A Veterinary Approach to Sustainable Food and Farming - Participant Feedback, Dr Hannah Davies

A Veterinary Approach to Sustainable Food and Farming, the inaugural course from VetSalus in partnership with Vet Sustain, was officially launched in July 2022. The course has been designed to empower veterinary professionals working with farm animals to unlock their unique toolbox of skills and knowledge to help producers attain multiple sustainability objectives, for the benefit of animals under our care, rural communities, wildlife and the wider environment.

With our first cohort approaching the end of the course, and cohort 2 in progress, we now have over 50 participants actively engaged with the course content. VetSalus spoke with some current participants to understand how they found their learning experience, and what impact this has had on their approach to sustainability conversations with their clients.

We asked Hannah Davies, Veterinary Clinical Teaching Fellow from the University of Surrey and Vet Sustain Technical Content Lead about her experience on the course.

Hannah first became aware of the course through the Vet Sustain Facebook group, a veterinary sustainability forum hosted by Vet Sustain. The forum is specifically for veterinary professionals to discuss sustainability issues, challenges and solutions, and to inspire one another to drive change towards a more sustainable future.

We asked Hannah what her learning objectives for taking the course were:

“I wanted to better understand sustainability and how it relates to farming. I am passionate about the future of farming and I wanted to be more confident in my own understanding as well as be able to give better advice to students and clients regarding sustainability of future farming.”

The course is hosted through an online learning platform with images, videos and other interactive elements interspersed throughout the text. As the course is accredited by Lantra in the UK and the NZVA in New Zealand, there are compulsory elements that must be completed.

“The layout is very easy to follow. I like that you cannot jump forwards without completing certain tasks. I think there is a good level of interactivity interspersed with the theory. I thought the content was excellent.”

A Veterinary Approach to Sustainable Food & Farming is designed to introduce veterinary professionals to sustainability and inspire and enable them to work with their clients to create change. As an international course we draw on examples from around the world, looking at the bigger picture.

“This course is opening my eyes to the impacts that we can each make as individuals, as well as the simple conversations we can have to drive sustainability in practice/on farm. It has also helped me to understand the broader impacts of climate change that are further reaching globally which has been interesting.”

Thank you to Hannah for taking the time to discuss her course experience. To find out more about the course itself, please visit our website https://learn.vetsustain.org/c... You can also check out the BCVA Cattle Cast (episode 29), where Kat Hart talks in more detail with course facilitators David Black and Lisa Morgans, along with participant Tom Warboys and VetSalus Executive Officer, Megan Williamson.

Our next cohort will shortly be opening for registration, in order to receive the latest updates on the course please join our waiting list. https://learn.vetsustain.org/p...