Sustainability of Food Systems: A Global Life Cycle Perspective (Coursera)

Sustainability of Food Systems: A Global Life Cycle Perspective (Coursera)
This course explores the diversity of the foods we eat, the ways in which we grow, process, distribute, and prepare them, and the impacts they have upon our environment, health, and society. We will also examine the challenges and opportunities of creating a more sustainable global food system in the future.

Hamburger or hummus? Organic or conventional? Mediterranean diet or McDonald's? What dietary choices are truly the most sustainable when we consider that what we eat affects not just our health but also the environment and the well-being of others?

This course will provide you with an overview of our world’s food system and its many impacts from the individual to the global scale. You will gain further appreciation of the complex implications of choices that are made along the food supply chain. You will be challenged to think critically about how the global food system may need to change to adapt to future economic and environmental conditions.

Our world’s population is projected to grow both in numbers and in wealth in the coming decades. Meeting future food demand, and doing so in a sustainable fashion, will require that we greatly increase the amount we produce and improve the efficiency by which it makes it to our tables. Join us as we explore today’s global food system and how we might improve its sustainability for our benefit and that of future generations.