Universities unite to offer free urban sustainable food course

STAFF AT Harper Adams University are launching a free, online course focussing on the sustainability of urban food systems as part of the Universities West Midlands collaborative Food-Smart City project.

Foodservice Footprint Harper-Adams Universities unite to offer free urban sustainable food course Foodservice News and Information Out of Home sector news  University of Wolverhampton University of Warwick University College Birmingham Universities West Midlands HEFCE Harper Adams University Food and the City Dr Michael Heasman Dr Adrian Morley Coventry University Birmingham City University Aston University
Harper Adams winning a Footprint Award in 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The course, “Food and the City”, is led by Harper Adams University, in partnership with Aston University, Birmingham City University, University College Birmingham, Coventry University, University of Warwick, and University of Wolverhampton.

 

Dr Michael Heasman, senior lecturer in Food Policy and Management at Harper Adams University, said: “As the world becomes more urban, how we feed cities, ensure a vibrant urban food chain and enable a sustainable food economy is becoming more critical.

 

“This short course aims to help address these challenges through providing learning and educational tools and resources that will help students, and in turn people throughout the region, to become more engaged in local and sustainable food issues.”

 

The course begins on June 2nd, 2014 and two lessons will be released via the website www.foodcitycourse.com every week for six weeks. Students can enrol via the website and will receive a certificate of completion if they finish all 12 lessons.

 

“The course will be beneficial to a wide range of people with either a professional or personal interest in food, public health and nutrition, among others,” said Dr Heasman. “We aim to provide a holistic grounding in what is a complex area that is rising fast up many public and business agendas. We hope individuals involved in food projects, sustainability issues or looking to expand their studies in these areas will find the content both insightful and inspirational.”

 

The course has been supported by funding from Universities West Midlands, HEFCE and the Harper Adams Aspire Development Fund awarded to Dr Heasman and Dr Adrian Morley.

 

Dr Morley said: “The course is an exciting example of how universities can collaborate together around an issue of direct relevance to many stakeholders. We hope to use feedback from participants to further develop our activity in this area.

 

“The partner universities have contributed content under a creative commons agreement, so it’s a very exciting project to work on and I look forward to interacting with our first cohort of students this summer.”

 

To learn more about the course and enrol, visit www.foodcitycourse.com