Class Number: AEDECON 4597.01: Food, Population, and the Environment
Class Description
I chose to take this course as my contemporary issues course during the summer of 2016. This course focused heavily on the agricultural economics of developing countries and how those countries will deal with large population increases in the near future. Since I took this class during the summer, the class size was small, which allowed for a lot of great discussion. Each student participated in a debate about a population or food change in the world. This class required 2 very involved papers and 1 presentation (see below for a link to my presentation). The papers and presentation were covering the same developing country, but different topics within that country. The point was for each student to go very in depth into the information on agricultural economics and population changes in their specific country and then compare that country with 2 other countries nearby. I chose to do my papers and presentation on the country of Uganda, comparing Uganda to Tanzania and Kenya when need be.
Map of Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, all of which are in East Africa
Class Reflection
I can say that this class was not easy. I had only taken one basic economics class before taking AEDE 4597.01, which made it hard. However, the information we were learning made sense for the most part and was extremely important. The detailed study of Uganda that I did through my assignments in this class was helpful context to know when I actually traveled to Uganda in 2017. This course introduced me to the vast network of data that is available through the World Bank, and other similar sites, and how to find and interpret that data. Even though this class was not in my department and covered information that I had not heard before, I am very glad that I challenged myself to take it and grow through the process of taking it.
PowerPoint Presentation on Current Food Trends and Problems in Uganda for AEDE 4597.01