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End of Week Reflections

Congratualtions you have reached the end of week 2!
Beautiful lake at sunset landscape with cloudy sky reflecting in water.
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Congratulations, you have completed week 2 of the course.

During this week, you have increased knowledge and understanding of the social dilemmas, challenges and movements regarding food and how this fosters the emergence of more ethical choices in food production as tools to ensure sustainability and justice in food systems.

In particular, we dived into the production phase analyzing how we can produce food, while ensuring animal welfare and without jeopardizing our environment, and understanding what decent rural employment means and why it is important. Lastly, we took a trip to southern Italy to explore and understand the impact of criminal organizations on the territories and their story of social justice and revenge.

We then explored the relation between social-spatial issues, environmental characteristics, and food security. The interaction of these three components plays a fundamental role in the creation of social injustices and inequalities as to food access and right to food. Another urgent issue concerns the environmental and societal threat that is food waste and surplus, as well as the critical discourses and practices about surplus recovery.

Finally, you have learned how critical consumption can affect and modify each of the steps of the supply chain and create creative spaces for the development of alternative practices and values. Alternative movements, in contrast with the dominant models of food supply, have to be scoped with a critical lens as well, to ensure a thorough analysis of the issues.

Thank you for your contributions this Week. We’re looking forward to seeing you again next week where we discuss food quality, safety and authenticity in more detail.

What we would like you to do

Please share your thoughts on this week with us in the comments section below:

  • What was the highlight of the week for you?
  • Will you change your behaviour as a result of this weeks learnings?
  • Have you any final thoughts on food security and sustainable and ethical considerations?
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Introduction to Food Science

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