Food and Sustainability (11:400:315)

(Revised on Month day, Year)

Course Objective

This course is designed to appreciate the nexus of food sustainability, food security, and food safety. Students will be exposed to everyday life in Salaya, Bangkok, and Kanchanaburi, locations of the three Mahidol campuses they will visit. The rich Thai culture will be highlighted across the rural to urban landscape rooted in over 2500 years of tradition. Students will learn the pathway of foods from: farm to processing, warehousing to transport, and retail (open market, supermarket, street vendor, and restaurant) to table.

In this course students will:

• Learn about food pathways.
• Integration of sustainability on the farm and in commercial food manufacturing.
• Students will be actively engaged in educational activities involving food product development; harvest, processing, and transportation of food crops at the interface of food sustainability. food safety, and food security.
• Students will meet and interact with students from Mahidol University engaging in educational and cultural activities. Thai language session will be conducted.
• Students will visit rural community (Phetchabun) where sustainable and value added production and processing practices are being implemented with food safety a common linkage.

Course Requirements and Grading

• Completion of at least one semester each of General Biology and General Chemistry
• Students will be provided required reading material prior to and during the course that will be used to facilitate discussion and development of discussion and critical thinking questions which will count toward the grade (25%).
• Students will maintain a log starting on arrival in Thailand. The log will be entered in a secure blog or a chat site in Canvas which will be evaluated as part of the grade (35%). Students should consider recording experiences related to the culture, people, foods, and academic activities. Students may wish to have discussions with students at each of the Mahidol University campuses to understand student life at each campus.
• Student presentation (15%)
• After return to the US students will be required to submit a research review paper within one month of return. (25%)

Attendance and Participation

Students are required to participate in all detailed activities as outlined in the course schedule. Ample free time is available for students to engage in activities on their own.

Disciplinary policy

Students are expected to conduct themselves in an appropriate manner throughout the trip. In short, there is a zero tolerance policy for student misbehavior while on this trip. Disciplinary action, including receiving a failing grade in the course and potential for immediate return to the US, will be taken as appropriate. Rutgers academic integrity policy (http://academicintegrity.rutgers.edu/) must be abided by when preparing course work.

Class Schedule