Agriculture and Sustainable Development

There is an apparent conflict between the need to produce enough food for a growing global population and to ensure that the production of food is sustainable. Increased production requires technologies (agrochemicals, GMO, hormones, anti-biotics) and possibly increased land for agricultural production rather than forestry or even production of biofuels.

The object of this course is to examine how the law regulating the production of food emerges from these tensions and the current debates on reform are shaped. The students will be asked to examine these inherent conflicts and to determine the extent to which agricultural production can be changed to ensure sustainability both in the sense of the production of sufficient food and in the protection of the environment.
There is an apparent conflict between the need to produce enough food for a growing global population and to ensure that the production of food is sustainable. Increased production requires technologies (agrochemicals, GMO, hormones, anti-biotics) and possibly increased land for agricultural production rather than forestry or even production of biofuels.

The object of this course is to examine how the law regulating the production of food emerges from these tensions and the current debates on reform are shaped. The students will be asked to examine these inherent conflicts and to determine the extent to which agricultural production can be changed to ensure sustainability both in the sense of the production of sufficient food and in the protection of the environment.

By the end of the course the students should be able to understand both sides of the tension between environmental sustainability and foods production sustainability. The student will be get the knowledge to be able to access the right information to go beyond the lectures and into the hard decision making that is currently underway. The student should then be in a position to contribute to the debate in an informed way.