ENVS 14 Sustainable Food Systems
Sustainable food systems demand an answer to the question, what is sustainable? This course will explore the many names and faces of food, asking students to critically evaluate sustainability from scientific, social and political perspectives. The course is organized into three modules: 1) food, 2) energy & ecology and 3) environmental justice. The first module provides an overview to food systems, taking a look various management styles and their environmental consequences. We will pull examples from historical times to the present, from the precursors of the Dust Bowl to concentrated animal feed operations (CAFOs). The second module will provide a scientific understanding of the key energetic and ecological components that contribute to the sustainability of food systems including its contribution to climate change and global deforestation. In the third module we will examine the social injustices of food systems, from its twin roles in obesity and hunger to the development of key social movements striving for a new but old “peasant-way of life”.
Instructor
Ong