Via online journal., Today’s food production and consumption go hand in hand with immense damages to humans and nature. Change is needed, but where to start and which direction to go? This article tries to give an interdisciplinary answer by taking recourse to a vision, that is, an ideal image of the future which is drawn upon ethical reflection and beyond the limits of actual political and economic constraints. The main purpose of this paper is to show that generating and discussing visions can be a powerful process in order to regain ability to act in the face of the complex challenges of our time and that Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) plays an important role to enable current and future generations to become actors of change. First, a students vision on agriculture and society in 2050 is presented, followed by a theoretical examination of visions, their potentials, limits and practical implications. Subsequently, the results of a field analysis of current innovative solutions to local agriculture are given. These include intercultural gardens and community supported agriculture. Claiming that a sustainable development can only be reached if people are not only able to envision a desirable future, but to develop small scale, locally adapted solutions as answers to challenges such as climate change, this paper then focuses on the competence oriented educational concept of ESD. Here, an approach of integrating ethics in the course of studies of agricultural sciences implemented by a student’s initiative serves as practice example.
Ruiz-Carpio, Miguel Rafael (author), Safai, Cyrus (author), Djobo, Arafat (author), Gaichuk, Ivan (author), and Safai, Nick M. (author)
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
2018
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 93 Document Number: D10863
Notes:
Poster/paper published in proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education annual conference and exposition, Salt Lake City, Utah. 2018, pages 1-15., Motivating, promoting interest in teaching engineering subjects is always a challenge for undergraduate engineering students especially for junior and lower level students. This approach also brought social awareness to members of the group, as well as tolerance and responsibility. It also emphasized to the students a tolerant and an open-minded world, now and forevermore. A group of multinational, multicultural undergraduate students at Salt Lake Community College, majoring in Civil, Mechanical, Electrical and Computer engineering are working on a project involving vertical farming, hydroponic watering, and making the plant growing process smart.
Food and its availability is of major concern in all nations, especially the underdeveloped communities. Students get exposed to different engineering disciplines, and learn how to work in a multicultural team and become socially responsible in an ever increasing connected world. Each student also becomes a teacher to other students at times discussing his specialty and field of engineering.
