University of California, San Diego
ER-12: Sustainability Immersive Experience

UC San Diego offers a global seminar in Dublin, Ireland entitled Sustainability and Organic Food: Intensive Writing Courses (Muir 40 & 50). The following is a description form the course syllabus: As the global population continues to expand, so does the need for nutritionally sound, economically feasible food products. Large-scale intensive farming, whether of crops or herds, currently relies on technological innovations in seed, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), pesticides, antibiotics and other human-engineered resources. More recently, a movement toward sustainable farming blossomed in Ireland. Oftentimes, advocates of each of these two methods are strongly debated in the public, political, and economic global arenas. In this seminar, we will examine such debates over sustainable agriculture and intensive farming in the heart of the organic farming movement in Ireland. Farmers and activists, and politicians, especially in Ireland, have been at the forefront of the no GMO, organic farming movement. As such, the country offers opportunities for us to examine first-hand the economic, legal, and political contests over organic farming – who supports it, who challenges it, and who stands to profit or lose from its adoption. In keeping with the goals and requirements of MCWP 50, you will be asked to examine and analyze published arguments about this topic in an effort to understand their content and structure. You will also be asked to develop your own argument based on research, which will examine an issue relevant to the course.