Sustainable Food Security: Food Access (edX)

In this course you will learn that food access:

- And food manufacturing has changed during the past century

- Depends on social and economic dynamics at the household level for everyone

- Is shaped at a local level by the interactions between traders, retailers, producers and buyers in the markets

- Is influenced on a national scale by politics and policies by negotiating and aligning goals, instruments, and modes of governance ¥ is impacted by debates and negotiations creating conditions in food trade by international organizations.

This course is part of the Food Security and Sustainability XSeries.

What you'll learn:

After successful completion of both practice and graded assignments related to this course, you will:

- understand the basic principles of food access

- understand actors’ choices influencing food access

- discern dilemmas at household, local, national and international levels get the big picture when the connections between levels and actors regarding access to food have been unraveled.

Syllabus

Week 1: Setting the scene

Introduction to food access as one of the pillars of global food security

Week 2: Households accessing and allocating food

Introduction to social and economic determinants shaping access to food between and within households

Week 3: Traders arranging food access in local markets

Introduction to distribution and trading food at the local level

Week 4: National policy makers governing food access

Introduction to food policy and how political choices at the national level affect access to food

Week 5: Negotiators setting international trade rules for food access

Introducing the role of international trade for food access and its economic, social and cultural implications

Week 6: connecting the ingredients

Integration of levels and actors