University leads the way with new Regenerative Food Systems MBA

The ground-breaking regenerative food systems course equips entrepreneurial individuals with the skills to lead and drive sustained growth across the food sector (the UK’s largest industrial sector).

The new qualification emphasises connections between agri-food businesses, regenerative farming, and hybrid production to promote environmental transformation.

Head of school for sustainable environments and design, Dr Anya Perera, said: “The new MBA builds on our portfolio of sustainable food production and regenerative agriculture degrees. It is aimed at the decision-makers of the future, who will lead the movement towards transformative and sustainable food systems.”

Senior lecturer Dr Robin Gowers said: “How we produce, distribute and consume food will see fundamental changes during the next few years. The agri-food sector is facing monumental challenges; brought about by COVID-19, climate change, Brexit, a growing population, supply chain issues, regulations and technology. These changes represent risk but also some superb opportunities to build stronger sustainable systems.”

The course highlights the fragility in our current practices and the ecological systems that support production. Underpinning every fruit, grain and vegetable are soil-enriching microbes, pollinating insects and water-filtering plants, each of which are threatened by climate change and pressures from resource use and exploitation.

Students of Writtle University College (WUC) in Essex.

Students will learn how interrelated thinking and practices might reform and contribute to future economic, environmental, and societal benefits. Regenerative food systems are complex and adaptive. They must be analysed as a whole and are formed by various actors, from farmers to service industries, economists, and policymakers.

This MBA is for those seeking a career in sustainable transformative food systems that are defined by principles for environmental sustainability, human well-being and circular economics embedded in policy and practice.

This interdisciplinary course is designed to appeal to career changers as well as mature applicants looking to apply their current experience and expertise to specific issues in agri-food systems.

WUC has been teaching land-based courses since 1893. Based just two miles from Chelmsford, which is only 35 minutes from London, its spacious countryside estate features a working farm, research greenhouses, laboratories and extensive gardens.

The MBA is the most recent of WUC’s contributions to the agri-food sector. In 2020, it became the UK’s first educational institution to offer a BSc (Hons) in Regenerative Agriculture and has an extensive network of alumni and connections.

For more information, please visit writtle.ac.uk/MBA-in-Regenerative-Food-Systems