Entrepreneurship and more, particularly ecopreneurship, are essential to drive the sustainable transitions needed in food supply chains. Existing pedagogic frameworks should address these academic disciplines and they should be embedded in the educational curricula. Even when ideas are formed that can drive sustainable change, the process from ideation to commercialization can be difficult: the so-called “valley of death.” This aim of this conceptual paper is to consider pedagogic and program design and the mechanisms required to enaction of a body of practice around entrepreneurship and, more specifically, ecopreneurship, within academic curricula and associated business incubators. This makes this paper of particular interest for academia, policy makers and industry support sectors alike. An existing university that has both a student enterprise and ecopreneurship program and an established agri-technology business incubator and accelerator is used as a case study to provide insight into how progress from ideation to commercialization can be more readily supported in a university setting. From a pedagogical perspective, it is incumbent to develop new conceptual, methodological and theoretically underpinned spiral pedagogies to teach and support future generations of learners at agricultural and land-based colleges and universities as to how to exploit and take advantage of entrepreneurial and ecopreneurial business opportunities. Productization, too, needs to be embedded into the ecopreneurial pedagogy and also consideration of how businesses and their associated ecopreneurs navigate from ideation to successful product/service commercialization.

This viewpoint article discusses the contemporary yet hidden issue of 'Farming with Dyslexia'. Of interest to policy analysts, researchers, and practitioners, the purpose of this discussion is to raise awareness of dyslexia at a time when there is increasing bureaucratisation of official farming support services. We discuss the issue from the perspective of local economic development and regeneration, as well as considering issues of economic empowerment within the context of wider social, political and economic change. With increasing pressure on farmers to become more entrepreneurial, navigating the effects of dyslexia on their daily farming routines and ultimately their often economically fragile fortunes demands that more attention is paid to the educational and social architecture that supports these rural communities.

No abstract