Sep 20, 2024
OHIO University Undergraduate Catalog 2024-25
SOC 2350 - Food Justice
This course introduces students to the principles and practice of food justice. Students explore the intersections of food justice and related ideas about food sovereignty with justice in multiple forms, including economic, environmental, racial, and social considerations. The course builds on an underlying foundation of food security, emphasizing its multiple components, including availability, access, and utilization. Particular emphasis is placed on exploring inequality and barriers to food access and empowerment. Food Justice also seeks strategies to create a more equitable, just, and sustainable food system for all. Critical issues explored include poverty, access and ownership of land, the rights of farmworkers and food service laborers, and the agroecological impacts of food production, processing, and distribution. Through engaging in community meals, the charitable food movement, data collection, food activism, the local food system, and service, students put food justice principles into practice.
Credit Hours: 3
OHIO BRICKS: Bridge: Learning and Doing
General Education Code (students who entered prior to Fall 2021-22): 2CP
Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts.
Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture
Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I
Learning Outcomes:
- Students will be able to describe the foodways of southeastern Ohio communities using a sociological imagination that incorporates agricultural, culinary, cultural, geographic, historical, linguistic, and political perspectives.
- Students will be able to identify the service and volunteer opportunities in the community for individuals and groups to redress food justice challenges.
- Students will be able to discuss the role of non-profits, religious organizations, and public institutions in addressing crises in food in the region.
- Students will be able to compare and contrast definitions of food security in urban and rural environments using an interdisciplinary approach incorporating multiple perspectives.
- Students will be able to critically analyze the impact of food quality on the economy, environment, and individual health from an interdisciplinary perspective.
- Students will be able to identify and discuss the challenges of food insecurity and access in the region and beyond.
- Students will be able to discuss their experiences and assess their abilities to contribute to food justice and meaningful social change.
- Students will be able to communicate their research findings and experiences about food justice and food insecurity through written, spoken, and audio-visual presentation means.
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