Courses affiliated with the IHC’s Food Matters Program
For information on enrollment, please contact the course’s home department.
Winter term 2009
Freshman Seminar Int94BZ "Genetic Modification of Food Crops"
Instructor: Rolf Christoffersen, Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology
Friday 1:00-1:50 PM / Girvetz 1119
The seminar will explore the implications of genetic modification of our food crops with special emphasis on the application of recombinant DNA technology for crop improvement. The scientific basis of these technologies will be explained at the level of a non-science major. Course materials will include a critical review of articles from the popular scientific press concerning the dangers and benefits of GM crops. The potential impact (both good and bad) on agriculture in developing countries will also be covered.
http://www.freshsem.ucsb.edu/seminars/winter2009/int94BZ.php
Environmental Studies 146: Animals in Human Society.
Instructor: Jo-Ann Shelton
TTh 2:00 - 3:15 / Girvetz 1116
Issues discussed include animal welfare, human health, environmental impact, and social justice.
Religious Studies 185: Food, Religion & Culture in the Middle East
Instructors: Juan and Magda Campo
MWF 2-2:50 PM / TD 2600
Education 191C: Healthy Eating and Living
Fall, winter and spring terms
Mondays and Wednesdays / 1-2:50 PM
Student Health Classroom 1
Healthy Eating and Living (Education 191C) is a 4 unit class where students get to know more about themselves, how to help others, and learn the basics of nutrition, body image, eating disorders and exercise for health. The class prepares you to be a HEAL (Health Eating and Living) Intern by teaching you public speaking, communication, how to help a friend, how to be a good listener, and when to refer to professional staff. The class size is kept small which encourages discussion and debate. Registration is by application only. Applications are available on the 1st day of class. Students who do well in the class are encouraged to apply to be a member of HEAL.
For more information contact Joanna Hill at joanna.hill@sa.ucsb.edu or call 805-893-2630.
English 594FE: Food Futures
Instructor: Allison Carruth –– Winter + Spring 2008
Meetings (10 total meetings):
Winter:
3 Fridays in Winter,10-12:30 (1/16, 1/30, 2/20)
2 days attendance Food Sustainability & Security Conference (2/5-2/6)
1 film screening: "The Garden" (TBD)
Spring:3 Fridays in Spring, 10-12:30 (TBD)
1 IHC "Food Matters" Event (TBD)
This colloquium will investigate the recent past and will speculate on the future horizons of food studies: an interdisciplinary field of inquiry that offers exciting possibilities for cultural studies generally and for environmental criticism specifically. Our first goal will be to understand the methods and materials that have defined this field during the past several years. Here, we will focus on the work of leading food scholars in Sociology, Anthropology, and American Studies (for example, Melissa Caldwell, Melanie DuPuis, Harvey Levenstein, and Julie Sze). Our second goal will be to consider how three theoretical discourses - pertaining to class and consumption, to late capitalism, and to environmental justice - may inform new scholarship in the field. In particular, we will read from Pierre Bourdieu's Distinction, David Harvey's Spaces of Global Capitalism, Vandana Shiva's Earth Democracy, and Donna Haraway's writings on genetically modified foods. Finally, we will work collaboratively to imagine future lines of inquiry for the field. To this end, students will present in a workshop setting on existing (or nascent) research projects. Alongside these presentations, we will examine a small archive of primary works, attending to the possibilities and problems that these works suggest for the future of food studies and of the food system. This archive will include legal and scientific documents related to Monsanto's Bt corn, the source materials for Cherríe Moraga's 1992 play Heroes and Saints, and, lastly, a selection of New York Times columns by food journalist Michael Pollan. In addition to six formal sessions, colloquium participants will also attend 1 film screening (The Garden, date TBD), a 2-day Food Sustainability and Security conference (2/5-2/6), and at least one other event connected to the IHC's "Food Matters" program (http://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/foodmatters.html).
Spring term:
Evolution, Use and Conservation of Food Crop Diversity
Environmental Studies 158/ Geography 195/ Anthropology 158/ Anthropology 231
Professors: David A. Cleveland, Daniela Soleri
Prerequisite: upper div standing AND
a) instructor approval (e-mail for add code) OR b) ES/Anth 149
Take a close look at your next meal. Do you know what kind of plants you are eating? How they are eaten in other parts of the world? Where they came from originally? Who grows them now? And....what do you think you will be eating 10 years from now?
The genetic, agronomic, food, and sociocultural diversity embodied in our food plants is an important resource for the future of both modern industrial agriculture, and low-input traditionally based farming communities. Understanding, using and conserving food crop diversity has become a critical issue in recent decades due to a rapidly growing human population, the need to make agriculture more socioeconomically and environmentally sustainable, new biotechnologies, the push for intellectual property rights for plants by the WTO and many national governments, increasing interest in collaboration between farmers and scientists, and resurging interest in traditional ethnic and regional foods.
This course is an interdisciplinary and global exploration of the historical, social, ecological and genetic forces that brought those plants to your plate, and how those plants, and your food, might change in the future. We will investigate the evolution of crop species from wild plants to farmers' traditional varieties and modern varieties created by plant breeders, how their spatial distribution and diversity is influenced by the biophysical and socioeconomic environment including how people use, know and value them, and options for conserving them, both in situ and ex situ. We'll also cover the effects of agricultural biotechnology, including genetic engineering.
An important part of this class will be a hands-on research project that applies the theory and methods of the course to investigating the diversity and distribution of historic olive (Olea europaea) trees in Santa Barbara County, including UCSB and Goleta. There will be field trips for observation and data collection (including GPSing trees, measuring trees & leaves, interviewing people about olive trees). Students will participate in analyzing morphophenological, genetic, historical and sociocultural data using a GIS and other tools. (See Olive Project research site: http://www.es.ucsb.edu/proj/olive/index.htm.)
Small-Scale Food Production
Environmental Studies 166FP/ Geography 171FP / Anthropology 166FP/ 266FP (5 units)
Instructor: David Cleveland
Prerequisite: Environmental Studies 149, Geography 161, Anthropology 149 or 204
This course covers the biological, ecological, social, and economic theory of small-scale food production, and how it is applied in low-input management strategies. The goal is to encourage food production that is based on both scientific and local knowledge, conserves resources, and improves nutritional, economic, and social well-being. Requirements include weekly reading assignments, weekly lab exercises and garden journal, quizes, final exam, and cultivation of a group garden plot.
Class meets in a classroom twice a week, and once a week for a three-hour garden lab at the UCSB Greenhouse and Garden Project, an organic two-acre garden on the UCSB campus. Each student will complete weekly lab exercises, cultivate a garden plot, and keep a garden journal. Garden membership is required ($20 fee); tools will be provided. There will also be field trips to visit local farms. The readings include articles from the current scientific literature and selections from Cleveland and Soleri (1991) Food From Dryland Gardens.
Biotechnology, Food and Agriculture
Environmental Studies 166BT
Geography 171BT
Anthropology 166BT/217
Instructor: David Cleveland
Prerequisite: Upper division standing
Social, cultural, ethical, biological, and environmental issues surrounding biotechnology (BT) and the food system. Includes theory and method of BT, scientific, social, and political control of BT, effect of BT on genetic diversity, small-scale farmers, the environment, food supppy, and consumer health. Student evaluation based on class discussion, quizzes, final exam, and project.
Food and Hospitality in Seventeenth-Century French Literature
Instructor: Ronald Tobin (French & Italian)
Freshman Seminar: Food & Religion
Instructor: Juan Campo (Religious Studies)
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