Sustentabilidade e educação ambiental nos cursos de Nutrição do nordeste brasileiro: análise dos projetos pedagógicos de curso

Abstract

The processes that the food goes through until they reach the dinner table generate negative environmental impacts, and the nutritionist is the professional trained to make the population sensitize of what can be done to alleviate this problem. For this, it is necessary that undergrad students have access to disciplines that address environmental sustainability. Therefore, the study aimed to evaluate the insertion of Environmental Education in the Pedagogical Program Projects of Nutrition graduate programs in the Northeast region, Brazil, accredited by the Ministry of Education. This is an exploratory, quantitative and qualitative documentary research. The programs coordinators were contacted by e-mail to make the document available, when it was not available on the institution's website. Eighteen PPP were analyzed, 39% underwent reformulation in the last five years (2016-2020). The terms related to sustainability were found more than 50% in almost all analyzed PPP, with the exception of “family farming” which was not found in any project. Seventeen (94%) of the eighteen programs analyzed had mandatory courses that included the searched terms, however, terms such as "agroecology" and "organic foods" were not mentioned in any course syllabi. Even after so many policies and incentive programs, environmental education in the training of nutritionists is still taking short steps, perhaps a reformulation of the Curriculum Guidelines for the undergraduate program in nutrition focusing on the importance of sustainability in professional practice. This would contribute with changes in the current scenario trough the sensitization of the future nutritionists regarding environmental sustainability.