1 credit
Spring 2025 Lecture Upper Division
The goal of this class is to encourage students to think of farming systems, including their energy and resource flows, economics and social characteristics, in the ways that ecologists think of ecological systems. How does energy flow through farming systems, and how do resources recycle (or not)? What are the weaknesses of farming systems that could be mitigated by mimicking natural systems? Issues of efficiency, sustainability and resilience will be investigated in the context of permaculture, a theory of food production and landscape design that has an emphasis on perennial crops, low input production, and ecological diversity. The centerpiece of the course will be to further develop the Purdue Student Farm using permaculture principles.
Learning Outcomes1Analyze energy and natural resource issues of modern society in the context of ecological systems thinking.
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