Cmty Dev & Apld Econ: US Food, Social Equity &Dev

Provides an introduction to gender, race, class, and ethnicity with particular emphasis on food, population, economic, and ecological issues in sustainable agriculture, food systems, and community development. The geographical focus emphasizes the United States.

Open to Degree and PACE students

Course Overview Every time we purchase and consume food, we are making decisions—whether we acknowledge it or not—about how we participate in food systems. How we participate in food systems is largely and often invisibly informed by how these systems are currently structured and their emphasis on “consumer choice” and corporate profits. In turn, this participation affects the lives of those who are employed in and often reliant upon the business of the production, processing, and distribution of our food. The lives of those who grow our vegetables, pick our fruit, and process our meat are directly impacted by the policy and practice of our food systems. Where this food goes, who it is marketed to and who is able to purchase and consume it is also determined by these same systems. Our participation embeds and implicates us in the policy orientations and social inequities that shape and define these systems. The decisions we make and the available options from which we choose are not natural phenomena but rather the product of the society we live in. This includes our cultural and political paradigms in our understanding of the world, the social rules by which we learn to live, the laws we write, the policies we pass, and the legacies of our national history. Structural racism and injustice are defining attributes of our society and so are inherently embedded within our food systems. As a D1 course, the content of CDAE 1040 describes how and why structural racism shapes the US food system and the ways that this system contributes to (or, in some cases, seeks to address) structural racism and inequity. In particular, we will look at the impacts of racism and racialized violence on the US food system through historical events and their legacies, social and cultural norms, and legal and political institutions. Social issues are inextricably linked to food and how we interact with food systems in the United States. As an S1 course, CDAE 1040 uses a social science lens to explore how individuals, groups, and institutions affect and interact with each other. Through systematic investigation, we will generate explanatory frameworks for understanding human behavior, action, and social practices. We will examine past and present social problems; think critically about individual, local, regional, and global contexts; and learn how social scientists strive to improve societal well-being.