From Inquiry to Action

UVM's Graduate Program in Food Systems, one of the cross-college interdisciplinary programs on campus that is managed by the Graduate College, cultivates students to be adaptable problem solvers and systems thinkers. Our program prepares students to address some of the most challenging problems of contemporary food systems, such as building climate change resilience, reducing waste across the supply chain and exploring equitable distribution and fair labor practices.  Our curriculum is designed to inspire and motivate students through a diversity of research methods, transdisciplinary and systems thinking approaches and forms of community engagement. Students have the opportunity to:

Breakthrough Leaders

Collaborate with community partners on a variety of food systems problems and solutions

Greenhouse

Engage in experiential education from farm-to-plate, in the field and in the laboratory

Notes on ideas and information

Integrate ideas and information to understand and address food systems issues

Meet Our Faculty

Meet Our Students

View Program Curriculum

Faculty and Student Research Work

Alumni

10-Year Program Report

The Food Systems Graduate Program welcomed its first cohort of students in the fall of 2012. In the spring of 2022, program leadership created a 10-year program report to reflect on the first 10 years of the program and envision the future of the program. The report is available here.  

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The Food Systems Graduate Program at the University of Vermont studies the inter-connected actors and processes in the modern food system, from production through disposal, and the opportunities for closing this loop. Food systems are inherently built on multiple, intersectional inequalities, and as researchers, scholars, practitioners, and community members, we use our diverse methodological and disciplinary orientations to study and address these inequalities.


We hold ourselves accountable, and we will work to amplify the voices of those who have been marginalized as we train future food systems leaders and scholars. We strive for an environment where everyone has a seat at the table, but also seek to challenge and undo the systems that have created an unequal table. We work toward creating a program that fosters diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging.