University Resources: Food Systems

By Linda from Chicago, USA; (New crops) via Wikimedia Commons

For students with professional/research interests complimentary but not specifically listed in department concentrations, Cornell offers a wide array of options, often overlooked by current and potential students in City and Regional Planning. One particularly relevant field for modern practice is Food Systems planning. While the department has offered classes in the past, the greater university has traditional strengths in agriculture and life science—having one of the largest and most highly regarded programs in the U.S.

“There are fantastic resources at Cornell, but there are so many choices that the options can seem daunting at first,” said Becca Jablonski, a PhD Candidate in the CRP department and a Predoctoral Fellow with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. A strong proponent of food systems planning research, her research focuses on assessing short and long-run impacts of alternative local and regional food systems to participating farmers (with an emphasis on small and medium-scale), supply chain participants, and rural economies.

“[W]hat separates Cornell from the other more “sustainable ag” or “food system” type programs…[is] in my opinion, the strengths of the University in agriculture offer different and more [broad] opportunities to students than more narrowly focused programs. Students have the opportunity to gain skills unavailable at other schools that do not have such a robust agricultural college,” Jablonski emphasizes.

In addition to formal resources, Cornell houses a variety of informal resources for food systems enthusiasts. For example, in the past month, events have included a free public film screening of “Symphony of the Soil” and the showing of acclaimed documentary “The Garden“—next week the Ezra’s Round Table Seminar is
entitled,”Progression to Multi-Scale Models and the Application to Food System Intervention Strategies.”

Support for Food Systems research continues within the CRP department as well. As part of the department colloquium last Fall, Ken Meter, one of the most experienced food systems analysts in the U.S. delivered a colloquium presentation entitled Food Systems: Planning for Emergence. Also in the past, Professor Mildred Warner, of the CRP Department has taught a popular course on Food Systems Planning (syllabus available here).

Thanks to the work of Jablonski and Warner, the below list is a primer to classes and resources available in different colleges and departments across Cornell. This list is also available via the Cornell OCP website.