Beyond Organic? Globalization, Consolidation and Countermovements with Phil Howard

The UCSC Common Ground Center is hosting an event with Phil Howard on Monday, February 24. This presentation and dialogue with Phil Howard from Michigan State University will focus on the major structural changes in the food system, such as globalization and consolidation, and how they have had numerous negative impacts. This presentation focuses on visualizing recent changes, as well as the increasing number of community responses to these changes. The lessons of the mainstreaming of organic food will be emphasized.

Philip H. Howard is an Associate Professor at Michigan State University who teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on community, food and agriculture. Professor Howard’s research focuses on the “food system,” which involves all the steps required to produce food and get it to our plates—from farming and processing to distribution and consumption. Howard’s work seeks to discover what changes are occurring, what the impacts of these changes are on communities, and what communities can do to respond positively to these changes. His two main projects are characterizing consolidation in food and beverage industries and bridging information gaps between producers and consumers through eco-labels.

This event is sponsored by UCSC's Common Ground Center at Kresge College. The mission of the Common Ground Center is to “create cultural change for social justice, environmental regeneration and economic viability”. The Center hosts a series of public lectures and workshops based on this mission, as well as undergraduate courses, two themed residence halls, and a range of student-led activities. A list of subsequent talks, and more information, can be found at kresge.ucsc.edu/commonground

“Beyond Organic? Globalization, Consolidation and Countermovements” with Phil Howard is Monday, February 24, 2014 from 10:30 AM - 12:15 PM. This event will be located in the Kresge Seminar Room at UCSC. It is free and open to the public.

Parking is $3 in the Core West Parking Garage. More parking information is online at: http://kresge.ucsc.edu/commonground/about/parking.html

Common Ground Center, Email: commonground [at] ucsc.edu

Web: http://kresge.ucsc.edu/commonground

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/commongroundcenter