ENVS 84.01 Community-Based Natural Resource Management III – Farms, soils and social-ecological transitions
Agriculture is an arena in which a number of important social and biophysical transitions are being contested and negotiated. As with forests, agricultural management is increasingly focus on adapting to and mitigating climate change. In a manner similar to forests, farms are seen as an opportunity to sequester carbon, primarily in the soil. In addition to climate considerations, agriculture, particularly small-scale agriculture, is an arena in which new social arrangements among people and between people and their food, are being pioneered. In this course we will visit and learn and compare among a number of parallel models of agriculture including conventional agriculture, organic agriculture, climate smart agriculture and regenerative agriculture, among others. We will investigate through interactions with farmers, field work on farms and research in the literature, the comparative consequences of each of these models for soil health, and social and ecological resilience.
Instructor
Bolger
Prerequisite
ENVS 80.11 Social Ecological Systems: Theory and Methods, or permission of instructor