ENV 965a () / 2025-2026

Regenerative Agriculture & Just Food Systems Lab

Credits: 3 Fall 2025: W, 1:00-3:50, Sage 24

By Application only
 
Please add: 
To enroll in this class, please review the project descriptions in the syllabus and submit an application by Thursday August 21, 11:59pm at this link:
https://forms.gle/JJmCC3mkYRADFDqDA
 

Fall 2025 Team Projects:
·       Achieving Net-Zero Coffee Through Soil Strategies & Sustaining Smallholder Farmers w/ Biofilia Mexico and ClimateB2C
·       Advancing Crop Production & Cooperative Governance for a CT Black and Brown Farmer Cooperative w/ Liberated Land Cooperative
·       Decoding Regenerative Agriculture Certifications for Retail Supply Chains w/ A Fortune 500 Grocery Retailer (name is private)
·       Increasing Impact of Oyster Shell Recycling & Habitat Restoration in Long Island Sound w/ Collective Oyster Recycling & Restoration

Course description: 
 
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