NUTR311 - Food, Society, and the Environment

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

NUTR202 Lifespan Nutrition AND (PUBH202 Public Health Research Methods OR PSYC226 Research Design and Data Analysis 2 )

Unit rationale, description and aim

Food systems that are sustainable and environmentally sound are urgently needed to provide food for the world’s population now and into the future. Building these food systems requires a critical understanding of the historical, cultural, social, economic, political, environmental, and technological influences on food choice, use and habits of individuals and communities, both locally and globally. In this unit, students will be provided with the opportunity to critically analyse these issues and propose ‘real-world’ solutions while developing their individual research skills. Building on understanding and skills developed in earlier units, students will extend their competence in systematically searching for, retrieving and analysing food and nutrition-related literature, and synthesising learning about socioecological impacts on food choice within a broader food system context. The aim of this unit is to support students to develop a framework for critically analysing food systems, articulate the requirements for appropriate sustainable food systems, and further develop research skills. 

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

Content

Topics will include:

• Critical approaches to examining food and nutrition issues
• Finding, synthesising, and presenting the evidence
• Food systems; yesterday, today and tomorrow
• Socioecological model for understanding influences and their interrelationship
• Food habits, choosing and using food
• Food and culture and religion
• Food sociology, policy, economics
• Food and technology
• Environmental issues in food systems
• Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander ways of caring for land
• Sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals
• Professional and culturally safe presentations in academic fora
• Peer review

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

In keeping with the sequence of learning outcomes in this unit, the learning and teaching strategy comprises three phases that are designed to provide students with a developmental learning experience. The unit begins with approaches designed to support students to draw on and consolidate prior knowledge and the development of understanding and skills needed to critically analyse food and nutrition issues through searching for and examining the literature. The unit progresses to activities that integrate this approach in the examination of key topics on sustainable and environmentally sound food systems. The final stage involves approaches that support students to share their learning of research and key content through developing professional presentation skills. The approaches used in this unit have a constructively aligned developmental sequence designed to progressively and logically support students’ learning in ways that maximise the perceived (and actual) relevance and value of each stage. This should engender higher levels of engagement, efficiency and effectiveness in students’ study behaviours, and maximise their learning achievements.

Learning and teaching approaches include active learning, case-based learning, individual and group activities, cooperative learning, online learning, and reflective/critical thinking activities, delivered over 12 weeks. This approach will provide students with appropriate access to required knowledge and understanding of unit content, and opportunities for development of skills. Specific learning and teaching approaches include asynchronous online modules where students will develop a critical understanding of issues related to food, society and the environment, and tutorial classes where students will develop and apply theoretical learnings using a research approach. This will occur over the first half of the unit. The second half of the unit will be dedicated to seminar preparation and presentation where students will share their learnings and review peer presentations. This strategy and approach will allow students to meet the aim, learning outcomes and graduate attributes of the unit. Learning and teaching strategies will reflect respect for the individual as an independent learner. Students will be expected to take responsibility for their learning and to participate actively in learning activities.

Assessment strategy and rationale

To best enable students to achieve unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes, standards-based assessment is utilised, consistent with University assessment requirements.

A range of assessment strategies are used in ways that support the developmental sequence of the learning and teaching strategy. Thus, the three phases of the strategy are reflected by integration of three appropriate assessment tasks. What follows are examples that have the requisite purpose: 

The first assessment task, online ‘mastery-style’ quizzes, will provide formative and summative feedback and allow students to progressively work through the content during the first half of the teaching period. The second assessment task requires that students demonstrate their food and nutrition-related research skills and ability to analyse, synthesise, and write professionally. The final assessment task allows students to demonstrate their research synthesis, presentation and peer review skills. 

Students must demonstrate achievement of every learning outcome and a minimum mark of 50% for each assessment task to pass the unit.

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

ACU Library. (2023). Research Essentials. ACU Library Guides. https://libguides.acu.edu.au/research-essentials.

Croxford, S., Itsiopoulos, C., Forsyth, A., Belski, R., Thodis, T., Shepherd, S. & Tierney, A. (2015). Food & Nutrition Throughout Life. Routledge. (2nd edition due end 2024)

FAO. (2018). Sustainable food systems: Concept and Framework. Food and Agriculture Organisation. https://www.fao.org/3/ca2079en/CA2079EN.pdf

Germov, J & Williams, L. (2016). A Sociology of Food and Nutrition: The Social Appetite (4th Ed.). Oxford University Press.

Kittler, P. G. & Sucher, K. P. (2015). Food and Culture. (7th Ed.). Cengage Learning

United Nations. (2023). The 17 Goals. UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs: Sustainable Development. https://sdgs.un.org/goals

Vagsholm, I.& Arzoomand, N. S. & Boqvist, S. (2020). Food Security, Safety and Sustainability – Getting the Trade-Offs Right. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2020.00016