Food and Environment in this Course

The course's overall objective is to understand the processes and patterns; current, future and past changes; and the sustainability (or lack thereof) of environment-food systems. This understanding of environment-food systems is central to our being able to grasp many of the largest challenges being faced today in our local communities, countries, and indeed by the entire world. Health and well-being of our food-producing organisms, principally crops and livestock, along with the high quality of land and water resources are vitally important. The health of these environmental systems is inseparable from the health and well-being of our foods, bodies, and communities.

To understand environment-food systems our course has as one of its main goals the task of examining the interactions of people and their environment. The course pursues this goal by adopting an integrated perspective on the components of environmental systems, human systems, and their interactions. It takes a holistic, integrated view of environment-food interactions as vital to how we understand the larger picture of the many types of existing ecosystems and landscapes. Environment-food systems are especially relevant to the kinds of ecosystems and landscapes that are heavily influenced by people and that are often described as "anthropogenic".

Through the integration of environmental systems and human systems, with a focus on their interactions, this course is designed to encourage students to place themselves actively in the center of understanding current environment-food issues from the local to regional, national, and global scales. The course engages with both environmental- and human-based ways of understanding food and its relations to health and well-being, the environment and land use. It places emphasis on current opportunities and challenges involving personal choices, policy, and management, ranging from health and sustainability to food security and sovereignty.