Community-Based Food Systems

Next Offered
Registration Deadline
Registration Opens
June 1 – July 6, 2012
May 27, 2012
OPEN

 

Community-Based Food Systems
GSLL 1518
Course Tuition: $390
2 CEUs
Duration: 5 weeks
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The cultivation, preparation, distribution, and consumption of food are practices that shape how we organize ourselves socially, economically and politically. Control over food is central to the sustainability and self-determination of communities. In this seminar, you will learn about different approaches to building community-based food systems and movements for food justice around the world. Together, we will evaluate various strategies for protecting community food resources and rebuilding local food economies, as well as the factors that threaten these efforts. With special consideration for marginalized communities in the global North and South, students will develop a conceptual toolkit and set of resources to help them assess the limitations and possibilities of their own community’s food system.

Upon completion of this course participants will be able to:

  • Understand the historical and economic “root causes” of global hunger, peasant displacement and environmental degradation.
  • Understand the key differences between the “dominant paradigm” of food system change and alternative models based in food sovereignty and food justice.
  • Identify concrete examples of political and practical strategies, in the global North and South, for promoting community-based food systems; and evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies.
  • Support local and global movements for community-based food systems by engaging in informed activism.