This paper discusses the development and delivery of an interdisciplinary, field trip based elective that has been offered at RMIT University for 25 years. Titled Farming the Future, during the course students are introduced to differing perspectives and approaches to sustainability in different contexts and localities. The paper explains how the learning and teaching approach has shifted and changed over time and also what has remained the same. It also explores the research question—how does being in the field contribute to and transform students’ understandings of sustainability? It does so by focussing on two field trip location, the first a coastal location 150 km south east of Melbourne, Victoria’s capital city and the second a peri urban region to the west of Melbourne. During the course students are asked to listen carefully to speakers and each other and to reflect on what they have heard in the field. They are also asked to consider how this iterative process challenges their predetermined assumptions. In doing so the idea of what sustainability is, or could be, is opened up for discussion, debate and reimagining. The paper argues that listening calls for empathy, critical reflection and (self) awareness enabling more respectful processes of engagement leading to the possibility of a more peaceful and prosperous future.