For the fall semester, the Berkeley Food Institute partnered with Haas School of Business professors, Will Rosenzweig and Helene York, to pilot a new upper-division undergraduate course that unpacked the web of food systems relationships from farm to marketplace to our plates. 

Improving Our Food System Through Values-Based Supply Chains, was made possible through a unique USDA Transition to Organic Partnerships Program. Understanding food supply chains was the focus of the new course, especially the opportunities and challenges inherent in values-based supply chains, like organic food. Students heard directly from food system leaders from across the supply chain—from organic farmers to sustainable food business leaders—about their food systems enterprises and unique pathways. Each week, students dove deeper into a new aspect of the food and farming systems supply chain, reflected on their own values alignment, and engaged with systems thinking approaches as they researched and presented on innovative businesses they wanted to learn more about. 

As an added workforce development opportunity, I invited students to learn more about the guest speakers by interviewing them and writing a profile noting the speaker’s experiences as they relate to their own academic and career pathway interests. The result is this blog series that includes samples of profile writing from Berkeley students. We’ll publish three additional blogs by these students throughout March.

The course will be offered again in Fall 2025, and enrollment is open to undergraduate and graduate students at UC Berkeley. Please sign up for our BFI Food Systems Opportunities Newsletter to learn more about other exciting food systems opportunities on and off campus!