Certificate in Food, Agriculture, and Sustainability
The Certificate in Food, Agriculture, and Sustainability is open to current undergraduate students from any Faculty at Dalhousie.
The Certificate in Food, Agriculture, and Sustainability is a 15-credit hour credential to develop and build connections between diverse components of food, agriculture, and sustainability. The certificate is designed to serve as a valuable sub-specialization for students in Agriculture or Sustainability majors and as an additional area of focus for students in other Major programs. Students will gain an appreciation of varied perspectives and frameworks through which we can understand the intersections of food, agriculture, and sustainability. Through this Certificate, students will explore the complexity of assessing the sustainability of food systems, including how food and agricultural systems intersect with and impact environmental, social, and economic sustainability.
The Certificate is offered jointly by the College of Sustainability (based on the Halifax Campus ) and the Faculty of Agriculture (based on the Truro Campus). The core and elective courses include courses from both campuses. The Certificate can be completed by students based in Halifax or Truro, without requiring travel between campuses.
Students in the certificate must complete two required courses (6 credit hours): AGRI 4001.03 Agriculture, Food and Well-Being (Online) and SUST 3101.03 Food Systems & Sustainability: Feeding the Ten Billion (Halifax or Online). Students must also complete 9 credit hours from a list of electives that includes courses offered by many departments from both the Halifax and Truro campuses. The cumulative GPA in Certificate courses must be 3.0 (B) or better, with no individual course grade less than C.
The courses are labeled as online or by campus for in-person courses to that students can plan their courses choices with knowledge of where an in-person course would be taught.
Certificate Requirements
Certificate Grade Requirements
The cumulative GPA in Certificate courses must be 3.0 (B) or better, with no individual Certificate course grade less than C.
Certificate Course Requirements
Total 15 credit hours including:
- 6 credit hours fulfilled by two required ("core") courses
- 9 credit hours from elective course list
A. Certificate Core Courses (6 credit hours)
- AGRI 4001.03Agriculture, Food and Well-Being (Online)
- SUST 3101.03 Food Systems & Sustainability: Feeding the Ten Billion (Online or Halifax in-person)
B. Certificate Elective Courses (9 credit hours)
Students must complete 9 credit hours (3 courses) chosen from:
- ENVA 2003.03 Introduction to Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (Online)
- ENVA 4006.03 Air, Climate and Climate Change (Online)
- AGRI 3302.03 / SUST 3302.03 Measuring Food Sustainability (In-person Field Course based from Truro and Halifax)
- AGRI 1000.03 Agriculture Ecosystems (Truro in-person)
- MGTA 4006.03 Issues in Agribusiness Sustainability (Truro in-person)
- POLS 2000.03 Global Politics of Agriculture and Conservation (Truro in-person)
- SOCI 2000.03 Sociology of Food and Agriculture (Truro in-person)
- SOIL 2000.03 Introduction to Soil Science (Online or Truro in-person)
- BIOL 3634.03 Agroforestry (In-person Field Course based from Halifax)
- ECON 1214.03 Economics of Food and Food Systems (Halifax in-person)
- ENVS 3226.03 / BIOL 3226.03 Economic Botany, Plants and Civilization (Halifax in-person)
- INTD 3114.03 Agricultural Development (How not to feed the world) (Halifax in-person)
- SOSA 2403.03 Food Activism (Halifax in-person)
Courses that are cross-listed with Certificate courses are equivalent and may be taken for the Certificate.
Certificate Learning Outcomes
A student who completes the Certificate in Food, Agriculture, and Sustainability will be able to:
- Describe how food and agricultural systems intersect with and impact human well-being
- Detail the biophysical sustainability impacts associated with agriculture and food systems, and how these change over time
- Detail the social and cultural dimensions of food production and consumption, and how these change over time
- Analyze the impacts of population growth, increasing prosperity, globalization, and/or internationalization on food systems
- Describe the impacts of environmental change on food systems, including biophysical and/or social outcomes
- Distinguish between popular and research-supported food and agriculture sustainability claims
- Develop the capacity to evaluate current and future food systems
Contact:
Certificate Coordinators: