Food Systems, Sustainability & Social Change

This course will focus on building understanding of contemporary debates about food, sustainability, and society by exploring contemporary food systems and efforts to transform them. We will examine a range of socio-environmental challenges relating to food’s production, distribution, consumption, and waste. How these challenges are framed and analysed will be critically considered using sociological approaches that draw out social, cultural, political, economic, and ethical dimensions. We will then explore social action aimed at improving the sustainability and/or justice of food systems' structuring, governance, and/or practice. Local, national, and international examples will be used to ground our examinations of these efforts. More specific approaches or actions discussed may include regenerative agriculture, corporate concentration, food redistribution, alternative proteins, food sovereignty, application of Maori principles to food systems, among other things. Combining in-class and field experiences, as well as a social action project, the course is designed to foster critical thinking and motivate community engagement for transforming food systems.