Course:LFS350/Week 09

Overview

• This is 3 of 3 of the Flexible Learning sessions in the course. The objectives of the flexible learning sessions are to provide students with more time to engage with their community-based project and be exposed to different perspectives on the theories and concepts explored in class.

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

• Relate successes and challenges in urban food production and urban food waste to the goals of community food security

Required Readings + Resources

• VIDEO: A Guerilla Gardener in South Central LA (Ron Finley)

• VIDEO: The Global Food Waste Scandal (Tristram Stuart)

This week’s e-lectures assess agriculture and urban food production from a variety of perspectives. What role does informal, ‘guerrilla gardening’ play in community food security and greater rights to self-efficacy and autonomy? When many urban residents are being encouraged to produce more, not less, food, is sufficient attention being paid to over-production and consumption, and the massive amounts of food waste that are occurring at a global scale? If we compartmentalize food as something separate from the realities of our external built and social environments, is it even possible to develop the types of solutions for social, economic and environmental sustainability that are now needed? Most importantly, what happens when we view the world through a lens of food?