How can we produce food without degrading soils, losing biodiversity or undermining future generations? Sustainable Agriculture challenges you to confront this question by exploring agriculture as a biological, ecological and social system under pressure.
This module examines how soils, crops, livestock and landscapes function, and how farming decisions shape sustainability outcomes. You will explore soil health, nutrient cycling, crop production, pests and diseases, genetic diversity, breeding and animal welfare, alongside the realities of climate change, biodiversity loss and rural livelihoods. Through lectures, laboratories, seminars and fieldtrips, you will analyse real farming systems, identify trade-offs and assess competing ideas about what “sustainable” agriculture really means.
By the end of the module, you will be able to critically assess agricultural systems, weigh environmental and societal consequences, and develop informed, evidence-based judgements about the future of food production in a changing world.
Lectures 13 hours
Seminars and Laboratory Sessions 11 hours
Fieldtrips 8 hours
Short Answer Questions (short answer questions with individual word limits. 1,000 words total) worth 40%
Extended Writing (1,000 words) worth 60%
Reassessment: Like for like
On successfully completing the module, students will be able to:
1) Critically evaluate the sustainability of agricultural systems
2) Diagnose sustainability constraints and bottlenecks
3) Explain how biological and ecological mechanisms underpin sustainability outcomes
4) Identify, justify and critically reflect on unavoidable sustainability trade-offs
5) Construct and defend evidence-based sustainability judgements
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