Systems Thinking for the Future of Agriculture

The necessity and urgency of halting and reversing the loss of biodiversity has been repeatedly called for by international organizations such as the UN, FAO, IPBES, EU, national governments and NGOs. More specifically, official strategies and reports such as the UN’s Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005), the UN’ s Agenda 2030 (2015), the IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (2019), the FAO’s Strategy on Mainstreaming Biodiversity across Agricultural Sectors (2020), the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy (2020), and the UN’s Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (2022), are defining goals, targets and actions in order to reverse the loss of biodiversity.

However, when it comes to implementing these strategies and action plans on the ground, there is the need to understand what the problems and opportunities of nature restoration at the local level are. This is particularly true for food systems in densely populated Europe, where almost no pristine natural area exists below 2000 meters of altitude. Instead of addressing the lessening/mitigating of food systems’ impacts on the environment to halt the loss of biodiversity, this program is adopting a change of perspective by focusing on the understanding, analysis, and assessment of making “nature’s return” sustainable for food systems. By looking at what is happening in Tuscany, students will explore the ecological, economic, and sociocultural complexities of sustainably managing natural restoration in ecosystems historically used by food systems

This interdisciplinary course explores the complex dynamics of how traditional agriculture can teach us to rethink the future of food production and agri-environmental policies. The historical background of Tuscany, with its hilly landscape, and a millennial practice of farming, from the Apennine Mountain range, Chianti hilly landscape and Maremma flat coastal areas, the students will learn how to read the landscape with a historical perspective.

The connection between traditional and contemporary agriculture and its policies will be defined using a systems thinking approach to learning, research and group work. The future of a different vision of food production is based on the application of systems thinking.

Syllabus coming soon!