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 |
| ENST 204 | Global Political Ecology of Food | 1 |
| ENST 216 | Preindustrial Environment | 1 |
| ENST 226 | Water & Power | 1 |
| ENST 255 | Environmental Injustice and Activism | 1 |
| FREN 282 | Patrimoines Gastronomiques | 1 |
| FREN 395 | Seminar in French Studies (when topic is food-related) | 1 |
| GEOG 345 | Food and the Environment | 1 |
| PSYC 309 | Appetite and Eating Behavior | 1 |
| RELI 229 | The Ethics of Consumption | 1 |
| RELI 312 | Digesting Divinity: Religion, Food and Diet | 1 |
| RESC 220 | Residential College Dinner Seminar (Food College) | .25 |
| RESC 221 | Residential College Dinner Seminar (Food College) | .25 |
| SOCI 220 | Environmental Sociology | 1 |
| SPAN 361 | Topics in Hispanic Literature ("Spain: Food, Futbol and Fiction") | 1 |
| UNIV 192 | Food, Faith, Justice: Baltimore | .5 |
| UNIV 200 | Integrated Perspectives Course ("West, Cowboys, Nature, Myth") | 1 |
Applied Approaches to Food Systems
| ANOP 301 | Global Supply Chain Management (with Prof. Jimmy Chen) | 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 ("Fermentation") | 1 |
| CHEM 332 | Instrumental Analysis (with Prof. Doug Collins) | 1 |
| CHEM 332L | Lab-Analytical Chemistry II (with Prof. Doug Collins) | 0 |
| ECON 235 | African Economic Development | 1 |
| FOUN 098 | Foundation Seminar ("Sustainable Energy, Food & Lifestyle") | 1 |
| RESC 098 | Foundation Seminar in Residential Colleges ("Food, Farming and Sustainability") | 1 |
| UNIV 200 | Integrated Perspectives Course ("Farm to Table" and "Transforming Food") | 1 |
| UNIV 205 | Confounding Problems ("Food, Faith, Justice: Baltimore") | .25-.5 |
| UNIV 209 | Tasting France: The Science and Culture of Terroir | 1 |
Faculty
Coordinator: Margot Vigeant
Coordinating Committee: John Penniman (Religious Studies), Clare Sammells (Sociology & Anthropology), Mark D. Spiro (Biology), Margot Vigeant (Chemical Engineering)