Full Belly Farm, a DFS in California. Photo by Paul Kirchner Studios
Diversified farming systems are a set of methods and tools developed to produce food sustainably by leveraging ecological diversity at plot, field, and landscape scales.
Food crops are planted and animals are grazed in ways that replenish natural ecosystems. Diversified agriculture is critical to feed the world population reliably and in perpetuity while mitigating climate change and avoiding a collapse of the ecological systems on which human survival depends.
While there is no single template for “DFS,” they share a common focus on local production, agro-ecological and local knowledge, and whole systems approaches to agriculture, based on incorporating ecological diversity from field to landscape scales.
The Berkeley Center for Diversified Farming Systems, which includes many of our department's faculty and students, brings together interdisciplinary researchers, writers, and practitioners to find solutions to the world’s most pressing agriculture-related issues and to launch the next generation of agricultural leaders.
With world-renowned faculty in the areas of agroecology, science, technology and society, agricultural economics, and rural sociology, the UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources and our colleagues and friends are uniquely positioned to rethink the approach to agricultural development in a way that will restore ecosystem services and biodiversity.