Postgraduate Module Descriptor


SOCM045: Food and Sustainability: Economy, Society and Environment

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Introduction: Food, Agriculture, Climate, Biodiversity, Nutrition and Health: Threats, Mitigation and Opportunities

Land, Soil and Productivity

Chemical Inputs and Biodiversity

Biotechnology: Promise and Peril

Antibiotics and Anti-Microbial Resistance

Water

The Global Fisheries Crisis

Food Waste

Regenerative Agriculture and Circular Economies

Meat: from Concentrated Feed Lots, to Pasture, to Veganism

Automation and Artificial Intelligence in Food and Farming

Food Livelihoods, Wellbeing and Sustainable Communities

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching ActivitiesGuided independent studyPlacement / study abroad
22278

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

CategoryHours of study timeDescription
Scheduled Learning & Teaching activities 2211 x 2-hour weekly seminar
Guided independent study 5010 x 5-hours weekly reading for seminar preparation
Guided independent study 2010 x 2-hours weekly preparation of reading response papers
Guided independent study 208Research and writing of extended essay

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

The Biggest Little Farm, FarmLore Films

The End of the Line, Dartmouth Films

Kiss the Ground, Big Picture Ranch

Gill (2020) It’s Not the Cow, It’s the How, Ted Talk

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Jackson, Cameron et al (2021) “Healthy Soil, Healthy Food, Healthy People: An outline of the H3 Project”, Nutrition Bulletin 46(4): 497-505.

Kahn (2016) One Health and the Politics of Antimicrobial Resistance, Johns Hopkins University Press.

Kilpatrick et al (2014) “Supporting Farmer and Fisher Health and Wellbeing in ‘Difficult Times’: Communities of Place and Industry Associations”, Rural Society 22(1): 31-44.

Oosterveer and Sonnenfeld (2012) Food, Globalization and Sustainability, Earthscan.

Pretty (2004) The Pesticide Detox: Towards a More Sustainable Agriculture, Routledge.

Sage (2012) Environment and Food, Routledge.

Schurman and Munro (2010) Fighting for the Future of Food: Activists versus Agribusiness in the Struggle over Biotechnology, University of Minnesota Press.

Sexton, Garnett and Lorimer (2022) “Vegan Food Geographies and the Rise of Big Veganism”, Progress in Human Geography

Temm, Marshood and Stedman-Edwards (2008) The Global Fisheries Crisis, Poverty and Coastal Small-Scale Fishers, WWF.

Thu and Durrenberger (1998) Pigs, Profits and Rural Communities, State University of New York Press.

Wolfert et al (2017) “Big Data in Smart Farming: A Review”, Agricultural Systems 153: 69-80.