University of Minnesota Twin Cities Launches New Integrated Food Systems Leadership Program
The University of Minnesota Twin Cities has launched the Integrated Food Systems Leadership program (IFSL) designed for working professionals to help bridge the gap between traditional food system education and professional leadership programs. The IFSL program is a graduate-level certification that provides a broader knowledge of how the food system is interconnected—from farm to fork—while promoting critical thinking and problem solving across disciplines.
Developed through a partnership between the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, the School of Public Health and the College of Veterinary Medicine, the IFSL program aims to develop leaders with the skills needed to solve growing challenges, such as rising food safety incidents, food waste, and feeding a fast-growing population. The United Nations estimates that the number of undernourished people in the world totals 821 million. It is a number that’s only expected to grow as the world population could reach almost 10 billion people by 2050.