Even if seeds survive climate change and mass extinction in a bomb-proof vault, will anyone remember how to cultivate them?
That, for me, is the money question in an admittedly parochial article from a blog at the Chronicle of Higher Education. Should a Liberal Education Include an Agricultural Education? wonders whether American colleges should be teaching liberal arts students where food comes from, and makes several interesting points along the way. Like, for example, the fact that one can view just about any subject through an agricultural lens. But why restrict it to Liberal Arts students? (A term, incidentally, that I confess I have never fully understood.) Wouldn’t it be good, and useful, for all students to know a little bit more about the food supply and all its ramifications?
From my experience of learning and teaching in higher learning institutes (HLI), both global north and south, it would be useful for all students to know a little bit more about alot of things. I certainly take the point that a significant part of this should be knowing about agriculture and food. There is much you can teach about the ways of the world through such a lens. You could also ask, should an agricultural education contain a liberal education. The answer if you listen into some of the comments on the recent Farmer First Revisited workshop would certainly support the need for better and more resourceful agricultural scientists and extension officers. Scientists who are more multidisciplinary in their outlook and approach and equipped with the attitudes and behaviours to facilitate change. More focus on soft or social skills in agricultural education must be a large part of this.
It is also important to point out that there are a growing number of initiatives set-up to address this. The Learning and Teaching for Transformation (LTT) and the Global University Network for Innovation (GUNI) are two initiatives, involving HLIs, that are looking at developing innovative collaborative learning approaches. A major challenge for education in a globalising world is to discover forms of learning and teaching that promote the emergence of civil societies which are particular to their own social and cultural contexts and which play a pivotal role in the social, political and economic change necessary for sustainable development. There are many disparate attempts out there trying to achieve this but both the LTT and GUNI are doing good work in trying to pull much of this together for better sharing and learning.