Page 5 - Impact - Winter 2021

“These kinds of community-based experiences give students a sense of engagement, interaction... an opportunity to really learn to appreciate how to interact in a productive way across cultures that bring in very different systems of thought,” said Craig Hassel, FScN associate professor. “The students are learning to adapt culturally in a different context, and that’s a very powerful, transferable skill that we’re introducing within our FScN curriculum.”
For spring semester 2021, FScN introduced a new course titled “Food Customs and Culture,” a study of traditional and contemporary food cultures around the world with a focus on food customs and cultures in the U.S. According to Ubbink, one of the course’s instructors, students will have the opportunity to analyze customs and culture on diets of communities and societies around the world, and explore how many of these come together in creating the rich and diverse food experiences in the U.S. Designed to expose students to new ideas and perspectives around food and nutrition,
the course carries the Global Perspectives liberal education requirement for UMN students.
“In this course, we look at how culture is based on worldview, values and experiences, and realize that the culture of others is similarly shaped by diverse influences,” said Ubbink. “We are learning about each other’s food traditions and family stories, as well as discovering things about our own diets and cultural perspectives.”
With the vision of innovating together to improve health through food, FScN is a place to come together to look at issues in the food system from diet and health, to food development and creation, to food security and sustainability, all the way to how food and food habits support communities and their cultures. “FScN is truly an interface where scholars, students and stakeholders are interacting around the central themes that are related to health, community, sustainability and food,” said Ubbink.
This interconnectedness is working throughout CFANS and the University. For example, the Plant Protein Innovation Center (PPIC), is a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary research center dedicated to studying plant and alternative proteins for applications in the next generation of foods. The Forever Green Initiative — a team of experts in genomics, breeding, agronomics and commercialization — is enhancing and developing new agricultural systems to improve natural resources and provide new economic opportunities for farmers and food makers.
During the showcase event, PPIC director Pam Ismail shared how she is inspired by students. “They are seeking research in relevant areas... they are aware of the environment and sustainable agriculture... they seek to study in this space,” she said. Consumers are asking for new sources of protein while the global population is growing; we need to get minds together to address this global, interdisciplinary need that involves farmers, industry, consumers and many other stakeholders, explained Ismail. “We need to educate our students to become our next scientists,” she said. “It’s a circle.”
It’s an interconnected circle indeed — bringing CFANS science, community, and culture together with the goal of finding answers to the world’s grand challenges and solving tomorrow’s problems.
“innovating together to improve health through food”
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