Sustainable Agriculture Education and Civic Engagement: The Significance of Community-University Partnerships in the New Agricultural Paradigm

Abstract

Universities and colleges across the United States are making innovative strides in higher education programming to catalyze a more sustainable era of agriculture. This is clearly exemplified through the formation of community-university partnerships as critical illustrations of civic engagement (CE) for sustainable agriculture (SA) education. This paper explores the praxis of CE for SA education by focusing on the ways in which five land-grant universities (LGUs) with undergraduate programs in SA have developed and put into practice community-university partnerships. Drawing upon these programs and supportive literature, this article specifically attempts to describe the role and significance of CE for SA education, emerging community-university partnership models and their implications for prompting food and agriculture sustainability, and student learning and program assessment outcomes. We also reveal the many challenges and opportunities encountered by stakeholders involved in the creation and continua, *

Building student capacity to lead sustainability transitions in the food system through farm-based authentic research modules in sustainability sciences (FARMS)

“…Grossman et al (2010) introduce service learning as "the act of linking students to community partners to address public needs while developing disciplinary competency..." as a proven way to engage students in real-world learning. Drawing from the land grant mission of incorporating research, education, and extension into the work one does (Jacobsen et al, 2012;Niewolny et al, 2012;Schroeder et al, 2006;Trexler et al, 2006), multiple sustainable food system programs and courses emphasize learning through community service and civic engagement (Jordan et al, 2005;Grossman et al, 2010;Niewolny et al, 2012;Reeve et al, 2014). Examples of service learning projects in sustainable food systems curricula include engagement with community gardens, food pantries, and non-profit organizations.…”

Planning for Food Systems: Community-University Partnerships for Food-Systems Transformation

“…Such partnerships also afford professional development, especially for organizations and individuals from smaller communities. Nonetheless, engaging with universities can be burdensome, and community partners have been exploited in such partnerships (Niewolny et al, 2012). Furthermore, as noted above, community organizations typically do not have a funded mandate to engage in long-term food-policy work.…”

“…To make the most of such a partnership and achieve transformational change, community partners' short-term and long-term missions (e.g., fighting food insecurity) must align with the university partners' policy/planning goals (e.g., policy change for food insecurity) (Kecskes & Foster, 2013). Additionally, community organizations are a source of local knowledge (Scott, 1998) yet are rarely recognized for their expertise (Niewolny, et al, 2012). To address this problem, the UB Food Lab invites community partners to be co-authors of published works, whenever possible.…”

Sustainable Agriculture Undergraduate Degree Programs: A Land-Grant University Mission

“…As we discuss in an article in this issue on civic engagement (Niewolny, Grossman, Byker, Helms, Clark, Cotton, & Jacobsen, 2012), partnerships with local organizations, farmers and other stakeholders greatly enrich SA curricula, as community partners perform as educators and mentors in student development. In the SA programs reviewed in this work, community advisory panels have been integral to the creation of some SA programs.…”