Civic Agriculture and Food Systems Minor at Virginia Tech

Our Concepts in Community Food Systems class did an excellent job today! They presented their final podcast project episodes for the Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation as well as their visual lexicon projects, and wowed everyone in the room. We couldn’t ask for better students.

Thank you to Dr. Vivica Kraak for speaking to our Civic Agriculture and Food Systems Minor students about the U.S. Farm Bill and food and agricultural policy. We appreciate guest speakers and the lively discussions that ensue. Dr. Kraak is associate professor of food and nutrition policy in the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise. She has more than 30 years of professional experience to evaluate strategies and policies to hold food system stakeholders accountable for creating healthy and sustainable diets and food systems for populations. Her research strives to improve the policies of government, industry and civil society to address the Global Syndemic—undernutrition, obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases, and climate change. She teaches courses on U.S. food and nutrition policies and programs and active transport for a healthy and sustainable planet.

CAFS minor students are back from spring break, and are learning about networks, enjoying festive snacks, and working on recording and editing skills for their podcast project in partnership with the Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation. We’re feeling pretty lucky to have such wonderful students in our program. ☘️

We are grateful for Eliza Taylor coming to speak to our students about tools for collective land ownership and stewardship, including her work at Agrarian Trust. Eliza Taylor is the Agrarian Commons Regional Coordinator for Agrarian Trust.

Eliza’s work with Agrarian Trust supports land-based livelihoods, healthy farms, de-commodifying land, and legal tools for equitable land access and shared stewardship. Eliza lives in southwest Virginia where she co-operates a diversified farm in the Sinking Creek Valley, called Singing Spring Farm. She raises food, fiber, and medicine, and specializes in raw milk goat cheeses. As a farmer, acupuncturist, and Agrarian Trust team member, her life centers on nurturing and healing with the land and human communities that depend on it. This process of healing requires deep transformation of the soil, our bodies, and our communities, especially racialized harms and capitalism.

Thank you to Dr. Eric Bendfeldt for speaking to our Concepts in Community Food Systems class on topics around economic impacts of local food systems, local food systems markets and supply chains, and his work with Extension and communities.
4 the Soil Virginia Cooperative Extension

CAFS minor students met with guest speaker Brent Wills of Bramble Hollow Farm last week to hear about his farming philosophy, regional food systems, his passion for soil, and his work with the VABF Virginia Association for Biological Farming. Thanks for visiting us on campus and answering our many questions, Brent!

Dr. Pete Ziegler and Kasey Owen presented on experiential learning and a 12 year reflection on the Civic Agriculture and Food Systems Minor at Virginia Tech at the Conference on Higher Education and Pedagogy this week. This included reflections from former and current students, faculty, and community partners.

We love having community partners in the classroom! Today, Laina Schneider from Live Work Eat Grow discussed her work with CAFS minor students and led an engaging discussion around food and storytelling. Live Work Eat Grow Millstone Kitchen

CAFS minor student Em Shawish stands in the center of a string web on the floor of the classroom while enjoying a snack during break time. This string web was part of an interactive class activity used to facilitate systems thinking. Students learned to think about addressing wicked problems such as food insecurity through a systems thinking lens in class this week. 🕸️

“The world is a complex, interconnected, finite, ecological-social-psychological-economic system. We treat it as if it were not, as if it were divisible, separable, simple, and infinite. Our persistent, intractable global problems arise directly from this mismatch.” -Donella Meadows

CAFS minor students are getting back into the swing of the spring semester. For the first week of Concepts in Community Food Systems class, students met with associates from the Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation to discuss a collaborative podcast project. Stay tuned for more details on this work!