Course Description
Through cooperative agreement with local non-governmental agencies targeting hunger relief, this course provides students with service-learning experience growing produce for local consumption. Lectures, readings, and critical writing assignments address different aspects of the industrial food system, the nascent local food system, problems of hunger and poverty, and related issues.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
In addition to critical reflection papers, some aspect of the
food system/hunger/poverty will be more thoroughly
investigated by graduate students. They will write papers that
bring their critical reflections to bear on broader empirical
or theoretical research questions, respond in writing to
readings and lead discussions. Graduate students also will be
required to develop a proposal that addresses a food system
problem and incorporate knowledge gained from the service-
learning experience of this class. The proposal will be
critiqued by the class and course instructors with a goal of
producing a quality proposal with potential for funding and
implementation of a successful project.
Athena Title
Athens Urban Food Collective
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in GEOG 4890 or GEOG 6890
Non-Traditional Format
Course includes a service-learning project during the semester that either employs skills or knowledge learned in the course or teaches new skills or knowledge related to course objectives. Student engagement in the service-learning component will be up to 25% of overall instruction time.
Undergraduate Prerequisite
GEOG 3630 or GEOG 3630E or GEOG 3660 or permission of department
Graduate Prerequisite
GEOG 3630 or GEOG 3630E or GEOG 3660 or permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
1. To develop a critical understanding of the causes, consequences, and responses to hunger in the United States, within the context of the agro-industrial food system. 2. To develop an understanding of the origins, dynamics, and consequences of the agro-industrial food system and political economic critiques of that system. 3. As the service-learning component, gain hands-on experience addressing hunger and food insecurity in Athens-Clarke County through alternatives to the industrial agro-food system. The student will apply problem-solving skills in culturally appropriate service-learning projects with community partners. An integral component of this course will be gaining hands-on experience working effectively with a local community group through a service-learning project.
Topical Outline
The history of the agro-industrial food system. Current issues and debates concerning the agro-industrial food system. Political economy and political ecology of urban food systems. Spatially uneven experience of hunger in the United States. Social responses to spatial unevenness of hunger and food insecurity nation-wide. Spatially uneven experience of hunger in Athens-Clarke County. Social responses to spatial unevenness of hunger and food insecurity in Athens-Clarke County.
Syllabus