UNSW Nutrition, Dietetics & Food Innovation recently hosted its first international students for the Farm to Fork Short Course, with a group of students from Singapore Institute of Technology.
Led by Lecturer Jaimee Hughes, the two-week course - offered through UNSW Business School’s Global Intensive Study Program - combined classroom learning with hands-on experiences across Sydney.
Students joined a virtual farm tour, explored an urban beehive and visited the new Sydney Fish Market. They also learnt about sustainable urban agriculture at Pocket City Farms and helped to distribute food to the UNSW community through Arc Food Hub.
Jaimee shares her highlights from the program, what surprised her most and what it meant to welcome international students to the course for the first time.
One of my highlights was working with the UNSW Immersive Media team to provide students with a virtual reality dairy farm tour. Using the VR headsets, students saw first-hand the operations of a working dairy farm in Camden, NSW and the processes involved in milk production. Based on the feedback, I think it was a highlight for the students too. Many had never visited or seen a dairy farm before.
One of the things that makes the UNSW Farm to Fork courses unique is the strong focus on experiential learning, so I was glad the SIT students were able to take part in some of our field trips as well.
Another highlight was seeing the UNSW Nutrition, Dietetics & Food Innovation students participate as ambassadors and volunteers. Twenty-two students volunteered across the two weeks to support the program and welcome our visitors. It was great to see them get so much out of the experience as well.
Anything involving food is usually a favourite! Our final lecture, delivered by my colleague Dr Sophia Lin, focused on healthy and sustainable diets. As part of the session, students took part in a sustainable meal challenge, where they made their own lunch and calculated the greenhouse gas emissions and water footprint.
They then worked together to modify their meal to reduce their environmental impact while still meeting nutritional needs.
It was a fun and practical way to explore the trade-offs involved in making more sustainable food choices.
On the final day of the program, the students delivered their presentations for their group assessment. I was amazed to see what they were able to develop in such a short time.
They were tasked with theoretically developing a new food product for the Singapore market using Australian agricultural products, with the concept addressing an identified food system issue.
We saw some really innovative ideas, from products made using surplus produce to tackle food waste, to others showcasing lupin, an underused Australian crop.
I was impressed with what they achieved in just two weeks. I'd love to see some of the product concepts make it to shelf one day.
It was a real honour to run this course with an international cohort for the first time. I’d like to thank the UNSW Business School and BUSADI for the opportunity to deliver it through the Global Intensive Study Program.
The Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Innovation program is still relatively new, so to have the opportunity to share the Farm-to-Fork series with international students at this stage was special.
Having our students involved throughout the program was also rewarding, as it created an opportunity for them to build their networks and learn alongside the SIT students.
I’m excited to see the UNSW–SIT relationship continue to grow and I hope it creates more opportunities for collaboration and student engagement.
Learn more about nutrition, dietetics & food innovation at UNSW.