Food Systems Minor

The production, processing, distribution, and politics of food systems represent one of the main challenges of the 21st century. The minor in Food Systems takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of this essential issue, including courses related to this topic from a variety of departments and programs including Anthropology, Biology, Chemical Engineering, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Economics, Environmental Studies, French & Francophone Studies, Geography, Management, Philosophy, Psychology, and Religion.

The Food Systems minor allows students to advance their interest in food policies, nutrition, water, waste and the urban environment, ethics of consumption, local and global cuisines, cultural practices, and the aesthetics of food. Cultural, political, economic, environmental, scientific and geographic approaches to food within local, urban and global contexts will allow students to investigate the myriad ways in which individuals, communities, and societies produce, distribute, and consume food. By exploring these issues with analytic tools developed in a range of academic disciplines, this minor leads to a critical examination of the role of food in historic and contemporary societies. A Food Systems concentration will enrich students’ understanding of their respective majors and prove useful to careers in a variety of fields, including agricultural sciences, policy, development, advocacy, media, and social and cultural analysis.

The Food Systems minor consists of five courses. At least two courses must come from the “Global Cultural Approaches” list; at least one must come from the “Applied Approaches” list; the other two can be from either list. No more than three courses can be from the same department. No more than one 100-level course may count toward the minor. Please note that courses in the student’s major department cannot count toward a minor.

Students or faculty instructors can request that relevant courses be included in the minor by obtaining approval from the coordinators of the minor. Students can count an internship or field work related to food systems in the form of an independent study course. Students may request that study abroad courses be considered for the minor; the Coordinating Committee will consider study abroad courses upon review of the syllabus.

Students are encouraged to discuss their selection of courses for the minor with a member of the Coordinating Committee.

Global Cultural Approaches to Food Systems

ANTH 265	Food, Eating, and Culture	1
ECON 225	Cultivating Change	1
ENST 204	Global Political Ecology of Food	1
ENST 216	Preindustrial Environment	1
ENST 226	Water Politics and Policies	1
ENST 255	Environmental Injustice	1
FREN 280	Translating Food Cultures	1
FREN 282	Patrimoines Gastronomiques	1
FREN 395	Seminar in French Studies	1
GEOG 345	Food and the Environment	1
PHIL 100	Introduction to Philosophy (Gods, Humans, Animals)	1
PHIL 271	Western Perspectives on Animals	1
PSYC 309	Appetite and Eating Behavior	1
RELI 229	The Ethics of Consumption	1
UNIV 288	Commensality and Conflict: Global Cuisines, Local Contexts	1

Applied Approaches to Food Systems

ANTH 310	Culture, Nature and Place	1
BIOL 150	Plants, People, and the Environment	1
BIOL 330	Plant Systematics	1
BIOL 351	Field Botany	1
CEEG 320	Water Resources Engineering	1
CHEG 452	Bioprocess Engineering	1
CHEG 470	Special Topics in Chemical Engineering (Applied Food Science & Engineering)	1
ECON 235	African Economic Development	1
ECON 273	Latin American Economic Development	1
GLBM 301	Global Supply Chain Management	1

Faculty

Coordinating Committee: Philippe C. Dubois (French), Clare Sammells (Anthropology), Margot Vigeant (Chemical Engineering)