Food and Agriculture are central to our daily lives and have been throughout human history. Not only is food an essential component to our health and well-being, but what we eat, how it is grown, its history, its cultural significance, its relationship to the environment, and the systems that organize production and distribution all say a lot about our selves and our society.

Food and agriculture have a rich history. The modern industrial food system is becoming ever more streamlined, mechanized, reliant on chemicals and genetic engineering, and global in scale. Many say we are becoming ever more ‘distanced’ from the food we eat, and this trend only exacerbates the ‘disconnect’ between what we eat and the social and ecological impacts of modern industrial agriculture. At the same time that the industrial food system has become more global, there is a growing resistance to it, as seen in the growing interest in fair trade, organic, slow, and local food movements. What is the significance of these changes in the food system over time for society, culture, the economy and the environment?

The Emphasis in Food and Agriculture is a relatively new emphasis program at Trent that addresses these issues. It draws on Trent’s strengths – in both its courses and in faculty research – on the many dimensions of food and agriculture issues.

The aim of the emphasis program is to provide students with a core of courses, from a variety of disciplines, that revolve around the themes of food and agriculture. There are opportunities as well for experiential learning as part of the emphasis program.

Emphasis in Food & Agriculture
c/o Dr. T. Hutchison, Program Co-ordinator
Trent University
1600 West Bank Drive
Peterborough, ON
K9J 7B8 Canada

Telephone: 705-748-1634
Fax: 705-748-1093
E-mail: thutchinson@trentu.ca