Course Outline – 10/21/11
ANS/AREc/IPSI/FST/NUTR/RS 499/599:
Introduction to Food Systems: Global, Regional, Local
MWF 11am
What is a food system?
“The food system includes all processes involved in keeping us fed: growing, harvesting,
processing (or transforming or changing), packaging, transporting, marketing,
consuming and disposing of food and food packages. It also includes the inputs needed
and outputs generated at each step. The food system operates within and is influenced
by social, political, economic and natural environments. Each step is also dependent on
human resources that provide labor, research and education.” (Cornell University, nd,
Discovering the Food System)
There are different ways of thinking about food systems. For example,
“The food system is enormous, complex, and integrally related to a host of
environmental and social challenges including environmental pollution, greenhouse gas
emissions, fair trade, erosion, biodiversity loss, and hunger and malnutrition to name a
few.” (Millstone and Lang, Atlas of Food, 2008)
This new course will introduce students to the complex topic of food systems by drawing on the
range of disciplines represented in the College of Agriculture and the College of Public Health
and Human Sciences. Most of the lectures will be given by faculty in the colleges, offering
students both content and theoretical framing specific to their departments. The Rural Studies
Program will lead course development and implementation.
The course will be taught in the spring of 2012. It will be a 3-credit course for upper division
undergraduates and graduate students, letter graded, in three 50 minute class sessions per
week (MWF). We will cap it at 25 students.
Course requirements:



Attendance/class participation;
Four reflection papers (<5 p. each) on the four sections of the class (see below);
Final project: students, in groups of 5, will research and make a presentation on a
specific food product. Each student will be assigned a different role: grower, processor,
marketer/distributor, consumer, policy analyst. Separately and together, the students
will research that food production system and make a presentation.
Instructions for lecturers:
 Please plan to assign at least 10 pages of reading per class session. (We’ll need to
finalize this well before the term begins.)
1




What three concepts (expressed in a few words/phrases) do you want students to take
away from your lecture? Tell Lauren beforehand and the students at the start/end of
your lecture.
Early in your lecture, tell us where your part fits on the food system diagram (we’ll
distribute it to you before classes start and show/explain it to students in lecture #1).
As much as possible, be explicit in your lecture about the scale of your topics: global,
regional, and/or local?
Provide, at the end of your lecture, a short list of resources for more information:
papers/books/people/organizations.
Proposed Course Outline/Schedule (10 weeks, plus finals week)
The course has four sections; at the end of each, there will be a class session, led by Lauren, to
reflect on/digest what came before. A short paper will be due at the start of that class.
Section 1
Introduction to Food Systems
April 2: Introduction to food systems/course mechanics – Lauren Gwin/Bruce Weber (AREc)
April 4: Evolution of the U.S. Food System – Paul Barkley (AREc)
April 6: Geography of Food – Larry Becker (Geosciences)
Focus on agricultural systems:
 Discussed by climate region (e.g. tropical and temperate);
 Investigated by production orientation, along a subsistence/peasant and
commercial/market-oriented/productivist continuum;
 Classified/introduced by crop & animal type/commodity, related to the other factors;
 Attention to land tenure, labor organization, local and world trade, and inputs.
Crop Production (Russ Karow and CSS faculty)
April 9: Soils, climates and ecozones; hydroponics – where can we grow crops and why
April 11: A primer on crop plant physiology – cool season, warm season, winter, spring, dryland,
irrigated, paddy – how does physiology drive crop production and what changes are possible
April 13: Fertilizers – what are they, where do they come from, why do we use them and what
is their future
April 16: Non-food uses of crops and crop land – what and why, bioproducts, grazing, land
conservation programs
2
April 18: Production systems – conventional, “sustainable,” organic – the what’s and whys
April 20: Factors affecting crop food security – diseases, pests, regulations, GMOs, soil
degradation, water concerns
April 23: Reflection session for Section 1
Section 2
Meat and Seafood Production (Jim Males, ANS/Gil Sylvia, COMES)
April 25: Commercial Poultry (eggs and meat) and swine production – Males
April 27: Commercial Dairy and Beef – Males
April 30: Organic, Natural, and Niche market production for meat, milk, and eggs – Males
May 2 and May 4: the complexity of seafood systems (number of species, management
systems, wild and cultured, plus global production and trade) – Sylvia
May 7: Reflection session for Section 2
Section 3
Food Processing and Preservation (Bob McGorrin and FST faculty)
Processing/preservation/packaging for different food products (case studies).
May 9: Grain Crops – Andrew Ross (FST/CSS)
May 11: Fruits & Vegetables & Food Safety – Mark Daeschel (FST)
May 14: Dairy – Lisbeth Goddik (FST)
Food Choices and Foodservice Systems (Mary Cluskey/NUTR)
May 16, May 18, and May 21: consumer/health perspective; programming on food security,
food programs, foodservice, food and nutrition policy. Focus will be to address the public’s
need to understand these concepts relative to eating and health.
May 23: reflection session for Section 3
3
Section 4
Economics and Policy: Global and Local
May 25: What to Eat and What to Grow? Consumer economics and food choices, and farmer
economics and production choices – Susan Capalbo (AREc)
May 30: Food Retail, past and present – Tom Gilpatrick, PSU (to be invited)
June 1: Global food markets and trade policy – Munisamy Gopinath (AREc)
June 4: Household food insecurity and food assistance policy – Bruce Weber (AREc)
June 6: Local food – Larry Lev (AREc)
What “local” means; costs and benefits of a more localized food system; a framework, for
producers and consumers, for considering the tradeoffs of the choices they face; and an
introduction to “values-based value chains” and the “agriculture of the middle.”
June 8: Reflection session for Section 4
Finals week (June 11-15)
The five student presentations (15-20 min. each) will be given during the finals period.
4