This seminar is designed to introduce students to some of the major topics and approaches in food studies today. We’ll discuss arguments for and against local and organic production, vegetarianism, and GMOs. We’ll explore nutritional myths and controversies. We’ll visit the archives and create a public exhibit featuring primary sources about what we can learn from food history. And we’ll investigate labor conditions in the food industry and food insecurity in the U.S.

This course provides an understanding of basic nutrition science for students with limited science backgrounds. The course will explore: nutrition research study designs; the biological functions and food sources of each nutrient class; diet planning; government standards and food labeling; the role of nutrition in chronic diseases; energy balance, weight management, and physical activity; current nutrition-related controversies; and food safety and security issues.

This course explores impacts of modern human society on land, ocean, and atmosphere, considering all aspects relevant to a sustainable future. Throughout the semester, students work on a sustainability pledge to apply class material to everyday life.

From urban agriculture to global agribusiness, food is a powerful symbolic and material tool for Black activists, politicians and everyday consumers. Course discussion will focus on the role of anti-blackness in the food system, methods for evaluating its effects, and practices for overcoming it. Readings and case studies explore debates for pay equity within the food industry, the politics and stakes of cultural appropriation, and how food apartheid has shaped urban landscapes.

This course explores what we do and why we do what we do to the world around us.  Without ignoring the theoretical, this course will focus on ethics as it bears on practical, everyday things: using energy, eating food, building houses, flying to far-away destinations, hiking in wild places, watching birds….  Our effects are far reaching: climate change, industrial agriculture and CAFOs, pollution and ecological restoration, biodiversity and species extinctions, wilderness, genetic engineering of plants and animals. We will ask “what is a good way to live in nature?”

How can evolutionary concepts help us understand human health, agriculture, climate change, biodiversity loss, and human impacts of the natural world? BIO 121 is a mini course that covers a number of topics falling under the broad heading of Evolutionary Applications.

Study of body mass regulation including the understanding of food, digestion, metabolism and different intervention strategies such as a diet and exercise.  Students learn assessment and prescription principles and techniques.

This course examines patterns of food production, processing, and consumption in the ancient Mediterranean world in order to observe the organization and symbolic construction of communities through time. Manners of eating and drinking – or starving – in Greek, Hellenistic and Roman society will be the focus.

This community-academic partnership course offers a unique opportunity for students to gain an interdisciplinary overview of crises and opportunities in today’s food system through a weekly lecture series bringing high-profile speakers to campus from diverse sectors: academia, grassroots movements, public health, farming, and more. The course will be mainly virtual with some in-person sessions.

This course introduces the student to the growing epidemic of severe allergic diseases,
such as food allergies. Course lectures and discussions will focus on the advances in
immunology and public health that have led to a decrease in infectious diseases but
have been associated with an increase in hypersensitivity diseases, such as asthma and
food allergies.

This minicourse focuses on environmental issues in the Great Lakes. Topics include the formation and geology of the Great Lakes, hydrology and dynamics of water levels, effect of invasive species on food webs and fisheries, and pollution, particularly the role of nutrients in causing toxic algal blooms.

This introductory special topics course seeks to examine environmental problems and issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. Specific topics will vary by term.

Nutrition in the Life Cycle will cover nutritional needs of individuals during critical stages of development. Students will learn about the biological basis for nutritional requirements in normal development and maintaining health in adulthood. Consequences of over- and under-nutrition and how to identify and address these issues will be discussed.

This course examines the relationship between plants, people, and the environment; focusing on economically important plants. Plants are important for survival, aesthetic, and environmental purposes and have had significant impacts on human history, society, and environment. Today plants are critical for our future. Topics include foods, fibers, drugs, and ornamentals.

This first-year seminar is designed to explore three facets of the argument for vegetarianism: sustainability, health, and animal welfare. Is vegetarianism better for the environment? How much better? Would going vegetarian or vegan make most people healthier or thinner? Are there any drawbacks, nutritionally? What we know about conditions for animals in the food industry, and how would a transition to eating less meat and more plants affect rodents, birds, and downstream aquatic life? How can we apply what we’ve learned to improving the food served by UM Dining Services? A hands-on, interdisciplinary approach to the multi-dimensional issue of eating meat

This course offers hands-on experience and skill building in propagation of organic transplants with a primary focus on vegetable, herb, and flower crops used in diversified farm operations. UM Campus Farm grows food for-students by-students through our partnerships with  MDining, our weekly fall on campus Farm Stand, and donations to Maize and Blue Cupboard Food Pantry. The combined weekly lecture lab format held at Matthaei Botanical Gardens will emphasize the principles and practices of successful organic transplant production and the application of that knowledge in the growing of transplants for a wide range of Campus Farm programmatic uses.  Students will explore both the theory and practices associated with plant propagation for use in organic farming including, seeding, germination, media, fertility, pest and disease management, temperature control, watering, seed selection and plant management.   As part of a service learning framework for the course, students will help produce transplants for donation and distribution to Campus Farm urban agriculture partners in Ypsilanti and Detroit for use in their farms and programs. This is a ½ term (7 week) course that starts after spring break and meets at Campus Farm/Matthaei Botanical Gardens, Wednesdays 1-5pm.

Global food systems have dramatically altered biogeochemical cycles, contributing to climate change and eutrophication of waterways. Growing concern about agriculture’s environmental impacts is increasing demand for citizens, scientists, and policymakers who have in-depth knowledge of more sustainable agroecosystem management approaches. We will focus on how management impacts carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) cycles from soil-plant to global scales. The course links theory and practice, and domestic and international examples, to discuss the complex challenges of sustainable food production, with an emphasis on applying ecological principles to soil management. Students will develop skills using this knowledge in applied settings.

This course will explore Black Agrarian Cooperatives and the connections to grassroots
movements from historical and contemporary lenses. The goal of this course is to
develop an analysis of food, farm, land, and environmental cooperatives as
anti-capitalist strategies and practical implementations of justice. The course will
examine historical and current case studies of Black cooperative philosophy and practice
and how they operate in grassroots movement settings. Students will develop an
understanding of the historical and contemporary factors that shape the emergence of
Black agrarian cooperatives as acts of sociopolitical and socioeconomic resistance,
community self-determination, and empowerment. Students will analyze grassroots case
studies, policy landscapes, and community discourses connected to Black agrarian
cooperative formations.

The world is in the midst of a period of environmental change that is unprecedented in the history of human life. This course examines the causes and consequences of one of the most prominent forms of change in the modern era – loss of biological diversity and its impacts on the ecological functions performed by natural ecosystems.The goals of the class are to (i) detail the scientific evidence for why Earth’s biological resources are being depleted, (ii) outline how these changes are likely to impact ecosystems and the services they provide to humanity, (iii) describe the social and economic trade-offs we are likely to face as a result of biodiversity loss, and (iv) study the current and emerging management strategies that are used to curb changes in our planet’s biological resources.

This course examines the principles and applications of epigenetics and epigenomics as they relate to human nutrition, environmental exposures and disease etiology. Lectures will address epigenetic mechanisms, environmental epigenomics, and policy implications. Examples and case studies will evaluate these  processes using both animal and human examples drawn from the primary literature. Students will also be introduced to current laboratory methods and emerging technologies for examining epigenetics and epigenomics.

Global environmental change, including climate change, natural resource degradation, and burgeoning populations, will challenge global food security over the coming decades. In this class, we will read recent primary literature to understand the extent to which our current food system can sustain growing food demand in the face of global environmental change. We will discuss potential solutions for increasing food security more sustainably, reducing pressures on the limited resources that remain on the planet. There are no prerequisites for the course.

The rights of Indigenous peoples are powerful policy and legal instruments for enacting agendas in conservation, food security and food sovereignty, environmental quality, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and sustainable development. At the same time, Indigenous peoples struggle against nations, institutions, and industries that willfully ignore or strategically exploit Indigenous rights. Rights are among the major policy and legal instruments Indigenous peoples use in pursuit of environmental justice. Students of environmentalism, sustainable development, and environmental justice ought to have practical knowledge of the history, current practices, and future innovations in the field of Indigenous rights. They must understand the contextual differences in rights law and policy in different places, and the institutions through which rights claims can be articulated and enforced. The course will be taught as a legal and policy primer, including in depth study of the history of Indigenous rights, key rights laws and policies in use in different parts of the world, including through the United Nations, and innovations in rights methodology by Indigenous peoples, such as the rights of non-human entities. The Indigenous rights-based content of the course will be discussed in relation to rights traditions of other groups, including people of color and people of the global majority.

This course will provide students with an understanding of the principles of program evaluation with an emphasis on global nutrition programs.  The course will create a space for discussion and practice in which knowledge can be applied to current global nutrition issues through research and critical analysis.

This community-academic partnership course offers a unique opportunity for students to gain an interdisciplinary overview of crises and opportunities in today’s food system through a weekly lecture series bringing high-profile speakers to campus from diverse sectors: academia, grassroots movements, public health, farming, and more. The course will be mainly virtual with some in-person sessions.

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the nutritional requirements of pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Main topdics include: physiologic and metabolic adaptations of pregnancy and lactation, maternal nutrition during pregnancy and lactation, composition of human milk and formula, feeding practices of infants and toddlers, and the nutrient requirements of infants, children, and adolescents. At the conclusion of this course, students will have gained a sufficient foundation in maternal and child nutrition to better understand the relevant scientific literature.

Nutrition in the Life Cycle will cover nutritional needs of individuals during critical stages of development. Students will learn about the biological basis for nutritional requirements in normal development and maintaining health in adulthood. Consequences of over- and under-nutrition and how to identify and address these issues will be discussed.

Students will learn about the impact of physical activity on the nutrition requirements in active individuals and special populations with chronic disease. Students will also learn how to use exercise and diet modification for weight loss and maintenance through lectures and hands-on activities.

U.S. Food Policy — This course examines how food policies in the U.S. are developed and implemented as well as their impacts on public health, food security and societal well-being. It also examines theories of the policy process and frameworks for undertaking policy analysis. Undergraduates are allowed to enroll in this course.