PLANTS AND HUMAN WELLBEING
Plants provide not only the foundation of food, clothing, and shelter essential for human existence, but also some of the key raw materials for transcendence and abstraction through music, art, and spirituality. Since antiquity, we have co-evolved with plants and their derivative products, with each exerting a domesticating force on the other. It is, for example, impossible to think of our modern life without its plant-based accompaniments in the form of cotton, sugar, bread, coffee, and wood. Yet they are so ubiquitous we may forget they all derive from plants discovered, domesticated, bred, and farmed for millennia in a never-ending pursuit to improve our wellbeing. Major points of intersection between plants and human wellbeing will be explored from a horticultural point of view by highlighting a plant or group of plants that represent a primary commodity or resource through which humans have pursued their own aims and explore effects and impacts on human society.
Prerequisites & course information
Requisites: None Course Designation: Core GenEd - Natural Science & Wellness + Lab Breadth - Biological Science Level - Elementary L&S Credit - L&S Liberal Arts and Science Repeatable for Credit: No Last Taught: Fall 2026 Learning Outcomes: 1. Acquire, integrate and apply knowledge of how plants and plant materials impact human wellbeing through readings, discussions, lectures, and examination of plant materials and their products Audience: Undergraduate 2. Develop the ability to discuss scientific topics in small groups and answer questions about how these topics intersect with human wellbeing and public policy. Audience: Undergraduate 3. Explain the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of the sustainability challenge associated with the production of plant-based materials for needs and wants associated with human wellbeing. Audience: Undergraduate 4. Understand how the biological aspects of plants and plant materials dictate how these crops will be used by different cultures for specific aspects of wellbeing Audience: Undergraduate 5. Analyze the causes of and solutions for the sustainability challenge of production of plant materials for the needs and wants of human wellbeing Audience: Undergraduate 6. Understand how plants and plant materials are intertwined with both wellbeing and un-wellbeing in modern human societies, and explore this interaction through discussions, reflections, and lecture material. Audience: Undergraduate Learning Outcomes: 1. Acquire, integrate and apply knowledge of how plants and plant materials impact human wellbeing through readings, discussions, lectures, and examination of plant materials and their products Audience: Undergraduate 2. Develop the ability to discuss scientific topics in small groups and answer questions about how these topics intersect with human wellbeing and public policy. Audience: Undergraduate 3. Explain the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of the sustainability challenge associated with the production of plant-based materials for needs and wants associated with human wellbeing. Audience: Undergraduate 4. Understand how the biological aspects of plants and plant materials dictate how these crops will be used by different cultures for specific aspects of wellbeing Audience: Undergraduate 5. Analyze the causes of and solutions for the sustainability challenge of production of plant materials for the needs and wants of human wellbeing Audience: Undergraduate 6. Understand how plants and plant materials are intertwined with both wellbeing and un-wellbeing in modern human societies, and explore this interaction through discussions, reflections, and lecture material. Audience: Undergraduate
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027