The Island We Eat I: Seeding Resilience in Puerto Ricos Food Future

1.5 units

A recipe is more than the food it is made of: the geography of our dinner spills off of the plate. The Island We Eat seeks to explore the relationship between food systems and their geomorphology, climate, infrastructure, time and culture. During the 20th century, the transformation of global food production and its processes have homogenized most of the Earth's productive landscapes, diminishing their complexity and impoverishing their ecosystems. This transformation has been so thorough and pervasive that it is increasingly difficult to imagine how things could be any other way. This course will be divided in two parts; each part is 1.5 credit hours. Students can take The Island We Eat I or The Island We Eat II or both. Those two parts will help build the history of the past, present and future of food systems in the island of Puerto Rico. Each part will be run independently even if the work will built up at the end. Even if Puerto Rico is the perfect environment to grow food, and if the weather, soil and water make the island the perfect environment, the reality is that the island is currently importing more than 80% of the food that people consume. Since we are facing a growing uncertain future in food production and distribution, we will question why Puerto Rico cannot build a more resilient food future. The Island We Eat I will explore more global and large-scale facts that impact the island food systems. The Island We Eat II will explore which diet and its production can help to build the food sovereignty of the Caribbean island. This is a thinking through drawing course where the research will need to be criticized through the act of drawing across scales.