Education

Understanding Forest Food Gardens

Module code: X5700E
Level 5
15 credits in autumn semester
Teaching method: Seminar
Assessment modes: Coursework

This elective explores the ‘Forest Food Garden’, the practice of harvesting food, medicine and other practical needs from a woodland ecosystem. Although widespread in parts of the world, it is re-gaining attention in the global North as a response to climate change and loss of biodiversity. You will learn about its heritage, underlying ecological theory and its social implications. Visits and interviews with local forest gardeners, Roots students, an eco-nutritionist and a hemp bale building expert will inform ideas for the forest garden and a building that will serve it - to be developed with costed designs in module 2.

Module learning outcomes

• Understanding of what a Forest Food Garden is, how it works and why it is a useful presence on campus.
• Reflect on their own eating habits and ideas of past nutrition in the light of what they have experienced in the elective.
• Develop and employ specific study skills (including academic writing and independent learning) and creative ways to construct and present informed positions and arguments