The University of Michigan Sustainable Food Systems Initiative engages an interdisciplinary mix of students, faculty, and communities at local and global levels to learn from and build food systems that are health-promoting, economically viable, equitable, and ecologically sound.
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Fall 2025 Food Systems Courses
Interested in taking a food systems course next semester? Check out a sampling of graduate and undergraduate courses here.
Faculty Spotlight: Katherine (Kate) Bauer
Katherine (Kate) Bauer is an Associate Professor of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Learn more about how she ended up working in the nutritional sciences field, her current research interests, and more in the following interview.
SEAS Student Spotlight: Sami Maldonado
Second-year University of Michigan SEAS master’s student Sami Maldonado (MS ‘25) has centered her SEAS experience around the study of food systems and food justice. “I see food as the ultimate connector in our world. It brings communities and cultures together because we all eat, and everyone knows about food to some degree.” Read the full article about our wonderful FLFA Course Coordinator, Sami Maldonado!
Faculty Spotlight: Sarah B. Mills
Sarah B. Mills, Ph.D is the Director of Graham’s Center for EmPowering Communities and Associate Professor of Practice in Urban and Regional Planning at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Learn more about her research on renewable energy development on farmland and her work in rural communities in the following interview.
Alumni Spotlight: Becca Harley ’21
Learn about how Becca’s passion for food production and youth education has taken her from working at the UM Campus Farm to becoming the Director of Children’s Farms in Action.
Alumni Spotlight: Taylor LaFave ’17
Taylor LaFave (he/him/his) is the Chief of Food Policy and Planning and Food Policy Director for the City of Baltimore. Learn more about his experience in the UM MURP Program, the projects he has worked on as a Food Systems Planner at the height of COVID-19, and more in the following interview.
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Popular Videos
Leah Penniman | “Farming While Black: Uprooting Racism, Seeding Sovereignty”
March 10, 2020 Some of our most cherished sustainable farming practices – from organic agriculture to the farm cooperative and the CSA – have roots in African wisdom. Yet, discrimination and violence against African-American farmers has led to our decline from 14 percent of all growers in 1920 to less than 2 percent today, with a corresponding loss of over 14 million acres of land. Further, Black communities suffer disproportionately from illnesses related to lack of access to fresh food and healthy natural ecosystems.
Raj Patel | “The Long Green Revolution”
January 31st, 2017 Everything we understand today about the food system, from its influence on wage work to the nation-state, has its origins in the 15th century. By looking at these origins, the politics of feeding the world in the last century, and 21st century ways of re-imagining them, it becomes easier to see how food’s impact on the social fabric of everyday life too often remains hidden.
Saru Jayaraman | “Forked: A New Standard for American Dining”
March 14, 2017 With over 12 million workers, the restaurant industry is one of the largest and fastest growing segments of the US economy, but also the lowest paying. Restaurant workers in Michigan toil for a little over $3 an hour and suffer from the worst sexual harassment of any industry in the state. Saru Jayaraman will speak about new initiatives moving in Michigan and nationwide to change the industry, and how these intiatives are even more critical under the Trump Administration.
