A collaborative, multidisciplinary applied learning journey in systems entrepreneurship, ethical leadership and innovation models intended to accelerate the transition to a healthy, sustainable and just food system.

The Plant Futures Challenge Lab is a special course that blends in-class learning with applied field experience. Top undergraduate and graduate students are paired on multidisciplinary teams to work with professional clients from leading food systems organizations to develop actionable solutions to present-day challenges in the plant-based food and agricultural sector. Students will be guided throughout the learning journey by the teaching team and their challenge partner mentors through a series of team meetings, lectures, and workshops and will learn and practice systems thinking and design, ethical leadership, and entrepreneurial agency. The lab partners with a rotating list of professional clients each semester. Past professional partners include Beyond Meat, Tofurky, Califia Farms, Daiya, Meati, Finless Foods, Sun World, Better Food Foundation, Greener by Default, Bond Pet Foods, Beeflow, Factory Farming Awareness Coalition, Mercy for Animals, Plant Based Foods Association, Friends of the Earth, GlassWall Syndicate, New Crop Capital, and Astanor Ventures, among others.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.