Beginning with field internships at the NW Chocolate Festival, this course will prepare students for the AgriCultures program winter quarter study abroad: Cocoa and Permaculture in Jamaica. We'll ask “What makes chocolate bittersweet?” and hold the question open as we explore answers through our senses with chocolate tastings, with agricultural labor on the campus farm and regional permaculture sites, as well as through analyses of cocoa’s political ecology as a global, but north-south stratified, multibillion-dollar, mediatized, agribusiness commodity. We'll also ask why the world’s most expensive and arguably most flavorful cocoa bean is linked to a practice of permaculture called syntropic agroforestry.
Although this course will include study abroad planning workshops and can be taken to prepare for experiential food and agricultural learning anywhere, a focus will be the stigma and historical trauma often associated with agriculture in the tropics. From literary explorations to youth-oriented regenerative agricultural initiatives, we’ll pay careful attention to cross-cultural contemporary and historical accounts of land-based inequalities. How can the "the stigma" often associated with agricultural labor and racial capitalism be effectively understood and countered? Why are the majority of the worlds’ farmers underpaid, not-white, and women? Why are the majority of seed companies also petrochemical companies? Why are culturally relevant foods and sustainable flavor traditions integral to nutritional intelligence? Why is farmland choice real estate for data centers?
By the end of fall quarter, interested and qualified students will have at least entry-level proficiency in manual agricultural labor and digital documentation, an appreciation for land-based experiential learning and historical trauma in the contexts of Caribbean and US agriculture, bittersweet sensory assessment skills, community-building skills, and a passport.
The course will be joined by staff from the Office of International Programs & Services for workshops on intercultural engagement and responsible travel in an unequal world.
Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:
2 - Introduction to Global Political Ecologies of Cocoa
2 - Food and Agriculture Practicum: Preparing for Experiential Learning Abroad
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Agriculture; Climate and Environmental Justice; Cultural Studies; Education; Food Justice; Food Studies; Food Systems; Gender, Sexuality, and Queer Studies; Marketing, Media Production, Media Studies
$25 fee for entrance to the Northwest Chocolate Festival