Program Overview

Urban Agriculture Certificate Program

The Urban Agriculture Certificate Program is designed to prepare the next generation of urban agriculture leaders in Oregon and beyond. The program emphasizes critical aspects of urban agriculture, including site selection and design, soil management, variety selection, pest management, and accessing and developing markets for urban agricultural products and/or urban agri-tourism.

Program Overview

Students will investigate and analyze a diversity of urban agricultural systems that vary in location, scale, cropping and non-crop systems, production methods, and market opportunities, including edible and ornamental crops, non-crop urban landscapes and public/private gardens, residential and community scale agriculture, non-profit and commercial urban farms.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the program, students will meet the following learning outcomes:

• Demonstrate advanced knowledge of soils, plants, pests, and crops, and skills in urban farming and gardening.
• Show in-depth understanding of the environmental, social, economic, and regulatory factors that influence and are influenced by urban agricultural systems.
• Generate a functional management plan for an urban agriculture project utilizing skills and knowledge gained.
• Evaluate the broader global and social justice implications of agricultural endeavors in urban and peri-urban areas.

Certificate Requirements

The Urban Agriculture Certificate requires a total of 27 credits.

Required Core Courses

• CSS 205: Soil Science (4 credits)
• HORT 260: Organic Farming and Gardening (3 credits)
• HORT 283: Introduction to Urban Agriculture (3 credits)
• HORT 301: Growth and Development of Horticultural Crops (3 credits) or CROP 200: Crop Ecology and Morphology
• AEC 411: Introduction to Food Systems: Local to Global (3-4 credits) or ANTH 361/FCSJ 361: Food Justice
• ENT 311: Introduction to Insect Pest Management (4 credits)
• HORT 483: Case Studies in Urban Agriculture (3 credits)

Elective Courses

Select 3-4 credits from the following courses:

• AEC 211: Agricultural and Food Management
• AEC 221: Agricultural and Food Marketing
• AEC 251: Introduction to Agricultural and Food Economics
• ENT 322: Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping
• HORT 112: Introduction to Horticultural Systems, Practices and Careers
• HORT 226: Landscape Plant Materials I: Deciduous Hardwoods and Conifers
• HORT 228: Landscape Plant Materials II: Spring Flowering Trees and Shrubs
• HORT 251: Temperate Tree Fruit, Berries, Grapes, and Nuts
• HORT 255: Herbaceous Ornamental Plant Materials
• HORT 285: Permaculture Design and Theory: Certificate Course
• HORT 300/CROP 300: Crop Production in Pacific Northwest Agroecosystems
• HORT 314: Principles of Turfgrass Maintenance
• HORT 316: Plant Nutrition
• HORT 350/FES 350: Urban Forestry
• HORT 444/ENT 444: Insect Agroecology
• HORT 447/FES 447: Arboriculture
• SOIL 316: Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems
• SOIL 360: Soil Management for Organic Production
• SOIL 388: Soil Systems and Plant Growth

Certificate Code

The Urban Agriculture Certificate code is C610.

Location

This program is available at the following location: Ecampus.

Standalone Program

This certificate is available as a standalone program.