Food Revolutions: The Politics

Catalog description

The burgeoning Food Studies movement places human affinities for food within a cultural, ethical, and economic context. Food symbolizes something so much more powerful than what we might think at first glance; its taste gives our lives fulfillment and meaning, and what we eat establishes both positive and negative connections with other people, other animals, and other landscapes. In other words, what we eat defines who we are. Food matters because we matter. This course is an advanced introduction into Food Studies via three disciplinary trajectories; applied ethics (namely animal and environmental ethics), ecological economics, and industrial psychology. These three lenses, combined with a range of controversial documentaries and group presentations, will engage students in analysis of the complex role of food in every facet of our lives. Topics covered include biotechnology and genetic patenting, farmer’s markets and local food movements, organics, hunger and malnutrition, factory farms, molecular gastronomy, restaurant business models, resource distribution, veganism, and international economics.