Food and nutrition security is an important social determinant of health. To what extent is our food policy aligned with the promotion of public health? How does the farm bill shape our nation’s epidemiological profile? Why do we have hunger issues while suffering from an obesity epidemic? Who feed us, how are they being treated and why should we care?
This course is going to investigate complex issues at the intersection of food policy and public health. Topics include the current relationship between American food and diet and our health status, food policies that affects the food systems including production, processing, distribution and consumption, the role that stakeholders and right holders play in the process and major economic, social and political factors that drive policy making and their influence on public health. Adopting an intersectional approach, we will also study food justice, food sovereignty, farmland issues, and food ways besides agribusiness. Moving beyond the recently passed Food is Medicine initiative by the White House, this course explores ways to turn a disease care system to health care system through transforming the food systems.
Students are going to learn to use systems thinking to dissect a complex wicked problem and try to find solutions through creative thinking as a community. The students are going to study the policy making process, and participate in the legislative process of the renewal of the farm bill 2024.
CLASS SCHEDULE: Friday 6-9pm, Saturday and Sunday 9am-4pm