Knight Professor of Journalism, and Author, Activist, and Filmmaker Raj Patel. By the end of this century, there will be 10 billion people living on a planet scorched and drenched by climate change. Already, nearly a billion people are undernourished, while over a billion are overweight. The systems that have brought this about can appear opaque and complex. In this course, we will enlist the skills of economists, agronomists, activists, biologists, farmers, chefs, diplomats, workers, entrepreneurs, parents, poets, and citizens to explain both how food systems work, and how they might be changed.

Tracing the food system through the rise of industrial agriculture at home and abroad, the twelve week course will introduce students to some current and controversial ideas about the future of food, through conversations with some of the leaders of the food movement in Berkeley, the United States, and around the world.