Free Online Courses

Coursera

The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future offers free, online courses, through the University’s partnership with Coursera. Courses are led by teams of faculty and staff from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and are based on for-credit courses offered at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.

An Introduction to the US Food System: Perspectives from Public Health

A food system encompasses the activities, people and resources involved in getting food from field to plate. Along the way, it intersects with many aspects of public health, equity and the environment. In this short course, we provide a brief introduction to the U.S. food system and how food production practices and what we eat affects our world. We explore some key historical and political factors that have helped shape the current food system and real-world approaches to better nourishing a growing population.

Public Health Perspectives on Sustainable Diets

What we eat and how we produce that food have significant effects on human health and the sustainability of our planet. But what is a “sustainable” diet? A sustainable diet, as defined by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, promotes health and well-being and provides food security for the current population while sustaining human and natural resources for future generations. This short course looks at the urgent need to address the sustainability of our food systems, including better understanding the complex relationship between diet and climate change. We’ll explore current research on dietary shifts needed in high, middle, and low-income countries to achieve both sustainability and food security goals and discuss evidence-based strategies to promote sustainable diets.