Farm-based education for food system transformation

Abstract

Food systems education is being studied as a “vital strategy” in transforming the current food system paradigm away from globalization and industrialization and towards a system which enables community-level food sovereignty, or the abilities and rights of communities to define and create their own food systems. A literature review conducted for this master’s thesis found a significant research gap surrounding farm-based education as a potential form of transformative food systems education. This master’s thesis asks two research questions which seek to bridge current research gaps: RQ1: How are farm-based education organizations balancing farming production with pedagogical activities? RQ2: How are farm-based education organizations connecting to broader sustainable and ethical food system transformations in their respective regions? This thesis has used a variety of qualitative research techniques, including a literature review, semi-structured interviews, and participatory research, and the two frameworks of “critical food systems theory” (CFSE, Meek and Tarlau, 2016), and “transformative agroecological learning” (TAL, Anderson et al, 2016), to address RQ2. Main findings include: 1) Many organizations, particularly those producing food at relatively larger scales of production, were found to have a symbiotic balance between farm production and education. 2) Having sufficient staff, space, and time allotted for both farming and education was found to help organizations in having a symbiotic balance between farm production and education. 3) Long-term, service-based learning opportunities were found to be helpful in creating meaningful education opportunities that also provide real farming production help. 4) Farm-based education tends to have a focus on practical, hands-on learning, forging local partnerships with other food system actors, and is usually located outside of traditional top-down structured school systems. These characteristics make farm-based education readily able to support regional sustainable and ethical food system transformations, based on the frameworks of CFSE and TAL. 5) Many farm-based education organizations are already taking laudable actions connecting their programming to food systems transformations in their respective regions. 6) An effort from farm-based education organizations, aided by support networks such as the Farm-Based Education Network (FBEN), to clarify what farm-based education is using concepts such as food justice and sovereignty, which are already present within the discourse of many farm-based education organizations, could help strengthen farm-based education's relationship to food system transformations.