SUST 131 - Sustainability and the Food Supply Chain

3 Credits

Food products are by far the world’s most traded commodity. Coffee is the world’s most-traded food product. This course investigates the supply chain of such products, with a focus placed on coffee as a quarter-long case study, as global trade markets move food from farm to table globally. Internationalization, food security, sustainability, and poverty are all investigated as components of the supply chain journey of food.

Fees

Quarters Typically Offered
Summer Day
Fall Day
Winter Day
Spring Day

Designed to Serve This course is designed for learners interested in any element of the food industry (e.g. farming, supply chain, restaurants, grocery stores). The course is also of interest to anyone seeking to understand the role food products can serve in creating a more sustainable future, from experienced issues such as food security and poverty alleviation to global concepts such as environmentalism.
Active Date 20210403T10:09:50

Grading Basis Decimal Grade
Class Limit 24
Shared Learning Environment Yes
Contact Hours: Lecture 33
Total Contact Hours 33
Degree Distributions:
ProfTech Course Yes
Restricted Elective Yes
Course Outline
Learners completing this course will:

Realize the geography of food
Be able to describe the history of food and how this history impacts food processes today
Comprehend how food products affect social and cultural structures
Investigate economics of food including neoliberalism, poverty, and sustainability in general
Provide a critical analysis of existing supply chain processes including power dynamics

Student Learning Outcomes
Learners will identify global growing regions for food products such as the coffee belt.

Learners will summarize historical occurrences and anecdotes that lead to the current amalgamation of entities dominating the global food product industries.

Learners will explain the global supply chain for food products, including how coffee is moved from regions where coffee is primarily produced to regions where it is primarily drank.

Learners will reflect on the impacts of food product supply chains on poverty, environmental concerns, economics, and sustainability in general.

Learners will examine best practices in the sustainability of global food products and their associated supply chains.

Learners will critique the organization of existing food supply chains, including case studies of power structures in the coffee industry.