U.S. Food and Agricultural Policy

Catalog description

This course introduces students to the broad array of food and agricultural policies in the United States. Food and agricultural policies encompass laws, regulations, decisions, and actions by governments, industry, and other institutions that influence food production, distribution and consumption. Real-world controversies and debates motivate the course's attention to economic principles, research tools, policy analysis, and contemporary data sources. The course assumes that society is concerned not just about the economic interests of farmers, but also about nutrition, food security, the environment, and welfare of all participants in the food system. Topics covered may include crop subsidies, crop insurance, agro-environmental policies, farm labor and immigration policies, USDA national organic standards, tariffs and other trade policies, food-safety and food-labeling policies, and food-assistance and food-access polices. For a wide range of specific policies, students will study and discuss policy mechanics, the underlying issues that created a need for the policies, the institutional settings of the policies, and the policies' effectiveness.