Instructor Materials: Overview of the Future of Food Course

Capstone Overview

The capstone project requires that students assess the current status of the food systems in an assigned region, and to consider the food systems in the assigned region for the future scenarios of human population growth and increased temperatures. At the beginning of the semester, students are assigned to a food region. Throughout the semester, students study different aspects of the food systems of their assigned region. Students develop their assessment of the current status of the regional food system gradually as they progress through the course material. At the end of every third module (denoted by the Stages of the capstone project), students complete an assignment designed to help them gather and organize the information they need to assess the future food scenarios. By the end of the semester students prepare a website about their assigned food region that explores and analyzes the current status and the future resilience and sustainability of the food systems in their assigned region.

The Capstone Assignment

The capstone assignment is broken down into five stages that allow students to develop their assessment of the current status of the regional food system gradually as they progress through the course material. At the end of every third module, students complete an assignment (or stage) designed to help them gather and organize the information they will need to assess the future food scenarios. Each stage has an associated worksheet, which includes a table containing questions and suggestions for where students can gather information or data.

Stages 1 through 4 require students to gather data and information about their assigned region, and stage 5 is the final information synthesis and website production stage. Stages 1 through 4 rely upon concepts and resource presented in Modules 1 through 11 of the course material. The final website (Stage 5) is assessed on coverage of the following:

1. Assessment of Current Status of the Regional Food System (Stages 1, 2 and 3) - Summary of the data and information gathered throughout the semester about the assigned regional food system(s) and the interaction between those food systems and the environment, as well as any relevant socio-economic, cultural and policy factors. Provide an overview of the current status of the assigned regional food system(s). Summarize the data and information that you acquired in the previous modules to present the current status of your regional food system. Summaries should include:

• Influence of the environment on the food system, including the land, soil, water, climate, crops. (Learning goal 1 – Modules 4, 5, 6, 9)
• Cultural or socio-economic factors that are important to the regional food system (Modules 1 and 2)
• Impact of the food system on the environment (Learning goal 2 – Module 4, 5, 8, 9) - Water pollution, soil impacts, monoculture, pesticides, etc. and transportation (energy & GCC)
• Vulnerabilities of current food system and the attributes of the current food system that contribute to its resilience (Learning Goal 3) - Socio-economic, cultural, and policy factors

2. Discussion of future scenarios (Stage 3) - Identify the future stressors to your region: increased temperature (Module 9) and human population growth

3. Analysis of the resilience of future food system (Stage 4) - Provide a discussion of the resilience of their assigned food system given the potential of increased human population growth and increasing temperatures. Identify the vulnerabilities of current food system and the attributes of the current food system that contribute to its resilience (Learning Goal 3 - Modules 10, 11)

4. Proposed strategies for enhanced resilience (Stage 4)- Propose strategies that contribute to increased resilience of their assigned regional food systems in the face of human population growth and rising temperatures and evaporation rates (Learning Goal 3 - Modules 10, 11).