Unit 1: Eating in America: Lessons from the Past

In this video, Jim Holland, Ph.D., first discusses the characteristics of the wild grass called teosinte, which was domesticated about 9000 years ago in Southern Mexico.

In the U.S., most corn crops are hybrids. Jim Holland, Ph.D., discusses how the genetic diversity of the modern corn crop is considerably narrower than open-pollinated crops, and farmers must buy new seed every year from seed companies.

In this talk, John Millhauser, Ph.D., shares how shellfish have been a part of human diets for as long as humans have been human.

Waste disposal is one of the greatest environmental challenges we face today. It is also an ancient problem faced by our ancestors. Does the recent past offer any useful solutions (or warnings) for our current crisis?

In this video, Tim Kraft, Ph.D., explains what food supply chains are and how, over time, they have become more specialized to increase our food supply and lower the cost of food for consumers.

In many contexts and times, diseases have reshaped life, whether it be human life, animal life, or plant life. Here we share a podcast interview of ongoing research about the consequence of plant disease.

The study of food is always interdisciplinary, but this is especially the case when we consider the wicked problems associated with food.