Faculty: Janet Chrzan
Subject Area/Discipline: Nursing
School: University of Pennsylvania
Project Area: Health; Hunger/Homelessness

Spring 2004 

CATALOG DESCRIPTION A detailed consideration of the nature, consequences, and causes of hunger and under-nutrition internationally. Theory will be examined in relation to national and international assessment tools. Approaches are explored to bringing about change, and to formulating and implementing policies and programs at international, national, and local levels, designed to alleviate hunger and under-nutrition.

FACULTY  Janet Chrzan
Office: Department of Anthropology
 421 University Museum
E-mail: jdamkrog@sas.upenn.edu

Office Hours: to be arranged

PRE-REQUISITES  Sophomore-level or higher; at least one background course in nutrition, anthropology, sociology or economics.

COURSE OVERVIEW This course provides an overview of the factors which lead to the persistence of widespread hunger and under-nutrition in the world, and of the range of policies and programs which bear on food and nutrition security. A conceptual framework for looking at course issues and themes is introduced and elaborated. Considering issues in depth is encouraged by each student choosing one country on which to focus during the semester. 

COURSE OBJECTIVE: To be able analyze the causes and consequences of hunger and undernutrition, to be able to assess different strategies for alleviating these conditions, and to understand the linkages between different levels of structural organization which contribute to the presence of hunger.

CONTRIBUTORY OBJECTIVES 
After completing this course the student will be able to:
1. Identify different forms of under-nutrition, and assess their implications for individuals, households, communities, and nations 
2. Analyze the interrelationships between hunger/under-nutrition and poverty.
3. Examine issues of food security, nutrition security, and social security in relation to hunger and under-nutrition.
4. Evaluate international, national, and local strategies, and related policies and programs, for alleviating hunger and under-nutrition.
5. Explore the politics of food and nutrition, and the significance of advocacy and public action.
6. Analyze ways in which the social and economic situation of women affects nutrition and health.

CONTENT
1. General conceptual frameworks.
2. World Economics and Hunger: Macro and Micro-economics.
3. Social and Economic Context: Who are Hungry and Undernourished and Why.
4. Food and Nutrition Policies and Programs: International.
5. Food and Nutrition Policies and Programs: National.
6. Hunger and Undernutrition.
7. Food Security, Nutrition Security, Livelihood Security, Social Security, Sustainability. 
8. Food and Nutrition Monitoring and Surveillance. 
9. Famine and Famine Prevention, and War and Hunger.
10. International Organization in Relation to Food and Nutrition.
11. Organizing for Change: Popular Participation, Literacy, and Education.

TEACHING METHODS 
Lectures, discussions, audiovisual aids, and independent learning activities. 

MATERIALS: 
Some articles are available on Blackboard, other in reserve course packs at the BioMed library. Updates on readings will be published via classlist and also in ‘Announcements’ in Blackboard. Two books are required and available for purchase at the Penn Book Center (34th and Sansom): Invisible Giant (Brewster Kneen) and Agriculture in the Global Economy (Bread for the World). 

EVALUATION METHODS 

Country Assignment Paper    15%
20 + page library research paper 
 - OR -
Practical Experience Project    35% 
Class Assignments and Presentations  15%
Weekly short reading notes   25%
Class Participation and Discussion  10%

Students are expected to attend all class sessions. They are expected to complete assigned reading for each topic before class and to participate in discussions and class activities. Students are responsible for all material covered during the class. If a student must be absent, it is her/his responsibility to obtain all notes, materials, assignments, and announcements.
 

Class Schedule

January 13:   Introduction to Course Concepts: What is the Nutritional Anthropology approach to international nutrition?
   Sen: Why Half the Planet is Hungry
   Shiva: The Real Reasons for Hunger

   Film: The Global Banquet: Politics of Food

Section I:   World Economics and Hunger

January 15:  Global Backgrounds and Political Realities I
   Kneen: Invisible Giant through Chapter 8

January 20: Global backgrounds and Political Realities II
 Kneen: Invisible Giant through Chapter 19
   Gershman and Irwin: Getting a Grip on the Global Economy

January 22: Globalization and Women’s Poverty
 Kingfisher:  Chapter 2: Neoliberalism I
   Chapter 3: Neoliberalism II
 Kim et al.:  Sickness Amidst Recovery: Public Debt and Private Suffering....

   Film: Bolivian Blues

Section II:  International Economics: Farming, Food and Nutrition Issues

January 27:  Agriculture and the Global Economy I
   Agriculture in the Global Economy Introduction through Chapter 3

January 29:  Agriculture and the Global Economy II
   Agriculture in the Global Economy through Chapter 6

   Film: Reinventing the World: Food

February 3:  International Politics and Food Politics
 Pelletier: Ecological, Social and Institutional Influences on Nutrition Policy 
 Nutrition Goals and Targets (SCN Newsletter)
   Reutlinger: From ‘Food Aid’ to ‘Aid for Food’” Into the 21st Century

February 5:  Biotechnology:  GM Crops and Food Security
   McCullum et al: Application of Modern Biotechnology to Food and Agriculture: Food Systems Perspective
   Mackey: The Developing World Benefits from Plant Biotechnology

   Film: Deconstructing Supper

February 10: Local/Urban Gardening and Food Security
 Blair et al.:  A Dietary, Social and Economic Evaluation of the Philadelphia Urban  Gardening Project
   Maxwell et al.: Does Urban Agriculture Help Prevent Malnutrition?
   Face to Face Farming
   Henderson: Rebuilding Local Food Systems from the Grassroots Up

 Speaker: Bob Pierson, Founder and President of Farm to City

February 12: Social and economic situation of women in relation to food and nutrition I: 
 Harriss: The Intrafamily Distribution of Hunger in South Asia
 Barndt: Picking and Packing for the North

 Film: Portrait of Altine in the Dry Season

February 17: Social and economic situation of women in relation to food and nutrition II 
 Scrimshaw and Cosminsky: Impact of Health on Women’s Food-Procurement...
   Leslie: Improving the Nutrition of Women in the Third World

   Film: Murshidat: Female Primary-Health-Care Workers Transforming Society in Yemen

Section III:  Food and Nutrition Policies and Programs: National

February19:  Defining and measuring hunger, food insecurity, and Undernutrition 
   Nestle: Hunger in the United States: Policy Implications
   Hungry in America (The Nation) 
   Community Food Security Assessment Toolkit
   ADA Position Paper 

February 24: Hunger and Food Insecurity in America
   Fitchen: Hunger, Malnutrition and Poverty in the Contemporary United States
   Food Assistance Landscape September 2003
 Food Security 2002

February 26: Hunger and Food Insecurity in Philadelphia
 Lynch and Kaplan: Understanding How Inequality in the Distribution of Income Affects Health
 Edin and Lein: Work, Welfare, and Single Mothers’ Economic Survival Strategies
   Food and Nutrition Resources in Pennsylvania

 Film: The Philadelphia Story

Section IV:  Food and Nutrition Policies and Programs: International.

March 2:   Income, poverty and entitlements 
   Kracht and Huq: Realizing the right to food and nutrition through public and private action
   Haddad and Kracht: What is the relevance of human rights analysis for food and nutrition policy analysis? A roundtable for furthering the dialogue

March 4:  Inequality and social stratification 
   Goldman: Food and Food Poverty
 Scheper-Hughes: Sweetness and Death

 Film: With These Hands: How Women Feed Africa

March 16: Food security, nutrition security, social security. Monitoring and surveillance, sustainability 
 Pinstrup-Andersen et al.: World Food Prospects
 USDA/ERS Global Food Security 2003

 Speaker: Laura Cramer, Program Officer for Counterpart

March 9 and 11: Spring Break!

Section V  Hunger and Undernutrition: Who are Hungry and Undernourished and Why

March 18:  Malnutrition
   Worldwatch Paper 150: Overfed and Underfed: The Global Epidemic of Malnutrition

   Film: Lost Generations

March 23:  Micronutrient deficiencies in individuals and populations
   From SCN News Volume 9: 
   Addressing Micronutrient Malnutrition
   Zinc Deficiency – is it widespread but under-recognized?
   The Micronutrient Forum

   Film: For a Few Pennies More

March 25:  PEM and micronutrient deficiencies in vulnerable populations: children and refugees
 School-Aged Children: Their Nutrition and Health
   Nutrition of Refugees and Displaced Persons

   Film: A Fistful of Rice

March 30:  Rapid Assessment Techniques

April 1:  Short country presentations by students

Section VII  Famine and Famine Prevention, War, Hunger and Pandemics

April 6:   Famine 
   Dreze and Sen: Famine in Bangladesh
 Dreze and Sen: Famines and Social Response

 Film:  Waiting

April 8:  War
   Cohen and Pinstrup-Anderson: Food Security and Conflict
   UN SCN Nutrition in Conflict and Crisis

April 13:  AIDS
   UN SCN Nutrition and AIDS
 Treading the path of least resistance: HIV/AIDS and social inequalities––a South African case study

 Film: AIDS: a Rural Epidemic (FAO)

Section IX  Organizing for Change

April 15:  Organizing for change: popular participation, literacy and nutrition education
 Freire: The Importance of the Act of Reading
 Browne and Barrett: Female Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Key to Development 
 Moffett and Morgan: Women as Organizers: Building Confidence and Community through Food

 Film: Lines in the Dust or Credit Where Credit Is Due

April 20:  Organizing for change: Community Partnerships in Action
   Syme: Social Determinants of Health
   McCallum and Pelletier et al.: Use of a Participatory Planning Process as a Way to Build Community Food Security
   Rahm: Emergent Learning Opportunities in an Inner-City Youth Gardening     Program

   Speakers: Jennifer Rulf and Danny Gerber, Directors of UNI

April 22:  Class Presentations

Nursing 516 Spring 2004:  Possible Philadelphia Hunger Projects

Greensgrow Farm
http://www.greensgrow.org/pages/roots.html

Additional information available: http://agmap.psu.edu/Businesses/1158
Contact Beth (215) 427-2702

Urban Nutrition Initiative
http://www.urbannutrition.org/

See the Spring 2004 Schedule in the Assignments section of Blackboard and choose where you would like to volunteer; contact the person listed.

MANNA
http://www.mannapa.org/

To volunteer, attend the orientation meeting at 5:30 pm Wednesday 1/28/2004. See website for details and address for other orientation meeting times.

WIC Enrollment Project
Contact Abby Youngblood at ajy@sas.upenn.edu

If you volunteer for this you will be asked to commit for 4 hours per week for the entire semester.

Philabundance
http://www.philabundance.org/

Please contact Cassandra Carpenter for further information:
215-339-0900, extension 272    ccarponter@philabundance.org 

Greater Philadelphia Food Bank 
http://www.greaterphiladelphiafoodbank.org/index.htm

Volunteer Sign-up form: http://www.greaterphiladelphiafoodbank.org/volunteer/volunteer.htm

Nursing 516: The Political Economy of International Hunger

Note: this document will be updated as needed.

Volunteer Project Outline and Guide

For this project each students needs to spend a minimum of 20 hours at the site selected.

The report shall consist of the following three sections, no more than 10 pages total.

1. A brief outline of the origin and goals of the organization, its funding and current  participation in relation to Philadelphia (i.e. numbers served in relation to number  eligible, etc. or whatever figures the agency and the student-observer think are important)

2. A brief outline of the relevant federal regulations, state and local policies and procedures  that define the delivery of the program (or relevant parts of the program) to participants.  The question to ask here is “What is the mandate, and who funds it?”

3. Observations and thoughts about the delivery of the program at the site(s) on the days  when the student was there.

For the in-class presentation, each student will have precisely 10 minutes to convey the above info to the rest of the class. That means approximately 3.5 to 4 pages of font 12 point pages! Students may use any form they wish to present information, from film and powerpoint to handouts, etc., as long as they do not exceed their allotted time.