Overview of Course

Efforts to feed a growing world population offers an opportunity to understand challenges and potential solutions in a global context. This course explores the patterns and causes of change in population and food throughout the world; world economic interdependence and how it shapes population and food issues; measures of human wellbeing; agriculture and sustainable production and consumption practices; the roles of trade, research, aid, gender, education, government, intergovernmental organizations, and business in lifting people out of poverty; and strategies for improving the world food supply. It casts poverty as the driver of population growth and hunger and looks at international efforts to eliminate global poverty through the lens of the United Nations sustainable development goals. In the context of the Spring 2024 SAS voyage, students will compare and contrast cultural differences in farming systems, food security and insecurity, politics and policies, food waste, and environmental and economic issues in various countries visited on the voyage. Students’ discussions, assignments and field trips will dive deeper into countries’ efforts toward achieving the sustainable development goals and their progress in measures of human wellbeing.

This course is also offered as IE 270 through the CSU Department of Agricultural Sciences.