Urban Food Systems

Course Description

This course examines sustainability and urban food systems from farm to fork. We explore the social, political, economic, and environmental dimensions of food production, distribution, marketing, consumption, and wastes. Throughout the semester, we develop an understanding of historical and contemporary relationships between agriculture and cities, and we critically assess current alternative food concepts such as local food and regional food system sustainability; urban agriculture; food justice, and food policy in cities. Considering phenomena including climate change, rising inequality, racial inequity, gentrification, and regional farmland loss, we explore the roles that urban consumers, activists, food workers, policymakers, scholars, and students may play in transforming food systems in and around cities so they are more environmentally sustainable and socially just. At the end of the course, students will have a deeper understanding of the complexities of urban food systems, the politics of food in urban settings, and the role of cities in advancing food system sustainability.