2009 Fall DOCST 167S-01
Bulletin Course Description Explores the food system through fieldwork, study, and guest lectures that include farmers, nutritionists, sustainable agriculture advocates, rural organizers, and farmworker activists. Examines how food is produced, seeks to identify and understand its workers and working conditions in fields and factories, and, using documentary research conducted in the field and other means, unpacks the major current issues in the food justice arena globally and locally. Fieldwork required, but no advanced technological experience necessary. At least one group field trip, perhaps to a local farm or farmers market, required. Instructor: Thompson
(Instructor named in bulletin description above may not be current. For current instructor, see listing below.)
Title POLITICS OF FOOD Department DOCST Course Number 2009 Fall 167S Section Number 01 Primary Instructor Thompson,Charles D Prerequisites
Synopsis of course content
Explores the food system through fieldwork, study, and guest lectures that include farmers, nutritionists, sustainable agriculture advocates, rural organizers, and farmworker activists. Examines how food is produced, seeks to identify and understand its workers and working conditions in fields and factories, and, using documentary research conducted in the field and other means, unpacks the major current issues in the food justice arena globally and locally. Fieldwork required, but no advanced technological experience necessary. At least one group field trip, perhaps to a local farm or farmers market, required.
Following on the long tradition of documentary work for social change, this course will feature a number of food activists who are working for justice and change in the NC food system. Through guest speakers and fieldwork, the course will host a great variety of different voices of people who represent different aspects of the food system through readings, films, guest speakers, and student projects. By having a broad range of voices in our discussions, the overall message of social construction of whole economic and social systems based on certain groups doing the manual labor and serving of others-- indeed, remnants of the social constructions of slavery are perhaps most alive today in our agricultural fields and meat processing plants-- will be apparent.
Textbooks
Some likely texts and films:
Wendell Berry, /Unsettling of America/
Michael Pollan, /Omnivores Dilemma /and /In Defense of Food/
Paul Salstrom, /Appalachia's Path to Dependency/
Deborah Barndt,ed. /Women Working the NAFTA Food Chain/
Dante James, /Slavery and the Making of America/
Robert Kenner, /Food, Inc/.
Marion Nestle, /Food Politics/
Taggart Siegel, /The Real Dirt on Farmer John/
Barbara Kingsolver, /Animal, Vegetable, Miracle/
Marc Winne, /Closing the Food Gap/
Charles Thompson and Chris Potter, /We Shall Not Be Moved/
Eric Schlosser, /Fast Food Nation/
Alice Waters and Katrina Heron, /Come to the Table/
Raj Patel, /Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System/
Also, selected current articles and web sites.
Assignments
Students will identify and visit at least one individual engaged directly in the production of food and conduct an in-depth interview with that person.
Students will produce a research project using the words of their interviewees and other forms of documentation such as photography and/or video. The projects will be 25 pages in length or the equivalent, and will require an introduction that includes context, how the interviewee fits into the larger schema of community, work, travel, and service to others, and the food system in its entirety. In the end, these pieces will likely be archived in Perkins Library as part of their collection on documentary work in North Carolina.
Fieldwork toward the final project will be required, along with the readings and class attendance. There will likely be one or two class presentations on the research and readings.
Additional Information
Charlie Thompson (the instructor) has written oral history articles and books and produced films about the food system. Professor Thompson has also made a living in the past as an organic farmer and a farm organizer, so there will be a great deal of personal anecdotes and field contacts stemming from those experiences.
The course will be taught in cooperation with the Sustainable Agriculture program at NCSU as well as the School of Public Health at UNC. Both of these entities will provide guest lecturers, field contacts, and additional expertise for students who are conducting their projects in the field.
