The food and environmental systems minor offers a systems approach to understanding the wide range of factors critical for producing healthy foods and environments.
Adding a minor to your program can increase your marketability to employers and prepare you for personal activities outside your profession.
This minor focuses on the complex relationships between people, plants, animals, and the environment, and how they interact and depend on one another. Students will engage in leadership opportunities in and out of the classroom to gain a foundation in biological, chemical, and economic issues critical for healthy lifestyles. Students start with a foundation of three courses that span the breadth of the College of ACES: sustainable food systems, environmental science, and food science and nutrition. They build on that foundation with an introductory course selected from any area of study in the college. Students complete the minor with two upper-level courses in an area of focus they want to explore further. A minimum of 18 hours is required.
The coursework in this minor provides a significant background in consumer sciences, agricultural management and production, and environmental and natural resources. If you are interested in a job or industry related to food production or the environment, a food and environmental systems minor will provide you with a solid scientific background, regardless of your major.
Students enrolled in the agricultural communications major, which is jointly administered by the College of ACES and the College of Media, must complete this minor as a graduation requirement. This minor gives communicators the scientific background on which to base the information they present.
For more information about the Food and Environmental Systems minor, please contact:
Academic Programs
128 Mumford Hall
217-333-3380
aces-academics@illinois.edu
This minor is administratively based in ACES Academic Programs. Student advising takes place in this unit.