Food is essential and meaningful. Attention to the production, availability, and consumption of food has been heightened along with research into effects of climate change, the global incidents of the adulteration of food causing death and injury, growing rates of obesity and poor nutrition leading to chronic disease, rising food prices due to energy costs that threaten food security in impoverished communities, and the controversial development of genetically modified foods. Food has become a source of anxiety and conflict. While stories of contaminated foods fuel social anxieties over the vulnerability of the food supply, the increasing number of food riots in the developing world indicates a gross imbalance in a distribution system that creates fatal deprivation and wasteful abundance. In this interdisciplinary course we will examine agricultural production, the science of food, the global supply chain of food commodities, food safety and food-borne pathogens, malnutrition, diet and nutrition regimes, and the politics around food justice movements. Food is entangled in historical, political, economic, social, and ethical systems that serve to shape our identities, our communities, and our ideological beliefs. Through the lens of food, we will examine how the future of human health is intimately tied to the future of how and what we will eat.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Analyse the modern food system and its devastating consequences to human health and the environment.

2. Develop writing skills through critically reading and reflecting on the theoretical literature.

3. Work collaboratively to produce original research that contributes to public scholarship on the topic.

4. Gain awareness of local and global organizations involved with food production and food justice movements.

5. Actively participate in the debate to find solutions to food related problems.

1. Seminar Participation 10% [LO 1,4,5]

2. Letter to the Editor 10% [LO 1,2,4,5]

3. Presentation and Leading of Discussion 10% [LO 1,2,4,5]

4. Online Discussion Board Postings 20% [LO 1,2,5]

5. Group Project 50% (each student will be assessed based on a collective assessment and an individual assessment to measure individual contribution to the group project) [LO 3]

The workload will include three contact hours per week and seven hours of independent reading, research, writing, and preparation for seminar.

There are no prerequisites for this course. The course is only available to postgraduate students.

There is no assumed knowledge or required skills for this course. This course is open to postgraduate students from all the sciences to the arts and humanities.

Updated reading material will be provided each year on the course wattle site.

Use of Wattle.