Perhaps more than other contemporary issues, globalization presents challenges to Christian life, raising questions about everything from what we buy to how we make financial investments, from our treatment of creation to our political involvement. And, to be sure, it raises questions about what we eat. “You are what you eat,” it is sometimes said. If that’s true, then we are citizens of a globalized world in which we reap what we do not sow, eat from one another’s tables, and shape each other’s lives in ways both hidden and apparent. Through field trips, class readings and discussions, and direct engagement with rural and urban partners, this course uses food as a case study to understand some of the key dynamics of globalization and to develop faithful Christian responses to this complex context.
Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
- define globalization and its theoretical, theological, sociological, and ethical dimensions;
- identify and explain key connections between the context of globalization and the particular issues of food production, security, and distribution;
- imagine and plan strategies for engaging local and congregational contexts in practices that respond to the realities of globalization;
- compare and contrast the experiences of globalization in the urban and rural contexts.
Schedule of Readings and Assignments
| Date | Focus and Assignment Due | Reading Assignment Due |
| Day 1 | On Food On Globalization
| Chapters 5, 6 and 7 in Fernández-Armesto
Stackhouse, “Introduction: Faith and Globalization,” from Globalization and Grace, pp. 1-34 [On Blackboard, hereafter noted as (bb) Peters, “The Ethics of Globalization,” from In Search of the Good Life, pp. 16-33 (bb) Moe-Lobeda, “Introduction to Globalization,” from Healing a Broken World, pp. 19-29 (bb)
|
| Day 2 | Travel to Alma, MI
Departure time: 9:00 a.m. Arrival time: 3:30 p.m. Check into guest housing. Dinner with Local Hosts 5:00 p.m. | Chapter 8 in Fernández-Armesto
Beardsworth, Alan and Teresa Keil, “The Making of the Modern Food System” from Sociology on the Menu: An Invitation to the Study of Food and Society, pp. 32-46 (bb)
|
| Day 3 | Breakfast
Morning Visits: Hooks Dairy Farm McKenzie’s Soybean/Corn Farm Lunch Afternoon Visit: Amish Farm Dinner 5:00 p.m. Evening Debriefing Session | Faith and the Farm Bill materials (TBA) |
| Day 4 | Breakfast
Class Meeting: 9:00 a.m. Return to Chicago Departure time: 11:00 a.m. Arrival time: 3:30 p.m. | We Are What We Eat (bb) |
| Day 5 | Global Food, Global Workers | Ahn, “Migrant Farmworkers: America’s New Plantation Workers,” from Food First (bb)
Holt-Gimenez, “Movimiento Campesino a Campesino: Linking Sustainable Agriculture and Social Change,” from Food First (bb) Machado, “Promoting Solidarity with Migrants,” in Brubaker, Peters and Stivers, pp. 115-126 Zukin, Sharon et. al. “Artists and Immigrants in New York City Restaurants.” In The Culture of Cities, 153-185 (bb) |
| Day 6 | Food Production, Security, and Distribution
| Peters, “Supporting Community Farming,” in Brubaker, Peters and Stivers, pp. 17-28
Sack, Daniel. “Global Food: Hunger Politics.” In Whitebread Protestants: Food and Religion in American Culture,137-183 (bb) |
| Day 7 | Implications for Ministry | Hobgood, “Challenging Our Assumptions,” in Brubaker, Peters and Stivers, pp. 150-160
Jung, “Eating Justly,” in Brubaker, Peters, and Stivers, pp. 50-61 Rasmussen, “Creating the Commons,” in Brubaker, Peters and Stivers, pp. 101-112 One more reading TBA Supplementary (optional) reading: Dassie, “Revitalizing Local Communities,” in Brubaker, Peters and Stivers, pp. 91-100 |
| Day 8 | Final Projects Due! |
Course Bibliography
Books for purchase, significant portions to be read:
Brubaker, Pamela K., Laura A. Stivers, and Rebecca Todd Peters, eds. Justice in a Global Economy: Strategies for Home, Community, and World. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2006.
Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. Near a Thousand Tables: A History of Food. New York: Free Press, 2002.
The following shorter selections will be posted to Blackboard:
Ahn, Christine. Migrant Farmworkers: America’s New Plantation Workers. Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy, 2004.
Beardsworth, Alan and Teresa Keil. “The Making of the Modern Food System.” In Sociology on the Menu: An Invitation to the Study of Food and Society, 32-46. New York. Routledge, 1997.
Holt-Gimenez, Eric. Movimiento Campesino a Campesino: Linking Sustainable Agriculture and Social Change. Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy, 2006.
Moe-Lobeda, Cynthia D. “Introduction to Globalization.” In Healing a Broken World: Globalization and God, 19-29. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002.
Peters, Rebecca Todd. “The Ethics of Globalization.” In In Search of the Good Life: The Ethics of Globalization, 16-34. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004.
Sack, Daniel. “Global Food: Hunger Politics.” In Whitebread Protestants: Food and Religion in American Culture,137-183. New York: Palgrave Press, 2000.
Stackhouse, Max L. “Introduction: Faith and Globalization.” In Globalization and Grace: A Christian Public Theology for a Global Future, 1-34. New York: Continuum Books, 2007.
We Are What We Eat: A Report Approved by the 214th General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Louisville, KY: The Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy and the Rural Ministry Office, 2002.
Zukin, Sharon et. al. “Artists and Immigrants in New York City Restaurants.” In The Culture of Cities, 153-185. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1995.
This syllabus pertains to when the course was offered in 2009