Description
The Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health Major, leading to a Bachelor of Arts, is interdisciplinary and exposes students to the complex intersections and relationships among food and culture, economics, the environment, labor, policy, population health, and social justice. The food systems core courses teach students how the various drivers and components of food systems can affect nutrition and health outcomes.
Likely Careers
Graduates pursue careers that require the ability to disentangle complex problems and develop interdisciplinary solutions in fields like health promotion, nutrition and health assessment, food policy, food advocacy, distribution services, food processing and manufacturing, and farming. Graduates are also academically prepared for graduate studies ranging from public health to interdisciplinary social sciences.
Applying
Students who meet the minimum requirements at the time of application to the major will be admitted.
Competencies
Upon satisfactory completion of the BA in Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health, graduates will be able to:
- Meet the competencies for all SPH degrees
Food Systems
- Describe multiple food systems
- Articulate the challenges the world is facing and will encounter in the future with respect to food and nutrition
- Apply conceptual, theoretical and technical food systems concepts and knowledge to real world circumstances and challenges, including designing, and evaluating solutions
Nutrition & Health
- Define social, economic, cultural, and environmental influences on food access and dietary choices
- Evaluate and predict ways in which complex interactions of components of the food system influence human health and nutrition
- Demonstrate an understanding of public health
Intellectual & Practical Skills
- Demonstrate clear and effective oral and written communication through a variety of methods
- Exercise critical thinking skills, including analysis, design, ethical decision making, future visioning, evaluation, and problem solving
- Apply inquiry and analysis (assessment, critique, and reflection) techniques