If you feel a responsibility to strengthen food systems where you live, this program is designed to support that work.

Activating Local Food Systems is a 7-week professional program from Living Earth College designed for farmers, designers, community leaders, educators and policy practitioners who want practical pathways for strengthening regional food systems.

Activating Local Food Systems

Program begins: Wednesday 22 April 2026
Duration: 7 weeks

Live Global Learning Sessions
Wednesdays (7 weeks)

Session times:

• London: 8:00 – 9:30 pm
• Rome / Central Europe: 9:00 – 10:30 pm
• New York: 3:00 – 4:30 pm
• San Francisco: 12:00 – 1:30 pm
• Sydney: 5:00 – 6:30 am (Thursday)
• Hobart: 6:00 – 7:30 am (Thursday)

Sessions are recorded for participants who cannot attend live.

Activating Local Food Systems explores how resilient food systems can emerge from soil and seed through to community economies, regional infrastructure and policy.

The program brings together practical knowledge from farming, food system design, community enterprise and governance. Participants explore how food systems function as living systems shaped by relationships between land, people, infrastructure and institutions.

Through a seven-level living systems framework, the course offers practical tools and perspectives for strengthening food systems within participants’ own regions.

Throughout the program, participants begin developing a place-based food systems activation project responding to the opportunities and conditions of their own community.

Over seven weeks the program explores

Week 1 — Perception, living rhythms and ecological timing
Developing the ability to observe landscapes, seasons and agricultural cycles.

Week 2 — Soil and the farm organism
Healthy soil, biodiversity and the ecological foundations of food production.

Week 3 — Seed and crop infrastructure
Seed saving, crop diversity and community seed networks.

Week 4 — Community food economies
Local markets, food enterprises, food boxes and community-supported agriculture.

Week 5 — Regional food infrastructure
Food hubs, distribution systems and shared facilities that allow small farms to reach communities.

Week 6 — Policy and bioregional food systems
How governance and policy shape regional food systems.

Week 7 — Local food systems activation project
Participants present their place-based food systems project, applying insights from the course to their own region and receiving feedback from the cohort.

Graduates receive a Certificate in Local Food Systems Activation and join the Founding Seed Cohort of Living Earth College, an emerging international network of practitioners working across farming, design, community food initiatives and policy.

Places are limited to 20 participants worldwide to allow meaningful dialogue and collaboration.

Tuition

Early Bird – Founding Seed Cohort
$540 AUD

Approximate international pricing:

• United Kingdom: £280 GBP
• Europe: €330 EUR
• Switzerland: 310 CHF
• United States: $350 USD
• Canada: $470 CAD

Full Price from 12th April

$690 AUD

Approximate international pricing:

• United Kingdom: £360 GBP
• Europe: €420 EUR
• Switzerland: 395 CHF
• United States: $450 USD
• Canada: $600 CAD

Prices shown in other currencies are approximate and may vary slightly depending on exchange rates.

Before enrolling

If you feel a responsibility to strengthen food systems where you live, this program is designed to support that work.