Food and the Global Environment

he course will cover such topics as: agricultural and food policy, industrialization and “factory” farming, the interrelationship between climate change and food production, water quality and scarcity, the role of technology in food production and other relevant topics. The course will be taught through a series of lectures, case studies and readings that highlight recent research and trends. We will apply life cycle assessment concepts and appropriate sustainability criteria and benchmarking to current questions surrounding our global food system, and will incorporate observations from the developed and developing world. The course will emphasize the methodologies and skills needed to critically assess the sustainability of various food products and practices.