PSC 205 - Politics of Food

Course Units: 1

Households across the word, according to a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report, “wasted over 1 billion meals a day in 2022, while 783 million people were affected by hunger and a third of humanity faced food insecurity.” This paradox underscores that hunger and food insecurity do not simply result from a lack of food. In this course, we will investigate such perplexing dynamics, situating them within the complex interrelationships between food and politics. To this end, we will adopt an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective on the agrifood system. We will employ approaches not only from political science but also from history, anthropology, and sociology. Our regional focus will be on Europe and North America, while other regions, such as the Middle East and North Africa, will also be included in our analysis.