Current Courses

Food in Modern East Central Europe

History GU4298 (HIST4298) – 4 credits (Fall 2024)

Gabor Egry

Food is life – says a banal truism. It is the foundation of biological existence, and producing, creating and savoring food pervades life from the cradle to the last breath. It is everywhere from the campfire to picture galleries and philosophy books. It is material and symbolic, emotional and calculated. It is a glue and a dividing line between people.

Food is history. Both as a prominent or an almost invisible thread running through life, food is more than itself, a lens on how society changed through history. This course uses food as a social phenomenon to highlight differences and commonalities of the region called East Central Europe without and within. It reflects upon the numerous faces of food, how its changes, its use, creation, consumption, and study mirrors broader historical developments and how it serves as focus of attachments known from contemporary politics: national, local, regional. Following food in East Central European history offers not only an analysis of food and its function within society, but how food has changed with society too.

Throughout the course we shall explore the different – material, cultural, political, class – meanings of food, while introducing perspectives from different academic disciplines like social and political history, sociology, nationalism studies, anthropology. We start from the material, and through the concepts of food culture and food ways we shall connect the symbolic and practical aspects of food. After exploring how technology and science changed food and how it is related to modernity, we shall delve into the cultural and political: how does food reflect and represent various differences, how it is used to symbolize the immaterial. Finally, as East Central European food history is anything but peculiar, we will use food to think about the possible meanings of this geographic concept.

The Food Justice Movement 

Health Policy and Management P8589 (HPMN8589) – 3 credits (Fall 2024) 

Mark Bittman 

This course will explore the complex and evolving relationship between food, public health and social justice. It will provide a context to understand the historical, behavioral, cultural and environmental impacts on access to food, and its integration with population health and the health system. Students will make connections between the food system, public health, and the development and implementation of health policy. Students will translate course material into a practical exercise by designing and implementing a community food and public health project. Food intersects with public health on many more issues than most people imagine.

Food Entrepreneurship (Full-Term)

Management B8582 (MGMT8582) – 3 credits (Fall 2024)

Stephen Zagor

Food Entrepreneurship covers the basic knowledge necessary to develop a food product, restaurant/food retail businesses, and other miscellaneous food related endeavors from the initial idea through early growth. This course is focused on stage one small business success. We supplement in class learning with notable guests from all areas of the food world. The course is divided into five sections. Section 1 lays the foundation by outlining the challenges of opening and maintaining financial and personal success; and, a discussion of current food trends. We also focus on the the creative process to develop and test ideas and to define and attract the market. Section 2 is an in depth discussion on the restaurant and retail food businesses. This section approach is from new business start perspective. We begin by defining challenges of concept development, branding and operations. Then we discuss financial information and reporting that are unique to these types of food businesses. We instill a general understanding of profit or loss and strategy including industry financial benchmarks. It also covers analytical tools used to ensure success. Section 3 discusses issues of starting a food product business, covering product development, packaging, testing, and an understanding the logistics involved in sourcing ingredients, manufacturing, sales and service. Section 4 covers other food related business both on-line and location based. We discuss relationship based sensory marketing/gastrophysics. Section 5 We summarize labor issues, government regulations and laws current and future. We discuss the development of a second phase expansion strategy. In this section we create a pocket business plan.

The Ancient Table: Archaeology of Cooking

Anthropology UN3663 (ANTH3663) – 4 credits (Fall 2024)

Camilla Sturm

Prerequisites: None Humans don’t just eat to live. The ways we prepare, eat, and share our food is a complex reflection of our histories, environments, and ideologies. Whether we prefer coffee or tea, cornbread or challah, chicken breast or chicken feet, our tastes are expressive of social ties and social boundaries, and are linked to ideas of family and of foreignness. How did eating become such a profoundly cultural experience? This seminar takes an archaeological approach to two broad issues central to eating: First, what drives human food choices both today and in the past? Second, how have social forces shaped practices of food acquisition, preparation, and consumption (and how, in turn, has food shaped society)? We will explore these questions from various evolutionary, physiological, and cultural viewpoints, highlighted by information from the best archaeological and historic case studies. Topics that will be covered include the nature of the first cooking, beer-brewing and feasting, writing of the early recipes, gender roles and ‘domestic’ life, and how a national cuisine takes shape. Through the course of the semester we will explore food practices from Pleistocene Spain to historic Monticello, with particular emphasis on the earliest cuisines of China, Mesoamerica, and the Mediterranean.

A BETTER PLANET BY DESIGN

Earth and Environmental Engineering E2100 (EAEE2100) – 3 credits (Fall 2024) 

Adeyemi Adeleye

Introduction to design for a sustainable planet. Scientific understanding of the challenges. Innovative technologies for water, energy, food, materials provision. Multi-scale modeling and conceptual framework for understanding environmental, resource, human, ecological and economic impacts and design performance evaluation. Focus on the linkages between planetary, regional and urban water, energy, mineral, food, climate, economic and ecological cycles. Solution strategies for developed and developing country settings.

TOXIC

Anthropology UN3811 (ANTH3811) – 4 credits (Fall 2024) 

Vanessa L Agard-Jones

It is no secret by now that we live in a toxic sea. Every day, in every place in this world, we are exposed to an unknown number of contaminants, including those in the places that we live, the air that we breathe, the foods that we eat, the water that we drink, the consumer products that we use, and in the social worlds that we navigate. While we are all exposed, the effects of these exposures are distributed in radically unequal patterns, and histories of racialization, coloniality, and gendered inequality are critical determinants of the risks to wellness that these toxic entanglements entail. Scientists use the term body burden to describe the accumulated, enduring amounts of harmful substances present in human bodies. In this course, we explore the global conditions that give rise to local body burdens, plumbing the history of toxicity as a category, the politics of toxic exposures, and the experience of toxic embodiment. Foregrounding uneven exposures and disproportionate effects, we ask how scientists and humanists, poets and political activists, have understood toxicity as a material and social phenomenon. We will turn our collective attention to the analysis of ethnographies, memoirs, maps, film, and photography, and students will also be charged with creating visual and narrative projects for representing body burden of their own.

Introduction to Human Nutrition

Nursing N4104 (NURS4104) – 3 credits (Fall 2024)

Lora Sporny

This undergraduate-level introductory course provides an overview of the science of nutrition and nutrition's relationship to health promotion and disease prevention. The primary focus is on the essential macronutrients and micronutrients, including their chemical structures, food sources, digestion and absorption, metabolism, storage, and excretion. Students develop the skills to evaluate dietary patterns and to estimate caloric requirements and nutrient needs using tools such as Dietary Guidelines for Americans, My Plate, Nutrition Facts Labels, and Dietary Reference Intakes. 

Phys & Nutrition Through the Lifecycle

Nutrition M8200 (NUTR8200) – 3 credits (Fall 2024) 

Moneek Madra

General aspects of normal human growth and development from viewpoints of physical growth, cellular growth and maturation, and adjustments made at birth; the impact of altered nutrition on these processes. Prenatal and postnatal malnutrition, the role of hormones in growth; relationships between nutrition and disease in such areas as anemia, obesity, infection, and carbohydrate absorption.

Meeting the Climate Challenge at all Levels 

International Affairs U6264 (INAF6264) – 3 credits (Fall 2024) 

Adam Zurofsky

This course examines the role of states, cities, and other sub-nationals in crafting and implementing the policy, technical, and behavioral changes necessary to address the climate crisis. While this topic has received increased attention since the election of Donald Trump in the United States, the reality is that cities, states, and other sub-nationals would still have an enormous, if not leading, role to play even with a cooperative federal government. Indeed, one could argue that subnationals represent the front lines in the fight. Substantively, our focus will be on the role of these actors in driving the necessary transition to clean energy, perhaps the key component in the overall effort to combat climate change. The energy sector is also particularly fertile ground for state and city action since states and cities oversee their power grids, establish building codes, and regulate electric and other utilities. Many of the issues and dynamics we will examine in the energy area also have direct application to other aspects of climate policy, such as food and agriculture and land use. The goal of the course is to get students to think more deeply about climate change and the complex intersection of science, economics, and politics that makes policy in this area so interesting and, at the same time, so difficult.

Food, Nutrition and Behavior

HBSV 4010 001 – 3 credits (Fall 2024)

Pamela Koch

For non-majors and majors. A study of physiological, psychological, and socio-cultural factors that affect eating behaviors and the development of individual and cultural food patterns. Topics include the chemical senses and why we like sweet, salt, and fat; self-regulation of what and how much we eat; effect of early experiences with food; food, mind, and behavior; interaction of food and culture through history; cooking and time use trends; meat meanings; psychosocial and cultural factors, and the impact of today’s food environment on food choices.

CLOSED TO NON-NUTRITION MAJORS

Strategies for Nutrition Education and Health Behavior Change

HBSV 5013 001 – 3 credits (Fall 2024)

Pamela Koch

Understanding and application of theoretical frameworks from the behavioral sciences and education to design and deliver food and nutrition education and physical activity promotion to various groups and to facilitate the adoption of healthful behaviors. Students have an opportunity to develop nutrition education lessons and teach them at schools, community settings, and worksites.

Nutritional Epidemiology and Assessment

HBSV 5015 001 – 3 credits (Fall 2024)

Randi Wolf

This course asks, “How Do We Measure What People Eat?” and provides an overview of different methods for determining nutritional status and dietary intake, for both individuals and populations. Topics include measuring food intake (e.g., using 24-hour diet recalls, food frequency questionnaires, food records), diet quality (e.g., using the Healthy Eating Index and Nova Classification System for ultra-processed food), physical activity, and anthropometry and body composition, as well as the importance of using valid and reliable measures for the populations of interest. New technology-based tools are highlighted throughout the course.

CLOSED TO NON-NUTRITION MAJORS.

Food Service Operations and Management

HBSV 5016 001 – 3 credits (Fall 2024)

N Scarangello

Nutrition professionals play an important role in food systems, food service, and management in a wide variety of settings, such as hospitals, post-acute care facilities, universities, and nongovernmental organizations. In the areas of both food service and clinical nutrition, dietitians are responsible for planning, organizing, leading, staffing, and controlling. Through Food Service Operations and Management students will gain knowledge and skills required to effectively manage food, equipment, facilities, and human resources in order to provide high-quality products and services to customers. Through assignments and role-playing, students will also develop important leadership and managerial skills.

Nutrition and Human Development

HBSV 5018 001 – 3 credits (Fall 2024)

Lora Sporny

This course examines the physiologic changes and nutritional needs during pregnancy, fetal development, infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Special attention is paid to promoting positive pregnancy outcomes for both mother and baby, fetal metabolic programming, breastfeeding versus formula feeding, introduction of solid foods to infants, preventing and managing food allergies, coping with picky eating, maintaining a healthy feeding relationship between caregiver and child, promoting nutritional health in children and adolescents, and preventing health and dietary problems (including eating disorders) in children and adolescents.

INTRO TO EPID FOR NUTRITIONIST

Nutrition M6120 (NUTR6120) – 3 credits (Fall 2024) 

Jeri W Nieves

INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC HEALTH NUTRITION

Nutrition M6220 (NUTR6220) – 3 credits (Fall 2024)

Kim Hekimian; Jeri W Nieves

REVIEWS IN NUTRITION

Nutrition G9300 (NUTR9300) - .5 credits (Fall 2024)

Dympna Gallagher

Biochemical and Physiological Basis of N

Human Nutrition GR6205 (HNUT6205) – 4 credits (Fall 2024) 

Lori M Zeltser; Anthony W Ferrante

Food Systems and US Environmental Law 

Law L8421 (LAW_8421) – 2 credits (Fall 2024) 

Food and Drug Law: Policy and Practice

Law L8475 (LAW_8475) – 3 credits (Fall 2024)

Agricultural Energy and Environmental Policy for Governmental, NGO and Corporate Decision-makers

International Affairs U6268 (INAFU6268) - 3 credits (Spring 2024)

Jeffrey Potent 

Farming, ranching, and forestry provide food, fiber, and other products to feed, clothe and satisfy other human needs.

Cookbook: Food as Art

Art History BC2903 (AHIS2903) - 4 credits (Summer 2024)

Irena Haiduk

This course examines food as a medium in contemporary art. To nourish by providing healthful food experiences creates communities and a sense of belonging, care and pleasure. This course and part take in vibrant community of artist chefs in New York City and the Hudson Valley. We will start by tracing the histories of representation of food as well as collaborations between artists, chefs and food growers and proceed to visit kitchens and farms led by artists. The class will cook, bake, pickle and taste food, grow food, serve food and develop its own community of curious Epicureans. Each student will develop, design, print and bind their own cookbook/travelogue, based on their culinary heritage and experiences in class.

No prior knowledge of any medium is required.

Summer Food Institute 

Data Collection (Barnard) BC0001 (BCEN0001) – 0 credits (Summer 2024)

Leslie S Raucher

Barnard’s 2-Week Sustainable Food and the City introduces students to the U.S food system, examining food production, distribution, consumption, and waste management through four key lenses: agriculture; health, policy and justice; food systems and climate change; and soil health. Each week, students will explore farms all across the city and New York state to learn hands-on from farmers growing our food. The program will invite experts and professionals from each unit to guide student's learning experience. Students will take a deep dive into each of these units to imagine a food system that produces food in an ecologically mindful way while supporting our communities and the planet.

Introduction to Human Nutrition

Nursing N4104 (NURS4104) – 3 credits (Summer 2024)

Lora Sporny

This undergraduate-level introductory course provides an overview of the science of nutrition and nutrition's relationship to health promotion and disease prevention. The primary focus is on the essential macronutrients and micronutrients, including their chemical structures, food sources, digestion and absorption, metabolism, storage, and excretion. Students develop the skills to evaluate dietary patterns and to estimate caloric requirements and nutrient needs using tools such as Dietary Guidelines for Americans, My Plate, Nutrition Facts Labels, and Dietary Reference Intakes. 

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

Sustainability Management PS5240 (SUMA5240) – 3 credits (Summer 2024) 

Bruce Kahn

Biodiversity

EEEB1001S001 – 3 credits (Summer 2024) 

Palani Akana

An introduction to the enormous diversity of life on Earth. From bacteria to mammals, this course will survey species diversity, with an emphasis on ecological interactions and conservation. The course will also use basics of genetics and evolutionary biology to explore how diversity is generated and maintained. No previous knowledge of science is assumed. Fulfills a science requirement for most Columbia and GS undergraduates.

Agricultural Energy and Environmental Policy for Governmental, NGO and Corporate Decision-makers

International Affairs U6268 (INAFU6268) - 3 credits (Spring 2024)

Jeffrey Potent 

Farming, ranching, and forestry provide food, fiber, and other products to feed, clothe and satisfy other human needs. However, given the scope and scale of impacts on planetary systems, agricultural objectives cannot be limited to these albeit critically important outcomes. Agriculture’s vast dependency on land, water, energy, and mineral resources and, in turn, its impacts on people and the biological systems that sustain all life demand that systems be managed to not only optimize yield and resulting profitability but also manage to optimize ecosystem, natural resource, nutritional and broader societal outcomes. Fortunately, research, demonstration, and commercialization of environmentally sound and energy efficient agricultural practices present a cost effective alternative to business as usual. The challenge is to facilitate the expanded utilization of such proven practices and the continued research and innovation to demonstrate, disseminate and deploy at scale additional practices so   that agriculture can have a net positive impact on people and the planet well into the future. This course will explore an array of critical environmental and energy issues and case examples from public and corporate policy perspectives to provide grounding for decision-makers working in these and civil society positions.

Universal Food Security

Public Affairs U6411 (PUAFU6411) - 3 credits (Spring 2024)

Glenn Denning 

This course addresses the challenges and opportunities for achieving a productive, profitable, inclusive, healthy, sustainable, resilient, and ethical global food system. Our first class will provide a brief historical perspective of the global food system, highlighting relevant developments over the past 10,000 years and will explain key concepts, critical challenges, and opportunities ahead. For the ensuing few weeks, we will cover the core biophysical requirements for food production: soil and land, water and climate, and genetic resources. We include an introduction to human nutrition – Nutrition Week – that focuses on dietary change and food-based solutions to malnutrition. Building on this, the course will survey a selection of important food systems and trends across Asia, Africa, and Latin America that provide food security and livelihoods for more than half of the world’s population. Case studies and classroom debates throughout the course will explore the roles of science, technology, policies, politics, institutions, business, finance, aid, trade, and human behavior in advancing sustainable agriculture, and achieving food and nutritional security. We will probe the interactions of food systems with global issues including poverty and inequality, the persistence of chronic hunger and malnutrition, climate change, environmental degradation, international food business and value chains, biotechnology (GMOs), post-harvest losses, and food waste. With a sharp eye for credible evidence, we will confront controversies, reflect on historical trends, identify common myths, and surface little-known but important truths about agriculture and food systems. In our final sessions, we address the ultimate question: can we feed and nourish the world without wrecking it for future generations?

Smart Agriculture for a Changing Climate

Sustainability Management PS5245 (SUMAK5245) - 3 credits (Spring 2024)

Agriculture is highly dependent on stable climate conditions to produce the world’s food with sufficient nutritional quality at an affordable cost. Climate change is threatening the breadbaskets of the world with shifting rainfall, pests, and weather patterns. Farmers face enormous challenges in adapting to this volatility that is affecting their livelihoods and communities locally, and threatens the global food systems stability. Adaptation to these changes has become a high priority for policy makers, corporations, and investors around the world. Climate smart agriculture presents solutions to the existential threat to the global food supply by utilizing a range of tech enabled methods for producing more food with less resources. The challenge is daunting because there is no “one size fits all” solution. Instead, localized solutions that meet the social, environmental, and economic realities of farmers need to be developed, accelerated, and implemented. 

U.S. & INT'L NUTRITION

Nutrition M8220 (NUTRM8220) - 3 credits (Spring 2024)

Jeri W Nieves 

Nutrition has rapidly become a focus for US and International Health Policy as well as scores of non-governmental Public Health Programs. This course introduces students to the landscape of Nutrition policy and initiatives worldwide, as well as the deeply entwined relationship between Nutrition and international trade and agriculture. Through a variety of guest lectures, students will encounter diverse and cutting-edge perspectives on international nutrition policy and practice. Students will offer their own presentations and complete four papers but will not be given exams. Students may take this course for 2 or 3 credits.

Introduction to Nutrition

HBSV 4000 001 – 3 credits (Spring 2024)

Lora Sporny

(Course is offered to non-majors and to those desiring admission to the Program in Nutrition.) The course provides an overview of the science of nutrition and its relationship to health promotion and disease prevention. The primary focus is on the essential macronutrients and micronutrients, including their chemical structures, food sources, digestion and absorption, metabolism, storage, and excretion. Students analyze the nutritional quality of their own food intake and develop the knowledge and skills to estimate their daily caloric requirements and nutrient needs using tools such as Dietary Reference Intakes, My Plate, and Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This online course can be completed synchronously or asynchronously.

This is an online course that can be completed synchronously or asynchronously. Registrants will receive all necessary course site access information thru their TC email accounts. For more information please contact the instructor.

Nutritional Ecology

HBSV 4013 001 – 3 credits (Spring 2024)

Pamela Koch

A course for non-majors and majors. This course tries to answer the question, “Is our current food system ecologically sustainable?” Nutrition and food are viewed from a global, ecological perspective. Topics include limits to growth, food and population problems, food product development and promotion, energy and food relationships, food safety, organic agriculture, biotechnology, and other topics.

Closed to Non-nutrition students. Students from outside of the Program in Nutrition who are interested in taking Nutritional Ecology, please email Pam Koch, [email protected].

Community Nutrition

HBSV 4014 001 – 3 credits (Spring 2024)

J Cadenhead

This course examines and evaluates food assistance and safety net programs in the United States and explores the policies, history, and context that lead to unequal access to healthy food. The course includes broad thought-provoking readings as well as working "on the ground": assessing supermarkets and opportunities for safe walking and biking; volunteering at a food pantry; and visiting an urban agriculture site. This course also explores international food assistance programs. Students outside the Program in Nutrition are welcome, with permission from the instructor.

Restricted to Nutrition majors. Prerequisite: HBSV 4013.

Analysis of Current Literature and Research in Nutrition

HBSV 5014 001 – 3 credits (Spring 2024) 

Randi Wolf

Critical examination and evaluation of current controversies and issues in nutrition and food. Topics are reviewed and discussed in depth. Students obtain training in the art of understanding commonly seen study designs, statistical methods, and graphics in the scientific literature to determine whether there is evidence to support (or lack thereof) for making statements about nutrition. Students also learn how to synthesize this information for use by the public. The course highlights areas to consider when analyzing research related to popular diets and dietary patterns, supplements, weight loss drugs, nutritional genomics, and microbiome research.

Restricted to Nutrition majors.

Global Foods Practicum

HBSV 5350 001 – 1 credit (Spring 2024)

Jennifer Hildner

In Global Foods Practicum students will examine the values, practices, and beliefs of different cultures, as well as their own, with regard to food. They will also explore the ways in which dietitians can better understand the cultures and food preferences/habits of their patients. Through experiences inside and outside of class, students will gain skills to effectively work with patients from different backgrounds.

Closed to non-Nutrition students. Students from outside the Program in Nutrition who are interested in taking Global Foods Practicum, please email Jennifer Hildner, [email protected].

Community Nutrition Education Practicum

HBSV 5351 001 – 1 credit (Spring 2024) 

Jennifer Hildner

In Community Nutrition Education Practicum, students examine programs aimed at addressing food insecurity and creating a more healthful, just, sustainable food system, both nationally and internationally and in clinical and community settings. Students will discuss inequities with regard to access to healthy foods and evaluate resources created to help reduce such disparities. Students will explore how to strengthen communities and bring about change on local, national, and international levels through their coursework and experiences within different communities.

Restricted to nutrition majors.

S. Food Systems and US Environmental Law

Law L8421 (LAW) - 2 credits (Fall 2023)

Peter Lehner

INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC HEALTH NUTRITION

Nutrition M6220 (NUTRM6220) - 3 credits (Fall 2023)

Kim Hekimian, Jeri W Nieves 

The Food Justice Movement: What Does it Mean for Public Health?

HPMN P8589 (Fall 2023)

Mark Bittman

This course will explore the complex and evolving relationship between food, public health and social justice. It will provide a context to understand the historical, behavioral, cultural and environmental impacts on access to food, and its integration with population health and the health system. Students will make connections between the food system, public health, and the development and implementation of health policy. Students will translate course material into a practical exercise by designing and implementing a community food and public health project. Food intersects with public health on many more issues than most people imagine.

Nutrition and Human Development

HBSV 5018 001 – 3 credits (Fall 2023)

Lora Sporny

This course examines the physiologic changes and nutritional needs during pregnancy, fetal development, infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Special attention is paid to promoting positive pregnancy outcomes for both mother and baby, fetal metabolic programming, breastfeeding versus formula feeding, introduction of solid foods to infants, preventing and managing food allergies, coping with picky eating, maintaining a healthy feeding relationship between caregiver and child, promoting nutritional health in children and adolescents, and preventing health and dietary problems (including eating disorders) in children and adolescents.

Food Service Operations and Management

HBSV 5016 001 – 3 credits (Fall 2023)

N Scarangello

Nutrition professionals play an important role in food systems, food service, and management in a wide variety of settings, such as hospitals, post-acute care facilities, universities, and nongovernmental organizations. In the areas of both food service and clinical nutrition, dietitians are responsible for planning, organizing, leading, staffing, and controlling. Through Food Service Operations and Management students will gain knowledge and skills required to effectively manage food, equipment, facilities, and human resources in order to provide high-quality products and services to customers. Through assignments and role-playing, students will also develop important leadership and managerial skills.

Nutritional Epidemiology and Assessment

HBSV 5015 001 – 3 credits (Fall 2023)

Randi Wolf

This course asks, “How Do We Measure What People Eat?” and provides an overview of different methods for determining nutritional status and dietary intake, for both individuals and populations. Topics include measuring food intake (e.g., using 24-hour diet recalls, food frequency questionnaires, food records), diet quality (e.g., using the Healthy Eating Index and Nova Classification System for ultra-processed food), physical activity, and anthropometry and body composition, as well as the importance of using valid and reliable measures for the populations of interest. New technology-based tools are highlighted throughout the course.

CLOSED TO NON-NUTRITION MAJORS.

Food, Nutrition and Behavior

HBSV 4010 001 – 3 credits (Fall 2023)

Pamela Koch

For non-majors and majors. A study of physiological, psychological, and socio-cultural factors that affect eating behaviors and the development of individual and cultural food patterns. Topics include the chemical senses and why we like sweet, salt, and fat; self-regulation of what and how much we eat; effect of early experiences with food; food, mind, and behavior; interaction of food and culture through history; cooking and time use trends; meat meanings; psychosocial and cultural factors, and the impact of today’s food environment on food choices.

CLOSED TO NON-NUTRITION MAJORS

Food Security, Plant Biology, Climate Change, and Public Health

Environmental Health Sciences P8303 (EHSCP8303) - 3 credits (Spring 2023)

Lewis Ziska 

As human populations continue to expand, concurrent increases in energy and food will be required. Consequently, fossil fuel burning and deforestation will continue to be human-derived sources of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). The current annual rate of CO2 increase (~0.5%) is expected to continue with global atmospheric concentrations exceeding 600 parts per million (ppm) by the end of the current century. The increase in carbon dioxide, in turn, has ramifications for both climate change but also for plant biology. In this course, our focus will be on how CO2 and climate change alter plant biology and the subsequent consequences for human health. Overall, the course will have three main components. We begin with an overview of interactions between the plant kingdom and human health, from food supply and nutrition to toxicology, contact dermatitis, aero-biology, inter alia. In the second section, we segue to an overview of rising CO2 and climate change, and how those impacts in turn, will influence all of the interactions related to plant biology and health with a merited focus on food security. Finally, for the remainder of the course, our emphasis will be on evaluating preventative strategies related to mitigation and adaptation to climate change impacts specific to potential transformations of plant biology’s traditional role in human society. The course is appropriate for students who are interested in global climate change and who wish to expand their general knowledge as to likely outcomes related to plant biology, from food security to nutrition, from pollen allergens to ethnopharmacology.

FOOD SYSTEMS AND THE HEALTH OF THE PUBLIC

Public Health P6083 (PUBHP6083) - 3 credits (Spring 2023)

Anne Paxton 

The course will provide an overview of the science, policy, politics, and economics of food systems as a critical element of public health. The course will have a primary focus on the food system in the United States, but will include a global perspective.  Students will learn and apply the fundamentals of public health scientific research methods and theoretical approaches to assessing the food landscape though a public health lens. In addition, the course will cover how diet – at first glance a matter of individual choice – is determined by an interconnected system of socio-economic-environmental influences, and is influenced by a multitude of stakeholders engaged in policy making processes.