Global Nutrition and Food Security

• • Nutrition and food security in a global context
  • - Fundamental concepts and definitions in nutrition: macronutrients, micronutrients and nutrient reference values
  • - Global food production and consumption patterns; cultural and seasonal variations
  • - Food production and distribution
  • - Food labelling and classification systems
  • - Food security and material hardship
  • - Challenges to food security: climate change, population growth and demand for food, inequality in food access and distribution, economic forces.
  • - Global organisations relevant to nutrition and food security
  • Nutrition, food security and health
  • - Obesity in the context of malnutrition
  • - Nutrition transition
  • - Building resilience in food systems
  • Global socio-politics of food
  • - Technological innovation
  • - Dietary guidelines
  • - Migration and nutrition
  • - Global agricultural trends
  • - Sustainable development and food security

In order to enrol in this subject, you must be accepted into one of the following degrees:

Additional requirements

No additional requirements

Optimal nutrition is a cornerstone of human health and well-being. Food security is a means by which optimal nutrition is delivered to individuals, communities and populations. This unit will introduce students to the major concepts and issues around global nutrition and food security. Emphasis will be placed on the Nutrition Transition phenomenon, which reflects the interconnectedness of food consumption, health (and illness), socioeconomic and environmental factors, and sustainable development. Students will explore challenges to nutrition and food security from the standpoints of availability, access, utilisation and stability, as well as other risk factors and broader issues of food industry influence, culture and colonisation, globalisation and new media. Causes of major nutrition issues, their prevalence and severity will be examined, along with their impact on health and development. Application of community-/population-level nutritional assessments and interventions will then be considered, especially in the context of developing countries and humanitarian response to crises. This unit will conclude with models for the development of programs and/or social enterprises aimed at improving food security. This unit aims to familiarise students with global nutrition concepts and food security.

In order to successfully complete this unit, students need to complete and submit three graded assessment tasks and obtain an aggregate mark of at least 50%. Assessment tasks directly align with ACU-PUBH642 learning outcomes and graduate attributes and the national core competency framework of public health developed by the Council of Academic Public Health Institutions Australia 2016. Tutorial activities are aligned with assessment tasks which will engage students in active learning and help them to prepare for the assessments. Assessment tasks are based on essay style which provides opportunity for students to develop an extended argument, and in depth of learning or contemporary global nutrition and food, opportunity to develop capacity to interpret, translate, apply, critique and evaluate, and opportunities to explore beyond the boundaries of contemporary knowledge. ACU-PUBH642 assessments are designed to simulate the work of a public health practitioner working either at the policy level, or as a front line field officer engaged in community nutrition enhancement. The assessment strategy used allows students to progressively develop their knowledge and skills to the level of sophistication where they are able to critique and develop their own community health interventions. In Assessment 1, students demonstrate specialised knowledge and skills in information gathering by describing a nutrition-related disease, e.g. nutritional deficiency. In Assessment 2, students extend their knowledge by critically analysing a nutrition related disease in a population setting. In Assessment 3, students further develop their understanding by applying knowledge in an authentic way through the development of a community-based nutrition intervention.

• Written Task - Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of interrelationships between nutrition and disease within vulnerable populations and their solutions. (20%)
• Written Task - Enable students to demonstrate skills in critical analysis of a nutrition-related epidemiological issue. (30%)
• Written task - Development of a community-based nutrition intervention. (50%)

For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).