POL3317: Food Politics: Actors, Arenas, and Agendas

Food: Everyone eats it but we increasingly fight about how it is grown, transported, processed and consumed. This disagreements find their ways into politics, whether it is neighbors battling over backyard chicken ordinances, Members of Congress arguing over how best to protect the safety of the food supply, or countries engaging in trade wars to limit the importation of agricultural products. This course takes a broad, multi-disciplinary perspective on food politics drawing on concepts and ideas from political science, sociology, and economics to analyze several contemporary "food fights," including agricultural trade, U.S. farm bills, the National School Lunch Program, proposals for taxing sodas and fatty foods, and the labeling of genetically modified food. Take this course if you want to learn more about the various resources, arguments, evidence, and rules of engagement that structure contemporary food politics. This course satisfies the Social Science Core of the Liberal Education requirements and is an eligible elective for the public health minor in CLA and the Food Systems major in CFANS.

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