FSC5071 · Food security in a changing world

Overview

Food security is defined as when all people at all times have access to enough food and a balanced diet. This depends on the production of food (agricultural yield), the availability of food (distribution, cost) and its nutritional value. Underpinning all food security are plants, whether eaten directly or consumed by stock animals. This interdisciplinary unit will examine the factors that govern crop yields, e.g. how plants detect and respond to changing environments. The unit will also address the nutritional value of foods by exploring what is a balanced diet, how we get it and its effects on animal physiology and health. The United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a challenge to the global community to improve human well-being, while also conserving Earth’s natural resources and the vital ecological functions on which we all depend. Goal Two, zero hunger, is relevant to the unit alongside many other interconnected goals. Meeting food production goals in the face of climate change, requires new approaches to agriculture and land management. The strengths and weaknesses of different agricultural systems (e.g. organic, subsistence, greenhouses or broadacre farming) and the role of GMOs, digital agriculture and robotics will be discussed. The unit will assist you to prepare for employment in food- and agriculture-related industries, with an awareness of sustainability principles and regenerative agriculture.

Areas of study: • Sustainable resource management • Food science and agribusiness studies • Environmental security • Food agribusiness studies • Environmental security

Offerings

Assessment

The Handbook does not list a final examination among the assessment items. That is not a guarantee there is none.

Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.

Requisites

The Handbook lists no prerequisite, corequisite or prohibition for this unit.

Learning outcomes

1. Demonstrate how sustainable development goals relate to and interconnect with food security;
2. Analyse how plants respond to changes in the environment and how this affects crop yield;
3. Compare the environmental, economic and social value of different types of agricultural practice;
4. Predict how innovations in agriculture and biotechnology including synthetic biology may impact future food production;
5. Evaluate how changing food composition alters behavioural, growth and health outcomes in consumers;
6. Apply skills in both written and oral communication to produce reports at a professional standard and effectively engage with a professional audience.

Workload

12 hours per week which includes: • One three-hour laboratory or workshop session; • One one-hour recorded lecture and • Eight hours of independent study.

Student experience, not official rules. Nothing here changes what the Handbook says.