Virginia Food Heritage: Planning for Sustainability & Resilience
PLAC 5500-003 Course Listing
Course Description
Students will learn about how food heritage can be an important tool in community planning for sustainability and resilience. This planning applications course is part of the Virginia Food Heritage Project, a collaborative effort to research, uncover, and celebrate the heritage foods of Central Virginia.
What is a heritage food? Heritage foods are regionally unique foods and food traditions. Heritage foods can be specific crop varieties, livestock breeds, processing techniques, food preparation techniques, and social food traditions.
This course will train students in methods of community-based research through the lens of food heritage. Students will also synthesize lessons from previous coursework in planning and other fields, putting theory into practice to develop proposals for incorporating food heritage into planning and economic development.
In this course students will learn and practice:
• Conducting effective, qualitative personal interviews
• Conducting primary and secondary research
• Developing case studies
• Applying lessons to local planning processes
• Communicating complex ideas in plain English
• Writing clearly and creatively
• Creating short professional films to be published online
Students will produce:
• A recommendation for incorporating food heritage into local planning and economic development in the Thomas Jefferson Planning District, including:
o A paper describing your recommendation, including case study examples and local applications
o A presentation of your recommendation, including but not limited to PowerPoint
• A short film and written profile of an element of Central Virginia food heritage, based on your interview with a knowledgeable local elder
• A mini-essay reflecting on your semester experience