ENV 965a () / 2024-2025

Regenerative Agriculture & Just Food Systems Lab

Credits: 3 Fall 2024: W, 1:00-3:50, bowers

The application for ENV 965 Regenerative Agriculture & Just Food Systems Lab capstone course is now open. 
 
Application Link: https://forms.gle/3ZaZtmRovxZcVGC96

Course description: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mSIoI4VHpRlX_m-_LHYINOLEdIRxBMD509D0oq1Rg10/edit 
The course is at the Yale School of the Environment and open to all graduate students with some preference given to MEM degree students for their second-year capstone requirement. Priority application deadline is midnight Thursday August 22nd, with acceptance notification by end of day Friday August 23rd. Applications received after the priority deadline will be considered if there are open slots in the class. 
 
The Regenerative Agriculture & Just Food Systems Lab capstone is a project-based clinic course for students to work with external businesses and organizations to support a just and thriving agricultural community and food system for people and the planet. The Lab hosts four semester-long projects centered on regenerative and just solutions in agriculture and the food system locally, nationally, and globally. The Lab engages with deeply challenging questions facing agricultural communities and producer-consumer networks today, encouraged by the prospect that regenerative approaches may hold the promise of repairing long-standing patterns of social, economic, and ecological exploitation and have a positive impact on the climate crisis. The Lab explores and supports work in regenerative agriculture and just food systems such as (a) community and smallholder farmer-centered approaches that are climate resilient and employ just practices for workers and people, (b) operational or business planning for land-based agriculture, agroforestry, and/or ocean farming, (c) equitable and resilient business models, and (d) reparative finance and investing practices.
Our clients for the fall semester are:

• Black Farmer Fund: Due Diligence in a Reparative Investing Model
• SEAmarron Farmstead: Hemp Farm Production Development for Fiber and Building Materials
• Good Food Purchasing Program & HEAL Food Alliance:  National Food Procurement Policy
• Sacred Seasonal & Farm based in Mexico of Guatemala (TBD): Coffee Cherry Pulp and Circular Economy Opportunities in Latin America

 
Please apply if you are interested and share this widely with others. Feel free to contact tagan.engel@yale.edu if you have any questions.