Engaging Agriculture and Non-Agriculture Students in an Interdisciplinary Curriculum for Sustainable Agriculture.

Interest in curricula addressing alternative agricultural production and marketing systems has grown among students and faculty at post-secondary institutions. In 2005, an interdisciplinary team from the University of Kentucky (UK) received a USDA Higher Education Challenge Grant to establish a curriculum in sustainable agriculture. In doing so, UK sought to join the growing number of postsecondary institutions with courses, concentrations and majors in alternative agricultural production and marketing systems. Some of these academic offerings arose as areas of specialized study within productionoriented agricultural science disciplines. More recent courses and programs tend to reflect a more holistic approach that incorporates social, economic, and natural resource management considerations. The UK team blended these approaches to produce a curriculum that would appeal to students within and beyond the College of Agriculture and support the transition of the state's small farmers to a posttobacco economy. Combining the core elements of an agricultural science degree with requirements in the cultural dimensions of sustainability demanded clear definitions and priorities. The UK team adopted the USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program's definition of sustainability as a management system that optimizes environmental, economic, and social resources to improve a farm's performance over time. Introduced in 2007, the curriculum combined requirements in agricultural, natural, and social sciences with an apprenticeship on an organically managed community supported agriculture project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]