This course invites you to explore how culture, ecology, and food intersect in shaping sustainable futures through immersive and hands-on experiences engaging directly with landscapes, producers, and microbial life.
The course examines food systems at macro (landscape), meso (producer), and micro (microbial) scales, emphasizing the values of locality, diversity, and quality. Activities include fermentation workshops, culinary labs, storytelling, and co-cooking sessions. By connecting tradition, taste, and environmental care, you will cultivate a deeper understanding of food system resilience and your own role in driving transformation toward more just and sustainable food futures.
PhD in Interdisciplinary Environmental Sciences at the University of Helsinki in 2023, MSc in Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia 2019, BA in Biology and Environmental Studies Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, UISA 2016. Post-doctoral researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Center on Mistra Food Futures program and on the Sustainable Nice for Farmed Livestock project at the University of Helsinki. With DIS since 2025
Long study tour
About this tour
Copenhagen offers a unique living laboratory for exploring how sustainability, taste, and tradition intersect in food systems. As a global leader in green innovation and gastronomy, the city combines cutting-edge policy initiatives with thriving grassroots food movements. Students will engage directly with urban farms, community sea gardens, and foraging practices that reimagine the relationship between city life and ecological stewardship. Encounters with alternative food networks in Christiania, plant-based food pioneers, and world-renowned restaurants reveal both tensions and synergies between industrialized and artisanal approaches to food. Through hands-on workshops, cooking together, and conversations with practitioners and activists, Copenhagen provides an immersive context to critically examine how culture, policy, and innovation can work together to build more resilient and just food futures.
Learning outcomes
Explore how Danish food initiatives, from urban farms to artisanal restaurants, integrate sustainability, taste, and tradition in building resilient food systems
Analyze how cultural practices, policies, and innovations in Denmark contribute to diversity, quality, and locality in the Copenhagen foodscape
Examine the tensions and synergies between industrialized food production and alternative food networks in shaping sustainable futures
Apply systems thinking to real-world Danish foodscapes, connecting local experiences to global food system challenges and opportunities
Engage in your personal learning process outside the classroom by actively participating and challenging your current ideas and assumptions
Possible activities
Explore Copenhagen’s numerous urban gardens and community supported agriculture (CSA) farms like Østergro or Grantoftegård
Harvest muscles directly from Copenhagen’s central canal with Havhøst, a regenerative urban sea garden
Forage for local ingredients throughout the city
Meet with local food policy experts and chefs
Looking for some advice? We’ll support you every step of the way.
