Urban Food Systems

In this rapidly growing field, you can have a strong influence through your understanding of how agriculture and food systems impact the lives of people in our communities. Be a force for change in community and economic development, local food accessibility, public and farmer education, or by working to provide nutritious, local and regional food to communities that need them.

Graduates and current students are employed in:

• Food systems project management
• Urban farming or food production management
• Nonprofit management
• Food aggregation and distribution
• Urban planning and landscape design
• Farmers market organization and management
• Municipal (city/county) horticulture
• Community garden coordination
• Extension and public education

• Kansas City offers a vibrant urban agriculture scene with numerous community food-based projects, nonprofits and local urban and peri-urban farmers working to provide access to fresh, healthy food.

• K-State Olathe's location provides opportunities to work at the Olathe Horticulture Research and Extension Center as well as other institutions in the metro region.

• Work with an interdisciplinary cohort of students and faculty in Olathe and Manhattan.

Unique resources

As a student in the program, you'll have access to several unique resources and opportunities that provide an in-depth farm to fork experience.

The Olathe Horticulture Center, or OREC, is a research farm located about 20 minutes from the Olathe campus. Here, you can conduct hands-on experience in grafting, growing and harvesting fresh produce.

The Postharvest Physiology Lab and the Food Safety Lab at the Olathe campus are where a lot of the OREC produce is analyzed for safety and quality.

In this 30 credit hours thesis track, you can customize your program to your area of interest with eight to 18 elective credit hours. Students also have the opportunity to work on commercial farms, research stations and other nearby food projects in the practicum course.

• Urban agriculture

• Urban food systems

• Professional development in urban food systems

• Urban food production practicum

• Urban agriculture study tour

• Sustainable agriculture

• Health-promoting phytochemicals of fruits and vegetables

• Postharvest technology and physiology of horticultural crops

• Farm to fork produce safety

Course catalog

Program objectives

Students will be able to work full-time while enrolled in the Horticulture program and have the option to pursue two different tracks, the thesis or professional track. Each track gives students a significant amount of electives to pursue research in their interest areas. Moreover, students will able to attend classes at K-State Olathe, as well as hybrid classes in conjunction with the Manhattan campus students.

The majority of full-time students will complete this degree in about 2 years. A minimum of 30 semester hours of credit is required.

No, the GRE is not required for admission to the program.

No. Many of our students have backgrounds in non-horticultural fields, such as liberal arts, history, sociology and others.

In addition, students interested in Urban Food System classes can take up to nine credit hours after applying to the Graduate School as a non-degree seeking student.