Food forward: innovations that will feed the world

Course goals

Learning goals
At the end of this course the student will be familiar with:

• Obtaining relevant information from scientific literature and translating this knowledge to socio-economically relevant themes, most importantly the science behind food-based innovations that will feed the surging human population in the coming decades
• Strategies to improve crop stress tolerance
• Alternative proteins
• Technological innovations in food production
• Legislation concerning environmental and food safety assessment (safe by design approach)

Skills

• Studying, researching and presenting scientific literature, and using it to critically assess facts and myths in public news outlets,
• Critical thinking, collaborative work, planning,
• Researching, designing, recording and editing a podcast on a specific food topic to convey your message based on scientific knowledge in an appealing yet objective manner,
• Science communication (written, spoken).

 

Skills	Part of the course?	Explicitely examined?
Writing	x	x
Presenting	x	x
Data handling
Practical research skills
General research skills
Co-operation	x	x
Critical thinking	x	x
Career orientation
Interdisciplinarity	x	x

Content

Entry requirements
This course requires basic knowledge of molecular and cellular plant biology. The following courses are recommended: Planten en Micro-organismen (niveau 1), Moleculaire Biologie (niveau 1), Plantenfysiologie en -ontwikkeling (niveau 2). This course can only be followed in the second or third year of the Bachelor.

Study path
This course fits in the Plant Biology study path.

Language
This course is given entirely in English.

Content
One of the major current challenges of science and society is to find sustainable solutions that meet the dietary needs of the rapidly growing human population and its increasing standard of living. The United Nations has predicted that the world food demand will rise by 70% by 2050. Current food systems are not sufficient to keep up with this growth, and do not provide appropriate solutions for the diet-related WHO-defined priority diseases that are associated with our ever-increasing standard of living. To provide sustainable and healthy food for the next generations, there is an urgent need to further develop food production.

In this course you will learn and discuss how science can feed the world in the coming decades, and become aware that a combined effort of multiple disciplines is required to understand the challenge of future food and think of innovative ways to deal with this challenge. The combination of fundamental sciences and integrated studies on molecular and immunological mechanisms will provide students with a broad perspective on the societal and scientific challenges that await to meet the dietary demands of the future. Students are encouraged to think about how their work contributes to meeting the challenges of future food and will learn to communicate this to a wide audience (both academic and non-academic).

Specifically, course content deals with four broad themes, namely: 1) improving crop stress tolerance, 2) alternative proteins 3) technical innovations in agriculture and 4) food policy and safety. Lectures and assignments will cover these broad themes. For instance, emerging threats to animal, plant and ecosystem health will be covered, but also legislation around food security in The Netherlands, socio-economic aspects of food security and innovations such as cultured meat (kweekvlees).

This course will provide students with input for their CV on 21st century skills, including interpretation of scientific literature, science communication, English writing and presenting skills, ability to communicate to a broad audience, teamwork and awareness of the relevance of science for addressing the food problem.

Work formats
In this course, a large variety of teaching styles/modes will be used, with the goal of maximizing student participation, including lectures and tutorials, presentations, essay writing and collaborative work

Grading & assessment
To pass this course, a minimum of 5,5 is mandatory. Attendance in all contact moments, especially guest lectures and tutorials, is obligatory, and active participation is requested. Final grades will be determined by a digital exam, and participation in several (individual and group) assignments during the course including peer-feedback, writing, presentations, and podcasting. The percentage breakdown of these individual parts to the final mark will be highlighted at the start of the course.

Study material
Handouts, lecture recordings and articles will be made available by the teachers during the course.