Food and the Future Environment

Catalog description

GEOG 3 introduces students to the multiple connections of people and the environment through the dynamics of food and the places where it is produced, processed, and consumed. It introduces an integrated human-environment perspective on food systems in the United States, with emphasis on the Northeast and Western U.S., as well as in diverse locations around the world. The course offers a global perspective on the major challenges and opportunities facing food systems, including the sustainability of agriculture, organization of global food systems and local food initiatives, food insecurity, and the influence of modern diets on human health. This course promotes critical thinking regarding key concepts in Environment and Society Geography such as coupled human-environment systems, the Anthropocene; anthropogenic landscapes and domestication; carrying capacity; ecological footprint; life-cycle analysis; globalization; urbanization, dietary change and land use; soils and society; environmental and social justice; climate change and resilience; agrobiodiversity and adaptive capacity; human-environment interactions involving vulnerability; regional analysis; geography and culture of food systems; development and food security; and social-ecological systems. Students are encouraged to examine their role and responsibilities for the sustainability of the social-ecological systems we inhabit and to take action in their own lives to contribute to a more equitable and sustainable environment. The course will provide students with the opportunity to read, learn, and debate the ways in which humans value, use, affect, and are affected by small-scale and large-scale human-environment interactions. It will provide skills for the critical analysis and evaluation of the ways in which humans have transformed the environment in different parts of the world. Students will also learn how to assess what future pathways are sustainable and ethically sound. One key course goal is to help students increase their sensitivity, awareness, and knowledge concerning the global and international context of human interactions with nature. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to: 1. Survey and analyze environmental resources in relation to systems of food production, land use, and consumption; 2. Survey and analyze how human food systems significantly alter the earth's environmental systems and landscapes; 3. Use environment and society geography to understand the resilience of agri-food systems in contexts of climate change, human population changes, and socioeconomic, cultural and policy factors.