This course will expose students to local cuisines, businesses, agriculture, and food movements to offer students a unique, expansive understanding of California food systems. Students will hear an array of perspectives from local professionals including chefs and farmers, who will address weekly and biweekly topics relevant to California food systems. The class format will be split among collaborative learning lectures, hands-on workshops and activities, and guest speaker forums. In addition to weekly classes, we will provide fun, educational field trips designed to engage everyone in the class and educate students about the food systems that surround us.

This class is structured in two formats. One will be a speaker series, where local professionals will both teach students about the field they work in and address broader topics within California food systems. The other format will be discussion based, where students will share their perspective on current topics and issues that have been taught in the course.

Attendance is MANDATORY! This class is almost entirely based on student effort, passion, and attendance/participation. Therefore, students may only miss 1 classes (unexcused absence). Missing more without previous notice will result in an automatic NO PASS. Any special circumstances should be discussed with the facilitator PRIOR to the date of the absence. A group waiver is required upon enrollment as our course will involve food and off-campus activities such as field trips.