Course Syllabus

Food, Taste, and Waste

 

Semester & Location:	Summer 2023, Session 2 - DIS Copenhagen
Type & Credits:	Elective Course - 3 credits
Study Tour:	Barcelona
Major Disciplines:	Environmental Humanities, Anthropology, Food Studies, Environmental Studies
Prerequisite(s):	None
Faculty Members:	Camilla Hoff-Jørgensen, (Current students please contact through Canvas Inbox)
Time & Place:	Monday through Friday (+ one Sunday) F24-503

 

Course Description

With our current climate crisis, biodiversity crisis and food crisis, how is our future going to look like, and what are we going to eat? 

Sustainable development in food is becoming increasingly important in the agri-food sector and the global economy, in political debates, and in many consumers’ minds. In this course, we will look into current sustainability trends in food consumerism and production, how these have come about, and their impact in cultural, economic, and even artistic terms.

The goal of this course is,

• to understand the role of food production and consumption in our current climate, biodiversity and food crisis.
• to develop critical thinking skills through analysis and evaluation of sustainable food practices.

Although many are aware that the current international food systems contribute disproportionately to an increasing carbon footprint, environmental degradation, and a massive amount of food waste, the solutions are still unclear to a large extent. In class we will look at the connection between the current crisis and Europe’s food history, shaped by geography, food politics and economy. We will study old and new alternative foodscapes and materializing a critique of unsustainable societies.

In the first week in Copenhagen we will increase food literacy through understanding the social, economic, and environmental impact of food production and consumption choices. We look at life cycle assessments of food, and how agriculture and food consumption through the last 100 years have had a negative impact on climate and bio integrity. 

During the 2nd and 3rd week, we will develop critical thinking skills through analysis and evaluation of sustainable food practices in both northern part of Spain and in the Capital region of Denmark. Through the study tour to Barcelona, we will compare the Nordic foodscapes with the agriculture and consumption patterns in southern Europe. More specifically Catalunya in Spain. Through conversations with farmers, chefs, artisans, food policy organizations, and food entrepreneurs you will learn about European food culture, and how consumers respond to current food issues, by getting acquainted with general anthropological perspectives on the topic of food culture. 

In the 3rd week we will increase the capacity to take an active role in dealing with the challenges of our time through envisioning opportunities and challenging values. Our visits will allow you to have a person to person conversation about the future of food. You will learn about different competing narratives in the field of agriculture, selling food and running restaurants. Both Danish and Spanish Michelin-starred restaurants now flaunt their uses of sustainable, local, seasonal ingredients. They serve a deliberately sustainable meal with thought for nature and local farmers, which is a trend that can be seen as a crusade against the overproducing society. This focus on local, seasonal food has made chefs and ethical consumers turn to mushroom hunting, foresting berries in Iceland, micro-fishing in Greenland, and collecting wild eggs in the Faroe Islands. It is a regional pilgrimage for finding meaning and being aware of the footprints we leave behind us, reflecting the fact that eating is much more than simply sustenance and taste. Food production is everything from international political agriculture regulations, and the industrialization of farming, to cultural, social, and individual values. By honoring manual food labor and connection to local micro produce, and at the same time studying new technologies and innovation for food production the course will uncover some solutions to the climate, biodiversity and food crisis.

 

Learning Objectives

The overall objective of the course is to enable students to understand current cultural meanings of food and food issues. The course aims to endow them with a strong sense of sustainable food trends in Denmark and Spain and international solutions to food-related issues.

By the end of this course, the students will have:

• a greater understanding of the food system, and the knowledge, tools, and motivation they need to effect real change.
• an understanding of food consumption and food waste, and how to analyze the role of food in environmental issues.
• developed a sense of how to think critically about food as a reflection of social, political, and economic phenomena.

 

Field Studies and Guest Lecturers

Potential visits and guests include:

• Havhøst (sea foresting, seaweed, and mussels)
• Visit natural sites related to food
• Food waste initiatives: Løsmarked, We share, Grim Kassen, Food sharing 
• Chefs’ take, Slow Food in Barcelona
• Alternatives to the meat industry
• Municipal food waste initiatives
• Upcycling projects
• Guided walks to different areas of Copenhagen and Barcelona

        Havhøst (sea foresting trip, seaweed, and mussels)

      Vild mad (foresting trip) 

      Upcycling project of mash from beer production

      DAKA - Biowaste production

        Guided walks to different areas of Copenhagen

 

Readings

There is no textbook for this course and readings are found exclusively on Canvas.

• Mann, Charles (2018) The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World
• Rockström & Gaffney (2021), Feeding 10 billion people within the planetary boundaries
• Poore & Nemecek (2018). Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science 360 (6392) 987-992
• Willett et al. (2019). Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems
• Willett (2019). Food, Planet, Health. To Achieve Planetary Health Diets for Nearly 10 Billion People by 205
• Ocejo (2017), Masters of Craft: Old Jobs in the New Urban Economy.
• Pollan (2008), In Defence of Food.
• Shiva  (2016). Who Really Feeds the World? The Failures of Agribusiness and the Promise of Agroecology. 
• Essig (2015), The benevolent tyranny of the pig

This is a selection of the course readings. The complete readings will be available on Canvas.

 

Faculty

Camilla Hoff-Jørgensen holds a BA. in Nutrition and Health (2006) and a BA. and cand.scient in Anthropology (2012). She worked as a cultural informant in Hiroshima, Japan educating and arranging events about Danish and Scandinavian food cultures, and developing comparative studies of the Danish (European) and Japanese food cultures. Camilla has also been a text-writer for a monthly article for the Japanese, SHUN magazine, about Danish eating culture and traditions. She moreover has international working experience in Bangkok and Barcelona where she lived and worked with food and culture. In Denmark, Camilla has done various research within the fields of medical anthropology and the anthropology of food. She is currently working on an experience design study, covering restaurant NOMA's reaction to COVID-19 and another covering McDonald's 'Chefs burgers'.  

Office hours are held after class or by appointment.

 

Approach to Teaching

The methods used to cover class materials include lectures, videos, discussions, individual and group presentations, guest lectures, and daily field trips. The course will have several out-of-the-classroom sessions on location to experience the different facets of food firsthand and hands-on. Students are expected to be able to find and be at the external locations on time. The external locations will not be far from DIS's location and maps and addresses will be given in advance.

 

Expectations of the Students

I expect you to attend all class sessions unless prevented by an emergency. If you are not in class, you cannot participate. I expect you to complete all the assigned readings and come to class prepared to discuss them in-depth. I expect you to turn in assignments on time.

All students are expected to have completed the course readings before class so that we can discuss the material at the right level. It is important to be well-prepared for class because I may randomly select students to give key points on the readings for that day.

Students are expected to participate actively in all classes and field studies and be open-minded to their fellow student’s contributions to the class. The aim is to establish an environment where we can learn from each other as well as from the texts and cases we engage with, and you are expected to actively support this approach.

 

Evaluation

Students will be evaluated on their ability to understand, discuss, and communicate theories within the field of food anthropology as well as interpret them meaningfully. These skills will be the primary focus of evaluations. Group work in class and in the field as well as the student's ability to contribute to a group effort will be taken into account for the final grade.

Grading

Your final grade consists of the following three elements:

Assignment	Percent
A Social Critique of the Judgement of Food Waste (Group paper) Based on group work Friday during the first week of the course, students will write a paper assessing the access to different food waste initiatives. Based on students understanding of social class.	20%
Restaurant analysis (Group paper) Students will be divided in groups and will be given a neighborhood and a restaurant to visit in Barcelona. In the neighborhood students must speak with people from the neighborhood about access to food. In the restaurant students must speak with the waiter and the chef about their approach to running a restaurant.	25%
The Future of Food, Taste and Waste (Individual or pair paper) Students will individually or in pairs choose a topic of their own choice concerning the future of food and food culture. The analysis will be based on an interview (restaurant owner, fisherman, winegrower, engineer, producer) and on relevant literature on food production and consumption's role in our climate, biodiversity and food crisis. Students find a relevant informant and have a conversation with the informant on the future of food.  Students work on this assignment for all the 3 weeks.	35%
Class Engagement (Individual Grade) Engagement entails among others: Active participation in class discussions, preparation for each class, reading of assigned texts, active participation in field studies, and presenting cases and raising questions in class discussions.	20%

To be eligible for a passing grade in this class you must complete all of the assigned work.

 

 

Academic Regulations  

Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on: 

• Course Enrollment and Grading  
• Academic Expectations and Honor Code 

 

DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia -  www.DISabroad.org