Objectives and competences
Upon completion of this course the students will:
- understand the sustainable approaches to food production and security.
- recognize the barriers that have kept society on a path with no desirable future.
- critically evaluate food industry by-product recovery technologies.
- realize the approach needed for food systems to become part and parcel of a sustainable society and the role engineers need to play in such transformation.
Teaching Methodologies
'Students acquire an overview of the environmental impacts of food production and an understanding of how to incorporate the principles of sustainability into engineering practices. They also improve their awareness of interrelatedness in the environmental puzzle and how ecology, economy and society cannot survive without a renewed deeper connection to Nature and a bold new worldview where Homo sapiens stands down as the planet’s self-appointed manager.
Syllabus
- Introduction to core module concepts: sustainability, environment, ecosystems, biodiversity, energy and climate
- Food production and supply chains: current troubles and key questions
- Water resources and water pollution within the food industry
- Improving food sustainability, health, justice, and security
- Environmental worldviews, ethics, politics, and economics: the nexus into a workable future
- In addition to the above field visits and lab demonstrations will be held. Industry lecturers will be invited, and current news discussed.
