Future Food Sustainability MSc

Successful completion of a Masters-level course at Cranfield requires you to work independently and to make effective use of the resources available.  The induction week seeks to introduce new students to the resources available at Cranfield, the nature of a Cranfield Masters, the importance of health, safety and ethics, together with an introduction to key elements of the course.

What is an MSc? - Introduction to the Agrifood MSc programme,

Course Specific Introductory Presentations,

Presentation Skills,

Assignment writing,

Doing an MSc at Cranfield. What to expect,

Avoiding plagiarism,

Personal Development Planning and the Cranfield Competency Framework,

Statistics refresher,

Exploring the resilience of food systems,

Quick Start to the Library & Discovering Quality Information,

Blog Writing,

Field trip – Agrifood company.

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Describe the requirements of a Cranfield Masters and in particular the need for critical thinking and independent working,
• Describe how to ensure high levels of health and safety,
• Explain how to ensure high level of ethical behaviour, for example avoiding plagiarism,
• Describe how to effectively use library resources,
• Describe how to use the careers service,
• Explain the role of Personal Development Planning,
• Identify how Accreditation bodies can support an individual through a career.

• Professor Paul Burgess

Human population growth and increased resource use per capita requires improved management of our global ecosystem. Approaches such as the “Sustainable Development Goals”, “Natural Capital”, “Ecosystem Services”, and “Planetary boundaries” provide frameworks for businesses and wider society to resolve the synergies and trade-offs between major economic, environmental and social challenges. The “Circular Economy” approach refers to the development of “restorative” industrial systems that are grounded on the lessons of non-linear, feedback-rich ecosystems. The third approach is to explore the nexus between renewable energy, food, and other ecosystem services using per capita energy and food consumption. This module introduces and critiques the above frameworks and examines their application to resolve real-world problems and create commercial opportunities.

• Definitions of sustainability; the Sustainable Development Goals, moving from an “Empty World” to a “Full World”.
• Natural capital, ecosystem processes and succession; the role of energy; feedback systems; biodiversity and system restoration.
• Using an ecosystem services and “doughnut economics” approach: quantifying trade-offs and synergies; improving water and nutrient management, reducing greenhouse gases emissions, enhancing stability, resistance and resilience, and issues of equity.
• Introduction to the circular economy: opportunities for businesses.
• How design, manufacturing practice and management can contribute to a circular economy.
• Case study: trade-offs, synergies, and opportunities to enhance well-being and ecosystem service provision in terms of energy, food, feed and wood for a case study area.

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Critique terms such as “sustainability”, “ecosystem services”, “biodiversity”, “human well-being”, “circular economy”, “per capita energy use”, “natural capital” and “doughnut economics”.
• Evaluate how natural capital and ecosystem service approaches can guide businesses and society to make decisions regarding the use of ecological resources, with a focus on biodiversity, greenhouse gases, and water use.
• Explain how we can enhance the stability, resistance and resilience of human and natural systems.
• Explain how the “circular economy” provides commercial opportunities.
• Use a per capita approach to explore the synergies between food, feed, wood, and renewable energy production to guide decision making and identify opportunities in the context of a case-study.

• Dr Jacqueline Hannam

Food security and environmental protection depend upon effective management of soil, plant and water interactions in the environment. This module will focus on a fundamental understanding of the science of soil systems and how decisions in land management affect the soil functions related to food production.

• Soil functions, ecosystem goods and services and concepts of soil health,
• Plant responses to solar radiation, temperature, drought and aeration stress,
• Soil texture, bulk density, porosity and structure,
• Soil-water interactions,
• Soil chemistry: Nutrients, pH, CEC, salinity and the carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycles,
• Soil organisms: diversity and functional importance,
• Regenerative agriculture and innovations in agricultural production.

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Describe the role of soil systems in the context of soil functions, ecosystem services and soil health,
• Assess the principal responses of plants to the climatic environment,
• Quantify key soil physical, chemical and biological properties,
• Evaluate the impact of soil management and agricultural innovation in agricultural production.

• Professor Tim Hess

Water is an essential factor of production in agrifood systems; whether for growing crops, supporting livestock or food manufacture. Globally, 70% of freshwater withdrawals are used for agriculture, but increasing demand for food means that this figure is likely to increase dramatically in the future. At the same time climate change is affecting supply and other demands on water are increasing. Mismanagement of water for food production has led to social and environmental problems in many places. Water is therefore a significant global risk to sustainable food production. This module will consider the water requirements of crop and livestock systems; the evaluation of the water related impacts and risks in producing locations; and management and technological solutions to minimise water related impacts and risks in food supply chains.

• Introduction: Water for food; Water and climate risks in agrifood systems,
• Soil water retention and water movement through soil/plant systems,
• Water requirements for agrifood systems: Irrigation systems (surface, overhead and localised irrigation); Calculating irrigation water requirements; Water requirements for livestock; Water requirements for food industry,
• Water footprinting: Water inventory; Weighting for impact; Hotspot identification,
• Evaluating and managing the performance of irrigation systems including yield response to water, irrigation scheduling and efficiency,
• Impacts of droughts and water scarcity; Climate change,
• Responding to water footprints; Water risk, resilience and adaptation.

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Evaluate the role of water in crop and livestock systems.
• Design and evaluate management and technological solutions to minimise the water-related impacts and risks to crop and livestock production systems in food supply chains.
• Critically appraise the role of water in future challenges to food sustainability.

• Dr Abhijeet Ghadge

During this module you will be introduced to key aspects of supply chain (SC) management which are critical to improving the overall resilience of the global food supply network.

• SC strategy and concepts,
• Sustainable and circular food SCs,
• SC risk identification and mitigation,
• Procurement strategy management,
• Quality management and Six Sigma,
• Technology applications for improving SC performance.

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Assess the impact of different supply chain strategies on the competitive strategy in the Food and Drinks industry,
• Analyse the interface with a firm’s suppliers to improve visibility and alignment across the supply chain,
• Design a successful collaborative initiative through the use of frameworks and tools from industry,
• Assess the challenges around managing sustainable food supply chains,
• Evaluate the risk inherent in the supply chain and mitigate them using resilient strategies.

• Dr Zoltan Kevei

This module provides a critical appraisal of the role of the main plant-based technologies which can be used to advance sustainable crop production and food security. This includes a consideration of the importance of crop breeding, seed technology and crop protection with particular emphasis on future needs.

Seed industry:

• Basic principles of genetics as applied to representative crop species.
• Plant breeding strategies including conventional selection and marker assisted selection.
• Genetic modification of crop plants.
• Seed production and seed treatment technologies.

Agrochemicals:

• Discovery and design of novel agrochemicals: screening, computer aided molecular design, formulation.
• Insecticides, fungicides and herbicides: importance in food security - past and future, modes of action, regulation.
• Biocontrol agents – principles and case studies.
• Phytohormones and crop enhancers: agrochemicals to control plant growth and development.

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Explain the main strategies and technologies in producing new, improved varieties of crop plants.
• Critically appraise the role of plant breeding and seed technology in delivering global food security.
• Explain the process of developing a new agrochemical, and the main classes of agrochemicals currently and previously in use.
• Critically appraise the main methods of biocontrol as an alternative to fungicides and insecticides.
• Evaluate the contribution of research in developing plant-based technologies. 

• Dr Chikage Miyoshi

The need to quantify sustainability is great, especially in a world in which scarce resources are in increasing demand and the effects of climate change become more apparent. Climate change will change our capacity to meet our demands for any resources.

Almost all economic activity causes some negative impacts on the environment, either directly or through goods and services that are bought in. Mitigation methods for reducing unwanted emissions can themselves create other negative environmental impacts as side effects, as well as the positive effects including externalities.

This module aims to consider and evaluate the above challenges quantitatively and critically and propose the strategic options to mitigate the negative impact by balancing it with the positive outcomes.

• Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) including carbon footprint.
• Background and principles,
• The fundamental techniques of demand forecasting,
• Outline of life cycle assessment,
• Examples of case studies from staff and/or PhD students related to the topics of soil, agri, food systems.

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Implement and evaluate forecasting techniques as one of the fundamental aspects of environmental assessment,
• Apply the principles of Environmental Life Cycle Assessment quantitatively, including carbon footprints.
• Critically evaluate sustainability claims of products, services and policies on the basis of the environmental assessment methods used including the economic sustainability.

• Dr Daniel Simms

The purpose of this module is to provide you with a set of practical applications and tools for developing, managing and analysing ‘Big Data’, to better deliver food security. A secure, reliable and sustainable food production system will increasingly rely on advanced technologies, such as real-time field sensing, model data fusion and advanced forecasting.

It will need to operate effectively within new and changing environmental constraints, and so will need to consider and be represented within (eco)systems goods and services models, to ensure food security that is both economic and environmentally sustainable.

The proposed course will introduce and develop core skills in data acquisition, data and information management, using numerical and statistical modelling approaches that form the basis of information driven sustainable agriculture. It will incorporate ground, aerial and space borne sensing and sensor techniques for predictive mapping within the context of modelling agricultural ecosystems goods and services.

• Introduction to Information Rich Agricultural Systems,
• Sensing and sensors in Agricultural Systems,
• Spatial interactions of food production,
• Data and Information Management,
• Big data: what can the past tell us about the future?
• Ecological Agriculture in the Digital Age,
• Informatics-based decision making.

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Critically evaluate the potential of sensor systems (remote/near etc.) to measure and monitor the agri-environment,
• Manage, manipulate and interrogate large agri-environmental datasets,
• Explain the inter-relationship between the ecology and agriculture and the ecosystem goods and services that agriculture within its landscape provides,
• Develop systematic and creative problem solving skills, and demonstrate the ability to interpret and obtain meaningful outcomes,
• Communicate conclusions effectively, including assumptions and methodologies, to both specialist and non-specialist audiences.

• Dr Kenisha Garnett

Strategic foresight research refers to a range of methods that can be used to identify, analyse and communicate insights about the future. Standard methods include horizon scanning, trend research, and scenario planning. Outputs include emerging issues, trends, visions, scenarios, and wild cards. The methods employed and insights produced are used by both private and public sector organisations to inform a wide range of policy, risk, strategy and innovation processes. Foresight research is a truly inter-disciplinary ‘science’, covering and combining developments in society, technology, economy, ecology, politics, legislation and values.

Crucially, foresight research is as much about analysing the past and present, as it is about looking to the future. Once we understand how a system has developed and works today, we can explore how it may evolve and what it may look like in the future. Strategic foresight techniques consider a wide range of possible, plausible futures so that planning can be put in place to adapt to and mitigate against various conditions. It is designed to add resilience, adaptability and flexibility to organisations in an increasingly complex and fast changing world.

This module will explore how:

• Horizon scanning can act as a method of gathering new insights that may point us towards affirming or discrediting existing trends and developments, as well as identifying new and emerging trends and developments that are on the margins of our current thinking, but will impact on the future.

Other foresight methodologies (e.g. scenario planning, visioning, back-casting) can be used to help us to use the trends identified from horizon scanning to identify how the future might develop.

In exploring strategic foresight research in relation to its utility by a broad range of organisations, this module will combine formal lectures with interactive practical exercises that will cover:

• An overview of the reasons why organisations engage in foresight research.
• An overview of the aims and objectives of foresight research.
• An overview of the different types of foresight research methods including, but not confined to horizon scanning, trend research, scenario building, visioning and back-casting.
• An overview of where different types of foresight research methods are best applied depending on the issue to be explored, the time available for research and the output required.
• A practical training session in horizon scanning (what it does; why it’s used and how it’s done).
• A practical training session on different scenario building methods (what are scenarios, what can they be used for and how are they developed).
• A group activity to stress-test the resilience of organisational policy or strategy, using windtunnelling approaches [why is it important to stress-test the organisation’s policy / long-term strategy, what approaches are used, what are the likely gains (i.e. in the future)].
• A group activity to develop a vision [i.e. describing a preferred future (the vision)], and using back-casting to assess the implications of the vision [i.e. setting out the steps to make it happen), and evaluating enablers and barriers to achieving desired outcomes.

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Assess why organisations engage in foresight research and what foresight research aims to achieve - and what it cannot do.
• Evaluate the utility and application of different foresight research methodologies.
• Examine the role of foresight research evidence in a broad business and environmental context.
• Identify and apply the tools of foresight research in a broad business and environmental context.
• Apply foresight research methods to support a convincing case for action within the organisation and use foresight research evidence to effectively plan for the long-term resilience of the organisation.