food system in practice. We are looking for those prepared to take a risk and stand on the cutting-edge of new thinking in this area.

The course format has been designed to allow students to combine a Post-Graduate Diploma or Masters Course with work and life commitments.
There are eight taught modules, one each month, followed by an 18 week dissertation period.

• Module 1 – Science, Systems and Sustainability
• Module 2 – Resource Use in Socio-Ecological Systems
• Module 3 – Research Methods
• Module 4 – Plant Science and Production
• Module 5 – Design and Practices in Horticulture
• Module 6 – Ethnobotany and Plant Taxonomy
• Module 7 – Food Systems in the Post-Carbon World
• Module 8 – New Food Economy

If you would like more information about this MSc programme click here to visit the Schumacher College website for full programme details.