School of Arts and Sciences
Environmental Studies Program

Track IV: Food Systems, Nutrition and the Environment

This track focuses on the importance of sustainable food production systems and critical issues of access to high quality food. The study of food systems, nutrition and the environment has enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity, as communities and institutions have recognized the importance of sustainable food production systems and high quality food as an integral part of any healthy and just society. This is an inherently interdisciplinary area, requiring students to draw on multiple types of knowledge and methods. To illustrate: the production and distribution of food is affected by cultural norms, individual behavior, social structure, biotechnologies, present and past environments, geopolitical power, and global economic relations. Social movements and cultural preferences, often inflected by race, class, and gender, drive the demand and value of certain foods (such as wild-caught fish, farm-raised animals, or traditional grains), which in turn influence how and where food production takes place.

Food production and consumption has major consequences for the environment, human well-being, and community. Given future human population growth and climatic changes, where will sufficient food be grown? How can we ensure that we are not producing too many of certain crops, and too few of others? How do we preserve our scarce resources such as water and soil to ensure that we continue to provide a sufficient supply of food at reasonable prices in years to come? Should agricultural land also be used for fuel and energy? How will these decisions affect biodiversity and the planet's natural systems? What is an ideal diet from a human nutritional perspective, and what political-economic barriers to accessing such a diet exist around the world?

Students in this track can choose to take a wide variety of courses, or instead concentrate on issues such as nutrition, global agricultural systems, plant physiology, food justice, rural life and culture, food policy, and environmental ethics. It serves as an ideal preparation for future studies and careers in nutrition and nutritional policy, sustainable food production, and global food systems, grounding students in perspectives that cut across the physical, social, and human sciences with attention to inequality and cultural difference.

View sample paths for Track IV: Food Systems, Nutrition and the Environment Learn about Tufts Food Rescue Collaborative

Students focusing on the Food Systems, Nutrition, and the Environment Track must take the following track courses in addition to other general requirements:

Applied Environmental Studies Stand-alone Majors:

  • Four elective courses

Environmental Studies Co-Majors:

  • Five courses as follows:
    • One Introductory course
    • One Methods/Research course
    • Three elective courses
      Note: Courses must come from at least two different departments and include one seminar (*). They may be chosen from any of the three subcategories listed.

Unlisted courses that are environmentally-themed might be requested to count toward specific requirements (introductory, research/methods and advanced courses/seminars). Examples might include Experimental College classes or Advanced Independent Research courses offered by different departments. In order to have an unlisted course added to a track, you must complete a Course Petition form and submit it to environmentalstudies@tufts.edu.

Attention: This list is a general guide. Some courses might not be taught every year. Please double-check the current semester course listing and/or SIS.

Introductory (only for Co-majors)

  • ANTH 126 Food, Nutrition, and Culture (Variable)
  • BIO 010/ENV 010 Plants and Humanity (Fall)
  • ENV 009 Food Systems (Fall)
  • NU 101 Introductory Human Nutrition (Spring)

Methods/Research (only for Co-majors)

  • ANTH 161 Fieldwork Lab as a Method (Fall)
  • BIO 132 Biostatistics (Fall)
  • CEE 006 Principles of Biostatistics (Spring)
  • CEE 154 Principles of Epidemiology (Fall, Spring)
  • CEE 189 Introduction to Remote Sensing (Spring)
  • CH 030 Community Health Methods (Spring)
  • CSHD 140 Problems of Research: Statistics (Spring)
  • CSHD 142 Research Methods and Design (Spring)
  • CSHD 144 Qualitative And Ethnographic Methods In Applied Social Science Research (Spring)
  • CSHD 146 Applied Data Analysis (Fall)
  • EC 013 Statistics (Fall, Spring)
  • ECS 104 Geological Applications of Geographic Information Systems (Spring)
  • ENV 107/GIS 101 Intro to Geographic Information Systems (Fall, Spring)
  • ENV 120 Intro to Environmental Fieldwork: From Class to Community (Fall, Spring)
  • ENV 121 Drones for Data Collection, Mapping & Analysis (Fall)
  • ENV 170 Environmental Data Visualization (Fall)
  • ENV 197/GIS 102 Advanced GIS (Spring)
  • MATH 021 Introductory Statistics (AP credit only accepted for Class of 2028 and before) (Fall, Spring) 
  • PS 103 Political Science Research Methods (Spring)
  • PS 115 Public Opinion and Public Survey (Variable)
  • PSY 031 Statistics for Behavioral Science (Fall, Spring)
  • SOC 100 Research Design and Interpretation (Fall)
  • SOC 101 Quantitative Research Methods (Fall, Spring)
  • SOC 102 Qualitative Research Methods (Fall)
  • UEP 232/ENV 193 Intro to GIS (Fall, Spring)

Electives

The headers below are only meant to be informative. Students are not required to take a given number of courses from each subcategory.

Culture & History

  • ANTH 142 American Meat (Variable)
  • ANTH 157 Cities and Food (every other Spring) 
  • ANTH 174 Thinking with Plants * (Variable)
  • ENV 190 Practicing in the Food Systems* (Spring)
  • HIST 005 History of Consumption (Fall)
  • HIST 103 Consumption, Power, and Identity: Food and clothing in modern times * (Variable)
  • HIST 154 Health and Healing in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Spring)
  • PHIL 025 Food Ethics (Spring)
  • SOC 076 Sociology of Food (Spring)
  • VMS 128 Food as Sculpture (Spring)

Policy & Economics

  • ANTH 140 Food Justice: Fair Food Activism and Social Movements (Variable)
  • ANTH 178 Animals and Posthuman Thought * (Variable)
  • EC 035 Economic Development (Fall, Spring)
  • EC 130 Topics in Environmental Economics * (Fall)
  • EC 136 Topics in Economic Development * (Spring)
  • EC 192-1 Advanced Seminar in Economics: African Economic Development * (Spring)
  • EC 192 Resource and Environmental Economic Policy (Fall)
  • ED 014 Food and Schools (Fall)
  • ENV 152/PS 188-20 Seminar in Environmental Negotiations * (Variable)
  • NUTR 215/UEP 223 Fundamentals of US Agriculture * (Fall)
  • NUTR 221 Global Food Business * (Spring)
  • NUTR 224 Community Food Planning and Programs * (Fall, Spring)
  • NUTR 226 Food from Production to Market (Spring)
  • NUTR 238 Economics of Food Policy Analysis * (Spring)
  • UEP 265 Corporate Management of Environmental Issues * (Fall)
  • UEP 285 Food Justice: Critical Approaches to Policy and Planning * - with instructor's permission (Fall)

Science & Nutrition

  • ANTH 040 Biological Anthropology (Fall)
  • BIO 008 Microbiology of Food (Fall)
  • BIO 108 Plant Development (Spring - odd years)
  • BIO 118 Plant Physiology (Spring - even years)
  • BIO 185 Food for All: Ecology, Biotechnology and Sustainability * (Fall, Summer)
  • NUTR 227 International Nutrition * (Fall)
  • NUTR 330 Anthropology of Food and Nutrition - with instructor's permission (Spring)
  • PSY 025 Physiological Psychology (Fall)
  • PSY 128 Nutrition and Behavior * (Variable)

Note: NUTR and UEP classes above 200 are graduate-level classes and require permission from the instructor to join. Seats for undergraduates are typically limited and restricted to upperclassmen.