Food Systems Minor

The minor in food systems takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the production, processing, distribution and politics of food, which are global challenges in the 21st century. The minor offers cultural, political, economic, environmental, scientific and geographic approaches that allow students to investigate the myriad ways in which individuals and societies produce, distribute, consume, understand and experience food. 

The food systems minor covers topics such as food policies, nutrition, water, waste and the urban environment, ethics of consumption, local and global cuisines, cultural practices, and the aesthetics of dining. 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 minor enriches students’ understanding of their respective majors and will 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 may be from either list. No more than three courses may be from the same department. Only one 100-level course may count toward the minor. Please note that courses in a student’s major department may not count toward their minor requirements.

Students or faculty instructors may request that relevant courses, including study abroad courses, be counted toward the minor by contacting the chair of the coordinating committee. Students may also count relevant internships or fieldwork experiences in the form of an independent study course. 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
ANTH 310	Culture, Nature and Place	1
ANTH 328	Feeding Latin America	1
ECON 225	Cultivating Change	1
ENST 204	Global Political Ecology of Food	1
ENST 216	Preindustrial Environment	1
ENST 226	Water & Power	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
IREL 234	Environment & Development	1
IREL 252	Political Economy of Global Resources	1
IREL 430	Global Poverty: Politics and Practices	1
PHIL 100	Introduction to Philosophy (Gods, Humans, Animals)	1
PHIL 271	Eating Animals: Philosophical Perspectives	1
PSYC 309	Appetite and Eating Behavior	1
RELI 229	The Ethics of Consumption	1
RELI 312	Digesting Divinity: Food, Diet and Religion	1
UNIV 200	Integrated Perspectives Course (West, Cowboys, Nature, Myth)	1
UNIV 288	Global Cuisines, Local Contexts: Commensality and Conflict	1

Applied Approaches to Food Systems

ANOP 301	Global Supply Chain Management	1
BIOL 131	Biology of Food	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 242	Introduction to Food Science and Engineering for non-majors	1
CHEG 442	Food Science & Technology	1
CHEG 452	Bioprocess Engineering	1
CHEG 470	Special Topics in Chemical Engineering (Applied Food Science & Engineering, Fermentation Processes)	1
CHEM 332	Analytical Chemistry II (with Prof. Doug Collins)	1
CHEM 332L	Lab-Analytical Chemistry II (with Prof. Doug Collins)	0
ECON 235	African Economic Development	1
ECON 273	Latin American Economic Development	1
RESC 098	Foundation Seminar in Residential Colleges ("Food, Farming and Sustainability")	1
UNIV 200	Integrated Perspectives Course (Farm to Table)	1
UNIV 205	Confounding Problems (Food, Faith, Justice: Baltimore)	.25-.5
UNIV 209	Tasting France: The Science and Culture of Terroir	1

Faculty

Coordinator: Clare Sammells

Coordinating Committee: John Penniman (Religious Studies), Clare Sammells (Sociology & Anthropology), Mark D. Spiro (Biology), Margot Vigeant (Chemical Engineering)