Your complete guide to food sustainability courses

21-03-23 / 8 min read

Young female working in field looking at soil sample

Sustainable food systems are essential to ensuring all people around the world are able to access safe, nutritious, and affordable food.

Sustainable food production encompasses the shared responsibility for the production, supply, and consumption of safe and nutritious food within a viable, sustainable, industry. This should also protect and enhance the natural environment and quality of life of people in the future.

During your time on a food sustainability course, you can expect to learn about the following topics:

Environmental economics
Policies
Enterprise management
Financial markets
Investments
Law

What can you expect from food sustainability courses?

There are a diverse range of food sustainability courses available in the UK which expose students to the many contemporary challenges of global food sustainability.

These courses enable students to learn about issues such as food security, malnutrition, and health issues associated with insufficient food. They also include researching the world’s biggest sustainability challenges and approaches for reaching net zero through emerging themes and successful business models.

The following courses involve a wide range of assessment methods to determine your final grade. These include written reports, presentations, team-based projects, exams, and dissertations.

Environment, Food, and Society BSc (Hons)

This food sustainability course gives learners the skills needed to understand sustainability challenges whilst contributing to solutions to major global issues.

Topics such as natural resource management, wildlife conservation, animal welfare, agroforestry, ecology and community-supported agriculture will be covered to enhance understanding of the core issues presented by global sustainability efforts.

Learning will often focus on four key themes: people and food, food and the environment, people and the environment, and making a difference.

This course is often developed in collaboration with programmes such as the Soil Association Food for Life to provide credible real-life research.

Core modules include:

Soil and environmental science
Introduction to the agri-food industry
Species and ecosystems
Ecosystem services and sustainability
Advocacy & activism in food & farming
People and food
Landscape conservation
Society and food
Resilience of agro-ecosystems
Countryside and environmental management
Food ethics and governance

Sustainable Food Production BSc (Hons)

In any shopping trip to the supermarket, you will see a wide array of non-native fruit and vegetables which are only able to get there through a deeply interconnected global world.

This food sustainability course explores consumer-led demands, buying habits, and how they influence the sale of produce. The course also aims to produce business-focused graduates who are able to critically analyse a range of different sectors and boundaries within the food sustainability industry.

Core modules include:

Principles of sustainable development
Integrated production systems
Biological processes
Climate, soils and land use
Global and local food systems
Agribusiness management for a circular economy
Academic and professional development
Political and economic contexts
Environmental management
Fresh produce production
Plant physiology
Natural resources management

Regenerative Food and Farming BSc (Hons)

This food sustainability course gives learners the chance to explore cutting-edge alternatives to mainstream agricultural practices and food systems.

Food systems are key when it comes to examining environmental and social sustainability.

By implementing sustainable farming practices around the world, natural resources and rural economies can be regenerated. But this can only happen if these new developments are supported with capital and interest by retailers and consumers.

During their time in this food sustainability course, students will discover the answers to questions which bar the way to a more sustainable global food system.

Core modules include:

Global food systems
The evolution and revolutions of agriculture
Environmental and agricultural biosciences
Ecological and regenerative agriculture
Food and health
Crop production science
Innovative food production systems
Agri-food technology
Managing sustainable food enterprises
Contemporary issues in food and farming

Sustainable Food Systems MSc

In order to ensure that the world has access to safe, nutritious, and affordable food, sustainable food systems must be put in place.

There are many challenges which are in the way of ensuring food security, and millions of people experience malnutrition and insufficient food-related health issues because of this limited access to food.

As these challenges are posed to increase in the coming years, sustainable and cutting-edge intensification of agriculture must be developed in order to meet the needs of millions around the world.

During this food sustainability course, students will gain a thorough understanding of the entire current food system – from farm to fork and all the intermediary stages in between.

Students will also learn about carbon and water footprints and the need for sustainable intensification of agriculture when it comes to efficient energy and land use, as well as the protection of biodiversity.

Core modules include:

Research methods and applications in biological sciences
Professional, employability and research skills for advanced biological sciences
Sustainable food systems

Sustainable Agriculture and Food Production MSc

Although society is dependent on the ability to produce sufficient quantities of nutritious food through agriculture, modern-day farming practices have detrimental effects on the globe’s environments, biodiversity, and climate.

A growing population, a changing climate, and ever-increased pressure on the environment are all raising the importance of sustainable agriculture and food production – but how can this be achieved?

This food sustainability course builds upon key strengths within sustainable agricultural research whilst tapping into the diverse expertise available from industry leaders the world over.

Students will also gain an understanding of the fundamentals of sustainable agriculture and food production from a range of perspectives, all while developing their knowledge of cutting-edge research in agriculture and sustainable food production.

Core modules include:

Global challenges in sustainable agriculture
Crop production in a changing environment
Sustainable diets and protein production
Crop science & plant biotechnology
Circular approaches to sustainable agriculture
Agri-environmental monitoring, economics & policy

Future Food Sustainability MSc

As food security and sustainable food chains are major global challenges, we need new and sustainable ways of producing food in the future.

Climate change, political and social changes around the world and new diet trends are some of the major driving forces behind these global changes and the need for new systems, but how can our current food systems be transformed into something more resilient and sustainable?

Providing learners with a balanced mix of technology science, strategic foresight, and management skills, this food sustainability course enables students to develop a successful career within the food sector to make a difference in the world.

Core modules include:

Principles of sustainability
Soil systems
Water and sustainable agrifood systems
Food chain resilience
Technologies for seed and crop production
Evaluating environmental sustainability
Agricultural informatics
Strategic foresight

Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security MSc

This food sustainability course arms learners with the skills and knowledge required by a number of bodies to respond to the biggest ecological challenges around the world.

Students will dive into critical issues, including the exploitation of resources, poverty alleviation, food security, and the ethical and cultural implications of developing policies to implement sustainable practices around the world.

This food sustainability course is ideal for those driven by the desire to shape public and political attitudes within an environment in which learners can develop a strategic and operational mindset to expand their opinions and guide those of global decision-makers.

Core modules include:

Integrated agricultural systems
Poverty and food security
International rural development
Facing the global challenges in food and agriculture
Managing global soils in a changing climate

Global Health: Food Security, Sustainability, and Biodiversity MSc

From the air we breathe and the water we drink being polluted, climate change, unsustainable farming, and supply chains, to population growth and concerns of hunger, obesity, and meat consumption, the challenges brought to light by sustainable living are more prominent than ever.

Whilst exploring the most pressing issues affecting the Earth, this food sustainability course covers a wide range of topics which cross the intersections of environmental health, human health, and the crucial link between biodiversity, sustainable living, and food security.

Core modules include:

The role of biodiversity in human and environmental health
Sustainability and human livelihoods
Innovations in food security

Food and Development MA

Food development is a multi-national issue which consists of global concerns of hunger, food insecurity, malnutrition, and a number of cultural and socio-economical factors.

This food sustainability course explores the global and local effects of current unsustainable food practices whilst enabling students to gain an understanding of the consequences of aggressive globalisation in recent years in relation to food.

Learners will also gain an advanced understanding of the highly complex relationships between food and development around the world – helping them to engage critically with pressing issues like food and nutrition security, sustainable food systems, and corporate power over value chains.

Core modules include: