User comments
About the value of the talks:
"What a treat to find such an informative and comprehensive series of lectures from the countries leading thinkers in food systems and policy entirely for free! I have found this extremely useful learning. Many thanks to all the contributors"
Florence Pardoe, Director, grOWN IT, 2020
"Food Systems Academy provides solid foundations for and aids comprehensive understanding of food systems in the most efficient manner. Very thankful for this excellent educational resource."
Eleni Hadjigeorgiou, University College London, Institute of Education, Department of Education Practice and Society, 2018
"I am preparing the reading lists for the Term 2 modules for City's MSc in Food Policy and, like in previous years, I am including a link to the Food Systems Academy online resources. This is such a valuable resource for our students, especially for the module that I lead, on the Political Economy of Food. The talks cover such a great range of relevant topics and I know that students really appreciate having open access to the videos and learning directly from leading experts in the field.
Thank you for all the work you put in to curate this fantastic resource.”
Dr Claire Marris, Reader, Centre for Food Policy, Sociology Department, City, University of London, 2018
"I lecture on food systems and food security and have found the Food Systems Academy to be a useful resource for my postgraduate students. When teaching on something as vast as the global food system, it helps that there is a high quality and engaging resource available to students to supplement their learning in the classroom. I sometimes use it as a flipped classroom resource for students to watch prior to a lecture, which we can then discuss face-to-face, or as a supplementary resource on an aspect of the food system that I do not have time to cover. I also recommend the material found on the Food Systems Academy to anyone who would like to gain an understanding of some of the complexities and issues that arise from our production and consumption of food.”
Dr Harley Pope,Teaching Fellow/IFSTAL Educational Coordinator, School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading, 2017
"I convene an MA course in The Anthropology of Food at SOAS, University of London. We have approximately 20-25 students per year on the course. The Food Systems Academy is an excellent resourse for students on the course, offering well-developed critical perspectives that are otherwise difficult to find. I direct students to in within the context of course units on topics including Agriculture, Food and the State; Agriculture, Food and Trade; Agriculture, Food and Intellectual Property; the Industrialization of Food and Agriculture and Alternatives; Agriculture, Food and Knowledge Systems; and Short Food Chains. Students find that the videos not only convey a great deal of information on these themes, but also frame them in ways that facilitate understanding of complex issues. Students cite content from the Food Systems Academy in seminar discussion, in course work, and in their dissertations. The website also provides them with a useful resource in the work that they do following graduation, including work with international agencies, government departments, non-governmental organizations, social enterprises, the media, and businesses working in agriculture and food.”
Harry G. West, Professor of Anthropology, Chair, SOAS Food Studies Centre, SOAS, University of London, 2015
"I run both an entry-level food security MOOC [massive open online course] on the Futurelearn platform and a professional postgraduate course for those working in the food supply chain. On both courses I direct the students to the Food Systems Academy website for a range of material that complements the material that my colleagues and I provide. Much of our material on the professional course is Science and Technology and most of the students here come from food production companies and retailers and are therefore quite familiar with these disciplines. While the MOOC is more broadly based, a good proportion of the students have lots of enthusiasm but little or no background. For both courses the students report enthusiastically on the material provided from the Food Systems Academy. We are currently working to increase the range of this material that we are able to offer and I look forward to working with the Academy to make available a full spectrum of views on the factors that impact on food availability and peoples' access to it. ”
Bill Davies CBE, Distinguished Professor of Plant Biology, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, 2016
"The Food Systems Academy is a great resource for both lecturers and Nutritional Sciences students at Manchester Met University.
The films are very high quality and the experts are the best. It is possibly the most sustainable method of bringing all these international experts under one umbrella. The resource has been used in lectures related to food systems and in all practical seminars linking health and sustainability.
The students have found the resource easy to understand. It is a great way of putting faces to names in journals which they have been using in their assignments.
As an educational tool it is extremely valuable and having it on demand makes it truly flexible and instant which suits many of our students and the way they learn.
I will continue to use this excellent resource and will spread the word as I have done in the last two years.
Haleh Moravej, Senior Lecturer-Nutritional Sciences, MetMUnch (Student Food Network) Founder, Manchester Metropolitan University, Department of Food and Tourism Management, 2016
"I teach our 2nd semester Integrated Food Studies MSc at Aalborg University Copenhagen course on food governance. I use the virtual academy's "Food Systems – an overview" as an introduction to our course. The video is a great introduction to what we mean by food systems and why we need to think in systems. Because the course mainly centers around governance – so the lecture's finale on tools for control is highly pertinent and a great point of entry for our discussions on food governance. Looking forward to seeing the virtual academy developed."
Robert Pederson, Research Fellow, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2014.
"the virtual academy is a very good idea and I will give the link to Harriet's lecture to my students for our fieldwork seminar: feeding Paris."
Dr Birgit Muller, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 2013
“I'm pleased to say that it's being used by students on our Masters in Food Justice and Food Security. I also plan to use it next year with first-year undergraduates taking our New Horizons in Geography module which has >200 students. It's an excellent resource which encourages students to consider a range of different perspectives, many of which are critical of the received wisdom."
Peter Jackson, Professor of Human Geography, University of Sheffield, 2016
'I am a social science researcher and my research focuses on interactions between nutrition science and food policy, both contemporary and historical. I also teach at undergraduate and postgraduate levels on food security and food policy, usually as part of wider courses on sustainability or public health policy. I find the Food Systems Academy to be a very valuable resource in my teaching. It is very helpful to be able to point my students towards a comprehensive and engaging collection of resources that allows them to go beyond my brief introduction to a complex topic."
Isabel Fletcher PhD, Senior Research Fellow (Medical Sociology), Liminal Spaces Project, The Mason Institute, Edinburgh Law School, 2016
“I was really impressed by the content, depth and quality of the material on the food systems academy website. I teach on social and political aspects of sustainable food systems and, in my experience, it is very hard to find good quality, well-argued videos and podcasts on this topic to direct students to. Having them all collected in one place like this is a really valuable resource and one which I will certainly be using for students at all levels in future – from undergraduate up to PhD."
Dr Rebecca Whittle, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, 2013
On the value of a Skype Q&A with Geoff Tansey after watching his video as part of their class:
Dr Bryce Evans, Lecturer in History, Liverpool Hope University, UK, 2014:
"Thank you very much for the skype linkup with the 'Taste of War: The Role of Food in Human Conflict' cohort at Liverpool Hope University. The students found the session genuinely engaging and many remarked that it was 'the best' and 'most interactive' means of engaging with an author / text that they had ever experienced at university."
Students in their Global Food Systems (GES362) 3rd yr undergraduate course at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2014:
Susan Turner: "It is a rare opportunity to connect with an individual whose works we are reading (or viewing) and discussing. I appreciated the chance to formulate questions and responses to your talk Your openness to engage with us by connecting over Skype, responding to our questions, asking us a few questions, and seeking our feedback was refreshing and appreciated... "
Lisa Cressman: "Being able to hear from Geoff live was quite beneficial and something I have not experienced in other classes. It was interesting to have a talk from him that was catered to our group, as it was our questions he was answering... Overall, I thought it was a beneficial experience and a method that could be used in the future!"
Samantha Davies: "I would say that this type of communication between the class room and an author is incredible! By having a personal conversation via skype makes the readings more interesting and come to life, and being able to ask questions is even more effective coming from the author themselves."
Viewers' reactions
to The Food System - An overview
These comments were made by some of the respondents to the survey after watching this video. Most watched it as part of the MOOC on Global Food Security by Lancaster University in 2014.
Excellent - very clear and informative
It's an excellent resource to introduce the topic of food systems. Articulate and very well presented.
Loved the visual presentation - at first thought it was just a talking head (from the early webcast years!) but I really liked the information display - so not boring PP - and not talking head but both. Easy to listen to, non-aggressive non-hectoring.
Information presented in a coherent and understandable way.
Thank you for this free resource
Almost unbelievable - boy, what intelligence and sense. This is how education should be - absolutely on the nail.
Well delivered, with plain english, clear graphics and good speaker. A complex subject put across in concise easy to understand language and imagery.
Well presented, edited, engaging, thought provoking. 10/10.
Thank you fantastic overview!
The delivery was very clear and easy to understand and engage with. It succinctly summed up the issues around food production and distribution.
Brilliant overview. I learn't a lot.
A large amount of complex information presented in a very accessible way.
A great video that describes the overall food system so that the average lay person can understand
Wow, I teach these subjects to my students for almost 3 year's and I never found a book or articles that make the system so clear. I really want to adopt this Lecture to my curriculum. I don't know where and how yet, but I will. Thank you!
Excellent material beautifully presented.
Go to a talk
- The Food System - An overview
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- The crucial century, 1945-2045: Transforming food systems in a global context
- The Right to Food - An overview
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- Sustainable diets and public health
- How to feed a city - and change the world
- Food, nutrition and poverty - An overview
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- Understanding intellectual property - 1. An overview and 2. How business lobbying changed the world
- From food regimes to food sheds - the case of Southern Ontario.
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