Foods and Meals for a Sustainable Future, 7.5 Credits

Contents

The course aims to provide a broad understanding of the interrelationships between food, nutrition, and culinary science within the context of sustainable consumption and production. The course will examine how the main discourses in these disciplines overlap and interact, and how such discourses can be like different languages. The course will emphasize Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG12) "responsible production and consumption" and why there is a need for a dietary shift towards plant-based meals at a population level.

In this course, students will gain knowledge on how to translate and bridge the gaps between different disciplines, and how to analyze and evaluate consumer issues related to food choices. They will also learn about the barriers to diet shift and the adoption of more sustainable and healthy alternatives. The course will cover a wide range of topics, including food products, meals, processes, nutrient composition and requirements, and the meal experience including sensory aspects. By the end of the course, students will have developed an integrated problem-solving competency to synthesize and combine knowledge from different disciplines to develop and propose solutions to challenges related to food, nutrition, and sustainability, and to design and implement strategies to promote the adoption of more sustainable food choices. Top scientists in the field and practitioners and entrepreneurs will be invited as guest speakers. The course will apply a "Problem-based learning" approach, where students will be given scenarios or problems and they will come up with solutions by applying their previous knowledge together with the newly acquired information in the course. Group work will be a key element in this course to develop interpersonal competencies.

This course has been informed by a co-creation workshop with prospective students.

The course consists of three parts:

1. Understanding Food Systems, 2,5 HE credits
2. Transforming the Food and Meal System, 2,5 HE credits
3. Is plant-based eating a responsible consumer behavior? 2,5 HE credits

Part 1. Understanding Food Systems, 2,5 HE credits
This part of the course will provide an introduction to the food system, how it works, how it came to be, and will explore alternatives to the current one. The course will look at legislation and alternative economic models for sustainable food systems. In this part, students will also describe how a sustainable food business looks like.

Part 2. Transforming the Food and Meal System, 2,5 HE credits
This part of the course will focus on the role that food, nutrition, and culinary science play in transforming the food system, and in jointly discovering how individuals can be empowered as agents of change in the marketplace. It will also address cultural barriers to dietary shifts.

Part 3. Is plant-based eating a responsible consumer behavior? 2,5 HE credits
This part of the course will focus on plant-based diets and their role in a more sustainable, just, fair, and resilient food system. Students will analyze the pros and cons of achieving a dietary shift at population level.

Expected learning outcomes

Part 1. Understanding Food Systems, 2,5 HE credits
On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and understanding

• Recall facts, definitions, and concepts related to sustainable food systems
• Describe how food systems work, are legislated, and affect the world
• Describe an ideal sustainable food system

Skills

• Evaluate the complex relationships and intersections between nutrition, environment, ethics, justice, equity, and sustainable consumption and production, and to further combine and integrate them in solving food-related sustainability problems
• Explain how values around food are contextually, culturally, and historically reinforced and thence contradict sustainability interventions

Competences and analytical ability

• Strategic thinking competency enabling to recognize the historical roots and power struggles that made the current food system unsustainable
• Systems thinking to solve complex problems

Part 2. Transforming the Food and Meal System, 2,5 HE credits
On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and understanding

• Describe the role of food, nutrition, and culinary science in transforming the food system
• Describe sustainable food and beverage business

Skills

• Communicate effectively conceptual gaps between different disciplines, and conflictive discourses around sustainable foods and meals
• Generate standard operation practices for sustainability in workplaces
• Recognize the barriers to sustainable diet shift by mainstream consumers and to propose innovative behavior change strategies

Competences and analytical ability

• Values-thinking competency enabling to recognize normalized oppressive structures in the food system and to identify one's own values towards sustainability
• Futures-thinking competency enabling to implement new and resilient food systems

Part 3. Is plant-based eating a responsible consumer behavior? 2,5 HE credits
On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and understanding

• Define consumer research in a sustainable food system
• Explain and understand the need for a dietary shift towards plant-based meals at population level
• Explain the role of sensory characteristics on acceptance of sustainable foods and meals

Skills

• Engage with different actors to co-create sustainable alternatives to the current public meal systems
• Contribute to mainstream change by designing sustainable meals that are accepted by consumers

Competences and analytical ability

• Engage and motivate diverse stakeholders and work with different ways of knowing and communicating about shifting diets
• Challenge the economic system of overproduction and overconsumption

Required Knowledge

90 ECTS in Food Nutrition and Culinary Sciences, including 15 credit thesis, or equivalent. English for basic eligibility for higher education.

Form of instruction

The course will be provided in hybrid format; online and in person at Umeå University.  Internet access, webcam, and headset/microphone are required.

Part 1. Understanding Food Systems, 2,5 HE credits
The teaching consists of synchronous and asynchronous lectures, seminars, and group work. Participation in seminars and group work is mandatory.

Part 2. Transforming the Food and Meal System, 2,5 HE credits
The teaching consists of synchronous and asynchronous lectures, seminars, and group work. Participation in seminars and group work is mandatory.

Part 3. Is plant-based eating a responsible consumer behavior? 2,5 HE credits
The teaching consists of synchronous and asynchronous lectures, seminars, and group work. Participation in seminars and group work is mandatory.
In the course, at least one voluntary field visit will be organized to exemplify sustainable food or meal systems.
 

Examination modes

Part 1. Understanding Food Systems, 2,5 HE credits
This part is examined by:

• Individual online quiz (Fail [U]/Pass [G]/Pass with distinction [VG])
• Group presentation (U/G)

Part 2. Transforming the Food and Meal System, 2,5 HE credits
This part is examined by:

• Individual written reflection (U/G/VG)
• Seminars (U/G)
• Group presentation (U/G)

Part 3. Is plant-based eating a responsible consumer behavior? 2,5 HE credits
This part is examined by:

• Individual online quiz (U/G/VG)
• Group presentation (U/G)
• Joint written report (U/G/VG)

Full course
To pass the course, all examinations must at least be graded pass (G). To pass the course with distinction (VG), two parts must be graded VG.
Ph.D. students can take 2 parts of the course (5 ECTS) and write how they integrate sustainability into their PhD research.

A re-examination will be offered no later than two months after the ordinary examination, however, the re-examination will be offered no earlier than ten working days after the result of the ordinary examination has been announced and a copy of the student's exam is available for the student. For exams conducted during May and June, the first retest may be offered within three months of the regular examination.

In addition, at least one further re-examination must be offered within one year from the regular examination. In cases where exams or compulsory teaching elements cannot be repeated in accordance with current rules for re-examination and retraining, it may instead be replaced by another assignment. The scope and content of such a task must be proportionate to the missed mandatory element.
Deviations from the syllabus can be made for a student who has been granted educational support due to a disability. Individual adaptation of the examination form will be considered based on the student's needs. The form of examination is adapted within the framework of the syllabus's expected study outcomes. At the request of the student, the teacher responsible for the course, in consultation with the examiner, must promptly decide on an adapted examination form. The decision must then be notified to the student.

Students who fail at one examination have the opportunity to take part in renewed examination on at least five occasions. A student has the right to request a change of examiner after two failed tests on parts of the course. The Director of Studies is contacted in such cases. The examinations based on this syllabus can be guaranteed for two years after the student's first registration on the course. Students who have been graded pass on a test cannot undergo a re-examination. In the event that the syllabus expires or undergoes major changes, students are guaranteed at least three examination opportunities (including ordinary examination opportunity) according to current syllabus for a maximum period of two years from the date the previous syllabus expired or the course ceased to be offered.

Transfer of credits
Transfer of credits regarding this course (in whole or in part) can be tested. See the university's regulations and transfer of credit system. The application is made at the university's' e-service for credit transfer. Credit transfer is tested by the Student Center at Umeå University