Editor’s observe: That is a part of a collection on closing the sustainability abilities hole with the sources we’ve got accessible proper now. Learn the earlier articles on this collection, which cowl coaching on local weather literacy, scaling company local weather literacy, sustainability technique, local weather and net-zero technique and measuring and managing GHG emissions.
Regenerative agriculture, holistic administration and different nature-based options have turn into vital elements of sustainability technique for organizations with agricultural inputs. Walmart and PepsiCo lately introduced their collaboration supporting the adoption of regenerative agricultural practices throughout 2 million acres of farmland in North America. World agricultural provide chain chief ADM expects to cowl 2 million acres within the re:generations regenerative agriculture program by the tip of 2023 and is on observe to satisfy its purpose of protecting 4 million acres throughout the globe by 2025.
These investments, and lots of others like them, are serving to producers to earn extra revenue whereas decreasing greenhouse fuel emissions, bettering water high quality and soil well being and enhancing biodiversity by practices like the usage of cowl crops, built-in livestock and lowered tillage.
Beneath are 14 coaching choices that may assist you to to be taught extra about sustainable farming practices. The primary part focuses on the farm degree and is ideal for professionals who work on-farm or interact with suppliers who do. The trainings within the second part zoom out to cowl agricultural provide chain administration. The third part highlights trainings that supply an in-person part, which provides you the possibility to roll up your sleeves and develop a private reference to the land and these practices.
Should you’re excited to study making world meals techniques extra sustainable, simply, nourishing and resilient, be sure you attend the Meals Program at GreenBiz’s VERGE 23 occasion Oct. 24-26 in San Jose, California. It’s a three-day expertise that can can help you uncover essentially the most impactful methods, applied sciences and merchandise enabling meals techniques transformation and join with the leaders bringing them to life.
Particular due to Anne Garsztka, a graduate pupil in company sustainability and sustainable meals techniques on the Harvard Extension Faculty, who helped analysis this text.
As is usually the case with most of these lists, I’m positive I’ve missed some. In case your favourite providing isn’t listed right here, I warmly invite you to be a part of the dialog on LinkedIn to inform me and your fellow readers about it. Thanks upfront to your assist with bringing these sources out into the open in order that extra individuals can get to work on advancing sustainable enterprise practices.
Regenerative agriculture and holistic administration
The first focus of those programs is what could be accomplished on the farm degree and covers subjects equivalent to regenerative agriculture, soil well being, soil carbon, holistic administration, grassland restoration and different sustainable farming practices. Should you work on-farm or interact with suppliers who do, these programs are an ideal place to begin.
The Regenerative Agriculture Revolution from EIT Meals on FutureLearn
This course will clarify the important thing ideas of regenerative agriculture, the advantages of various farming strategies and the way the regenerative mannequin may also help to scale back the environmental impression of farming practices. Learners can be guided by the event of a regenerative motion plan for a hypothetical farm. That is half of a big assortment of programs on meals system innovation from EIT Meals.
- Value: $99, or included with paid subscription to FutureLearn
- Subsequent begin date: Out there on-demand
- Time to finish: 2 weeks, 3 hours per week
- Coaching format: Movies, articles and improvement of an motion plan
- Key subjects lined: Why shift to regenerative agriculture; the connection between soil, plant and local weather; animals as key-player within the agroecosystem; the usage of pure sources on farms; how provide chains are transitioning to regenerative agriculture and supporting coverage
Soil Advocate Coaching from Kiss the Floor
This course empowers learners with the data and confidence to successfully advocate for soil well being and regenerative agricultural practices when talking to various stakeholder teams together with companies, policymakers and farmers. This course is a part of a set of coaching on regenerative agriculture from Kiss the Floor, which incorporates customizable team-based coaching for companies.
- Value: $180
- Subsequent begin date: Out there on-demand
- Time to finish: Unspecified
- Coaching format: E-learning, studying
- Key subjects lined: How rebuilding soil is the answer; understanding regeneration; regenerative vs. degenerative; soil well being, human well being; replenishing recent water sources; making the case
Soil Well being and Regenerative Farming from Terra.do
This course introduces the 5 ideas of soil well being with illustrative, progressive examples of how farmers apply these ideas and are incentivized and rewarded for his or her efforts. There may be additionally a dialogue of how soil carbon shares can be utilized to have interaction in carbon markets and carbon offsets. Learners will stroll away with a deep understanding of soil well being precept functions and the complexities of scaling regenerative agriculture practices.
- Value: $199
- Subsequent begin date: Nov. 6
- Time to finish: 2 weeks, 4 hours per week
- Coaching format: Stay on-line courses
- Key subjects lined: Rules of soil well being; how soil well being interprets to regenerative agriculture; understanding and measuring soil carbon; supporting the transition to soil well being and regenerative agriculture throughout the meals provide chain
Foundations of Holistic Administration from the Savory Institute
Holistic Administration practices restore grasslands used for livestock grazing. Wholesome grasslands result in carbon sequestration, drought resilience, meals safety and financially viable communities. This course gives firms, governments and people with the insights and administration instruments wanted to work with the net of complexity that exists in nature; leading to higher, extra knowledgeable selections that steadiness social, environmental and monetary concerns.
- Value: $399 for the five-course bundle, $99/every for particular person programs
- Subsequent begin date: Out there on-demand
- Time to finish: 25 hours
- Coaching format: Movies, subject manuals and coach assist
- Key subjects lined: Managing ecosystem processes; holistic land planning, deliberate grazing, monetary planning and ecological monitoring; water, mineral and vitality cycles; group dynamics; instruments for managing ecosystem processes; decision-making frameworks; creating efficient administration suggestions loops
Meals and Local weather Shaper Boot Camp from the Future Meals Institute
This expertise contains 4 regeneration tracks together with regenerative farms, regenerative cities, regenerative oceans and gastrodiplomacy. The digital boot camp is accessible on-line, however there are additionally boot camps at inspiring places equivalent to Pollica, Italy, and Tokyo.
- Value: $2,000
- Subsequent begin date: Coming quickly; apply now to be thought-about for the subsequent cohort
- Time to finish: Roughly 80 hours throughout 4 weeks
- Coaching format: Digital self-paced e-learning, dwell conversations with specialists, mentoring classes, group work, design challenges and a hackathon
- Key subjects lined: Regenerative agriculture and restoration practices; farming improvements and know-how; farming practices for biodiversity; the intersection of farms, local weather change and meals insecurity; mitigation and adaptation; agroforestry; Indigenous and conventional practices
Sustainable provide chain administration
These trainings focus extra broadly on sustainability in agricultural provide chains. Subjects lined in these programs embrace provide chain mapping, evaluation and efficiency measurement, procurement insurance policies and influencing change inside your worth chain. A number of of those packages run in the course of the rising season and have concluded for 2023; be sure you verify their web sites usually for brand spanking new program date bulletins.
Sustainable Agri-food Provide Chain Administration from Doane College on edX
This course was developed to show sustainable agri-food provide chain managers in regards to the financial, social and environmental sustainability concerns for agri-food provide chains, in addition to how you can measure, benchmark and report on the environmental sustainability efficiency of provide chains. This course could be taken individually or as a part of a MicroMasters in Sustainable Agribusiness from Doane College.
- Value: Free
- Subsequent begin date: Out there on-demand
- Time to finish: 8 weeks, about 10 to fifteen hours per week
- Coaching format: E-learning
- Key subjects lined: Sustainable agri-food provide chain administration ideas; measuring the environmental sustainability efficiency of provide chains; the significance of ethics and transparency in provide chain administration
Regenerative Agriculture and Provide Chains: Get Began from FAI.ACADEMY
This course is designed to assist meals provide chain professionals higher perceive the challenges and alternatives of shifting towards provide networks that actively regenerate our planet and the way they’ll successfully affect and drive this transformation. This course is obtainable in three codecs: a free trial course, a self-paced on-line course and a tailor-made personal course for company groups with dwell webinar assist. That is certainly one of many choices from FAI.ACADEMY, a multidisciplinary coaching hub for individuals working for a greater meals system.
- Value and entry:
- Subsequent begin date: The trial and self-paced programs can be found on-demand; the personal course is accessible upon request
- Time to finish: The trial course is 1 hour, the self-paced course is 10 hours, and the personal course contains extra dwell interplay
- Coaching format: E-learning, dwell on-line classes, elective go to to a regenerative beef farm
- Key subjects lined: Regenerative agriculture definition; how regenerative agriculture works with nature’s ecosystems; case research in regenerative practices; how you can transition provide chains and design regenerative practices into your provide chain
Constructing Moral + Environmentally Accountable Meals Provide Chains from the Meals Enterprise Faculty on the Culinary Institute of America
This course will educate learners how you can map out and analyze meals provide chains, develop procurement insurance policies and ingredient specs that assist sustainable meals techniques and leverage state-of-the-art procurement techniques for sustainability efficiency. Learners may even develop customized provide chain roadmaps to information future decision-making. That is certainly one of a number of programs accessible from the Meals Enterprise Faculty on the intersection of meals, sustainability and enterprise.
- Value: $149
- Most up-to-date begin date: Oct. 9 (registration remains to be open)
- Time to finish: 5 weeks
- Coaching format: E-learning
- Key subjects lined: Moral questions in provide chains; design and administration of sustainable, strategic provide chains; how reshaping present provide chains can obtain new targets and outputs; strategies of accountable sourcing; procurement pathways for driving change
The Worldwide Government Programme on Sustainable Sourcing & Commerce from the Worldwide Commerce Centre, in partnership with SAI Platform and the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Management
This course presents leaders in sustainability, procurement, technique and model advertising and marketing a set of instruments for figuring out sustainability dangers and alternatives inside world worth chains and integrating sustainability with company agendas. Digital and in-person networking alternatives are an integral a part of the expertise.
- Value: $700, extra for collaborating within the in-person expertise in Portugal
- Subsequent begin date: Coming quickly; go to the web site to register curiosity
- Time to finish: 6 weeks, about 2 to 4 hours per week
- Coaching format: Stay on-line courses and peer conferences, elective in-person expertise
- Key subjects lined: Megatrends impacting world provide chains; carbon impartial and climate-resilient agri-food techniques; instruments to enhance sustainable administration of agriculture provide chains; sustainability management; regenerative agriculture from principle to follow
Mini-MBA in Sustainable Meals Provide Chains from the Institute of Meals and Agribusiness Management
This program teaches college students how you can develop enterprise fashions and provide chains which might be good for enterprise and good for the planet. There are not any admissions necessities; members simply want to finish prerequisite programs in meals and agricultural enterprise fashions as a way to entry the mini-MBA coaching content material.
- Value: $799
- Subsequent begin date: Out there on-demand after finishing conditions
- Time to finish: 6 months, about 3 to 4 hours per week
- Coaching format: E-learning, dwell on-line classes
- Key subjects lined: Disruptive meals worth chains; AgriFood Tech’s worth to the meals worth chain; meals sustainability and sustainable improvement; meals distribution and retail improvement; sustainable sourcing and logistics; sustainable finance in agriculture
Meals Methods and World Provide Chains from the Harvard Extension Faculty
This course investigates how meals passes from manufacturing to distribution and consumption and what the sustainability ramifications are, particularly on air, water, soil, vitality, mining and human well being. It is a research-based course the place members select associated meals eventualities and quantify their impression on greenhouse gases and local weather change; vitality use; air, water and soil degradation; and stable waste disposal. This course could be taken individually or as a part of a Sustainable Meals Methods Graduate Certificates or Sustainability Grasp’s Diploma.
- Value: $1,500
- Subsequent begin date: Jan. 22
- Time to finish: 15 weeks, about 2 hours per week
- Coaching format: Stay on-line courses with the choice to attend asynchronously; assignments
- Key subjects lined: Agricultural economics; agricultural kinds and practices; soil sources and issues; meals manufacturing’s impression on air, soil and water; supply-chain administration; quantifying the economics and sustainability of widespread meals gadgets
Sustainable Meals Manufacturing and Processing from the College of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Management on GetSmarter
This course is designed to profit people working at each stage of world or native meals techniques — from the provider to the patron. Learners will acquire an understanding of the trendy meals system and uncover new enterprise fashions, applied sciences and processes for embedding sustainability into meals provide chains. Learners may even construct sensible methods for main this transformation in their very own organizations.
- Value: $2,767
- Subsequent begin date: March 13
- Time to finish: 8 weeks, about 7 to 10 hours per week
- Coaching format: E-learning, assignments
- Key subjects lined: Fashionable meals safety challenges; new enterprise fashions and approaches for sustainable meals; embedding sustainability into meals provide chains; improvements in sustainable meals manufacturing and processing; main transformational change in your context
Get your fingers soiled
Who doesn’t love a very good farm keep? These choices provide the probability to roll up your sleeves and develop a private reference to the sustainable and regenerative practices you’ll be studying about. These real-world experiences offer you a perspective that’s troublesome to acquire from on-line content material.
Rodale Institute’s Farmer Coaching Faculty
Rodale Institute is extensively thought-about the worldwide chief in natural agriculture, rising the regenerative natural motion by analysis, coaching and client schooling. The Farmer Coaching curriculum is certainly one of many academic experiences accessible by Rodale Institute and is designed to allow people with little-to-no farming expertise to turn into totally succesful farmers or farm managers.
- Value: College students obtain a weekly stipend
- Subsequent begin date: March 4
- Time to finish: 9 months
- Coaching format: Farm keep, in-person courses
- Key subjects lined: Regenerative natural farming science; agricultural budgeting; advertising and marketing; agricultural product finance
Local weather Farm Faculty from Terra.do
It is a hybrid four-week program combining on-line classes with getting your fingers soiled on a working farm. Tech, enterprise and sustainability professionals, entrepreneurs, farmers and others obsessed with meals and local weather are invited to be taught in regards to the local weather impression of meals techniques and the options inside them.
- Value: $2,200 to $3,600, relying on which farm you go to
- Subsequent begin date: March 25
- Time to finish: 4 weeks
- Coaching format: 7-day farm keep, dwell on-line courses, on-demand movies, studying
- Key subjects lined: Regenerative agriculture ideas; crop administration; forestry and fireplace mitigation work; soil well being; constructing soil carbon; farm enterprise fashions; water administration; meals justice; meals
In-person add-on experiences
A number of of the packages listed above can be found as on-line coaching but in addition provide elective in-person experiences:
- The Meals & Local weather Shaper Boot Camps from the Future Meals Institute provide experiences in Pollica, Italy, and Tokyo
- The Worldwide Government Programme on Sustainable Sourcing & Commerce from the Worldwide Commerce Centre presents a regenerative agriculture-focused expertise in Portugal
- Regenerative Agriculture and Provide Chains: Get Began from FAI.ACADEMY presents a go to to a regenerative beef farm within the U.Ok.
Be a part of the dialog
I hope this text has helped you discover at the very least one nice new useful resource that will help you incorporate regenerative practices into your work. Be sure you hold an eye fixed out for future articles on this collection and bear in mind, if I’ve missed certainly one of your favorites or if you wish to inform me a few useful resource that may very well be related to a future article, please be a part of the dialog on LinkedIn. Till subsequent time!