Learn About Sustainable Urban Food Production with UF/IFAS

If you’re interested in improving food security and healthy nutrition in South Florida’s urban areas, the upcoming Sustainable Urban Food Production Short Course might be for you. Now in its third year, this class covers urban food production from backyard container gardens to vertical farms, to community gardens and raised-bed gardens in vacant lots.

“Sustainable urban food production has the potential to address important social-environmental challenges such as food security, inequality, resource consumption and environmental sustainability that our society is facing today,” says Jiangxiao Qiu, assistant professor of landscape ecology at UF/IFAS Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center (FLREC).

“We continue to enrich this program with updated content and information relevant to urban food production, and also provide it in a hybrid model this year as compared to fully online last year with the COVID restrictions so that we can broaden participation and integrate field tours and hands-on activities in the area,” says Qiu.

Participants meet on Mondays from 1 to 4:30pm for six weeks from Sept. 20 through Oct. 25. There is limited seating and registration is required via this link.

The $25 fee covers all six classes and training materials. This class includes both in-person and virtual sessions. Scheduled in-person sessions will be held in classrooms at FLREC, located at 3205 College Ave, Davie. Participants will receive a certificate after completion of this short course.
Participants will walk away from this year’s program with an increased awareness on the varied social-environmental benefits of urban agriculture; and increased interests, engagement and adoptions of urban agriculture and sustainable management practices.