Global Food Security and Leading Change Locally

Catalog description

This interdisciplinary course critically assesses the global challenges of food security through classwork and work experience with a local community organization of the student’s choosing. Food is explored from a cultural, nutritional, ecological and ethical context while analyzing issues of food production, causes of insufficient supply, nutritional and health implications, and effects on quality of life. Evaluation of political, environmental, technological and economic factors that contribute to the perpetual issue of food insecurity and the social consequences also occurs. The critical issue of the course examines whether access to food is a basic human right and whose responsibility it is to provide societal members with access to nourishment necessary for productivity. These global food security issues are explored by the student theoretically, via traditional classroom meetings, and experientially while working 21 hours with members of a local community organization. During on-site work, students utilize their leadership skills to address a food security issue, designing and completing a substantial agency-based project that serves as a tangible contribution to the overall organization and its ability to support local community members.