Innovative Food Systems

Studiewijzer 2025/2026

Globale inhoud

In this course, you will learn how to create innovative solutions for food systems. This will be based on developing and promoting practices and technology that minimize the use of finite resources, encourage the input of regenerative ones, prevent the loss of natural resources, and stimulate the reuse and recycling of inevitable resource losses. You will familiarize yourself with the concept of planetary boundaries and how anthropogenic practices impact key natural biogeochemical cycles. You will acquire fundamental knowledge from earth and environmental sciences, chemistry, biology and agronomy, which will serve as a basis to address and overcome challenges linked to resource and space availability, population growth, environmental pollution, climate change, zero-waste and circularity.

You will learn the fundaments of biogeochemical cycling of the key elements such as carbon and nitrogen in the environment, as well as plant biodiversity, with a focus on agriculture, and apply the knowledge in a modelling exercise and laboratory practical linked to farming in The Netherlands. Subsequently, you will focus on the agrochemicals used in farming, examining their energy costs and environmental impacts, and they ways these can be calculated, traced and modelled. Moreover, you will learn about their application and implication for sustainable farming approaches. Later in the course, you will study ethical, social and political aspects of these topics and visit farm and industrial settings. You will finish by combining and applying the knowledge and skills gained in your own project to create an original solution for food system problems under the advice of a consultant from the Amsterdam Business School. A central tool will be the use of qualitative models to visualize the influence and interlinkages of the various compartments in the complex agricultural food production systems using a transdisciplinary systems approach.

Studiemateriaal

Literatuur

• https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-07434-9

Leerdoelen

• Students are able to explain the general concept of planetary boundaries.
• Students can explain the relationship between electron configuration of atoms, their position in the periodic table, expected chemical bonding and overall properties.
• Students are able to explain in their own words the fundamental global element cycles (C, N, O, H, P, S) and how these are impacted by natural and anthropogenic factors.
• Students are able to explain plant biodiversity in conventional and modern food production strategies and how these impact the environment.
• Students are able to explain how agrochemicals are produced and how their application impacts the environment within the One Health framework.
• Students are able to perform basic environmental analyses to compare alternative agricultural practices using analytical chemistry techniques (e.g., pH measurements).
• Students are able to create novel solutions to food production problems taking into consideration key ethical, social and political considerations.

Onderwijsvormen

• Werkcollege
• Laptopcollege
• (Computer)practicum
• Veldwerk/excursie
• Presentatie/symposium
• Hoorcollege
• Hoorcollege
• Zelfstudie

Hoorcollege (lectures) will provide you the basic knowledge and study guidance for the digital exam. Werkcollege (seminars) will train you on researching the literature, reading scientific publications, and critically thinking at a systems level. Laptopcollege (computer lab session) will provide you hand-on training on modelling approaches. The practicum will give you a laboratory experience in soil analyses that are part of several lectures and relate to environmental problems addressed in the course. The veldwerk/excursie will connect you to real-world farms and train you on sample collection for the practicum. The project that you will develop in the second half of the course (zelfstudie) will result in a final presentation (Presentatie/symposium) in the last day of the course, which will train you in team work, science communication, and problem solving.

Verdeling leeractiviteiten

Aanwezigheid

Aanvullende eisen voor dit vak:

• Minimum mandatory attendance in 8 of 10 lectures is required for passing the course. Lectures provide the foundation of the course and all materials for the exam. Attendance to the lectures will be registered if the student is not more than 15 minutes late.
• Mandatory attendance to the fieldwork day, soil lab analyses day, project days, and final presentation day.
• Attendance to tutorials and to the (potential) excursion to industry is not mandatory, but will be registered and used to round final grandes up to the next 0.5 point if the student attended >80% of them.
• Absence needs to be communicated to the course coordinator via email (p.dalcinmartins@uva.nl).

Toetsing

• 60% of the grade comprises the digital exam at the end of period 1.
• 40% comprises the group project and final presentation at the end of period 2.

The exam will use a guess score for grade correction.

Inzage toetsing

Students are welcome to have a chat about their (partial) grades as soon as they are posted during the seminars and group project time, as well as by individual appointment scheduled via email or after class.

Opdrachten

• Tutorials will be non-assessed group and individual assignments.
• The digital exam will be an assessed individual assignment. No feedback will be given.
• The project execution and presentation will be an assessed group assignment. Feedback will be given during the times allocated for working on the project and immediately after the final presentation.

Fraude en plagiaat

Dit vak hanteert de algemene 'Fraude- en plagiaatregeling' van de UvA. Hier wordt nauwkeurig op gecontroleerd. Bij verdenking van fraude of plagiaat wordt de examencommissie van de opleiding ingeschakeld. Zie de Fraude- en plagiaatregeling van de UvA: http://student.uva.nl

Weekplanning

Contactinformatie

Coördinator

• dr. P. Dalcin Martins