Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Nutritional Sciences and Environmental Management

Course Description

Food Systems as a whole are the basis of our society, economy and interaction with the environment. Achieving sustainability within food systems is therefore a main objective. Food systems and their components will be discussed especially under the viewpoint of sustainability. Collaborative working and participation in discussions will be substantial part of the course.
Participants will enhance their systemic thinking respectively on their personal and general food systems and analyse critically the structure of food systems and sustainability in food systems. They will get to know interaction within systemic components and evaluate them critically.

Faculty

Agricultural Sciences, Nutritional Sciences and Environmental Management

Institute

Organic Farming with focus on sustainable soil use

Lecturer

Dr. Wiebke Niether, Prof. Dr. Andreas Gattinger

Study Period (dd/mm/yy)

13/04/2023 - 14/07/2023

Mode and Time

Synchronous (live), time (CET) 8:00-12:00

Online Tool for Teaching

BBB

Language of Instruction

English

Target Group

Master

Prerequisites

English C1

ECTS

6

Course Description

Our modern technology- and services-based economy crucially depends on natural resources. Thus, many current policies deal with the overexploitation of natural resources. In the modern economy, the electricity (power) sector plays a central role. On the one hand, it exploits renewable resources (wind, solar power etc.) and non-renewable resources (fossil fuels), on the other hand, it contributes to climate change by exploiting the atmosphere as a non-renewable resource (greenhouse gas dump). Against this backdrop, this course explains basic methods and advanced models and provides a deeper understanding of the underlying economic mechanisms referring to current policy challenges.

Faculty

Agricultural Sciences, Nutritional Sciences and Environmental Management

Institute

Department of Agricultural Policy and Market Research

Lecturer

Michael Hübler

Study Period (dd/mm/yy)

13/04/2023 - 14/07/2023

Mode and Time

Asynchronous (recorded)

Online Tool for Teaching

StudIP

Language of Instruction

English

Target Group

Master

Prerequisites

Basics in micro (and macro) economics are helpful

ECTS

-

Course Description

In this module, you will learn what ecosystem services are, which services are provided by specific ecosystems, how land use change and climate change play a role in ecosystem services provisioning and how ecosystem services can be measured. In parallel, you will learn how to use the software InVEST to estimate certain ecosystem services and evaluate the effect of land use change using scenarios. The module content is divided into twelve lectures, each with a corresponding tutorial, in which you will: • Learn about the concept of supporting, regulating, provisioning and cultural ecosystem services, as well as related frameworks • Identify multiple ecosystem services provided by different ecosystems, including the effect of climate change and human interventions on the provisioning of ecosystem services • Be introduced to basic processing and analysis of spatial data using QGIS software • Learn how to use and analyse spatial datasets to quantify ecosystem services using InVEST by applying the knowledge from the lectures to a case study in hands-on tutorials • Evaluate and use results in the frame of a decision support analysis In most of the tutorials we will be using the software InVEST to estimate ecosystem services. In the first two tutorials, you will be introduced to the QGIS, which we will use to prepare input data for InVEST, and to make maps and analyse the spatial data provided as output by InVEST. The basics of GIS will be repeated during the first two tutorials, in case you do not have prior experience. You are expected to install the most recent version of the open source software QGIS and InVEST on your personal computer.

Faculty

Agricultural Sciences, Nutritional Sciences and Environmental Management

Institute

Department of Agricultural Policy and Market Research

Lecturer

Dr. Suzanne Jacobs

Study Period (dd/mm/yy)

11/04/2023 - 14/07/2023

Mode and Time

Asynchronous (recorded): Session available from 11/04/2023

Online Tool for Teaching

ILIAS

Language of Instruction

English

Target Group

Master

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of environmental processes and GIS recommended

ECTS

5

Course Description

This module introduces you to food as a political issue such as hunger, food security, malnutrition, sustainability, power politics, social justice or cultural identity. Food politics is about the political nature of food from fork to farm as well as from local to global levels.
Topics might include:
 food production safety, labelling, and nutrition;
 environmental concerns ranging from organic farming and sustainable agriculture to consumption and waste disposal;
 politics of specific foods and foodways (e.g. fast food, genetically modified foods, etc.)
 ethics of animal care and vegetarianism as politics of the everyday
 politics of hunger and malnutrition
 food movements (e.g. slow food movement, food sovereignty movement) and other stakeholders.

Faculty

Agricultural Sciences, Nutritional Sciences and Environmental Management

Institute

Department of Agricultural Policy and Market Research

Lecturer

Prof. Dr. Stefan Wahlen

Study Period (dd/mm/yy)

13/04/2023 - 14/07/2023

Mode and Time

Synchronous. tba

Asynchronous

Online Tool for Teaching

-

Language of Instruction

English

Target Group

Master

Prerequisites

-

ECTS