A food system encompasses the activities, people and resources involved in getting food from field to plate. Along the way, it intersects with aspects of public health, equity and the environment. In this course, we will provide a brief introduction to the U.S. food system and how food production practices and what we choose to eat impacts the world in which we live. We will discuss some key historical and political factors that have helped shape the current food system and consider alternative approaches from farm to fork. The course will be led by a team of faculty and staff from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. Guest lecturers will include experts from a variety of disciplines, including public health, policy and agriculture.

Meeting rising global demand for food and responding to changes such as climate change, globalization, and urbanization will thus require good policy, sustained investments, and innovation – not business as usual. Agricultural innovation enables the agriculture sector, farmers and rural entrepreneurs to adapt rapidly when challenges occur and to respond readily when new opportunities arise – for example in the fields of technology and markets. While investments in public research, extension, education, and their links with one another have elicited high returns and pro-poor growth, these investments alone have not elicited innovation at the pace or on the scale required to meet the challenges. Innovation takes place in an innovation systems context. Besides a strong capacity in R&D, components of effective agricultural innovation system (AIS) include collective action and coordination, the exchange of knowledge among diverse actors, the technical and soft skills, incentives and resources available to form partnerships and develop businesses, and enabling conditions that make it possible for actors to innovate.
This course will engage adult learners using a dynamic, online learning approach that connects users to the leading approaches to AIS, as defined by the approved content of the Sourcebook. Reflective activities within each module will draw on personal experiences, collegial messages, case studies, activities and interactive media elements which will fully engage users with the learning content and demonstrate key issues in AIS.