by Prof. John Wargo

This graduate course will examine global food challenges that affect environmental quality and human health. A wide diversity of laws and regulations apply to food: air and water quality, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, plastics, energy, carbon pricing and exchanges, emission limits, pollution trading rights, land use, tariffs, subsidies, taxes, territorial and geographic designations, and certification.

We will critically examine corporate political strategies, differing legal standards among nations, trade barriers, changing consumer preferences, mergers & acquisitions, public subsidies, vertical ownership of
value chains, advertising trends, and organic certification standards. Comparisons will be made among Swiss, EU, and US laws and regulations where possible.

You will learn to evaluate the effectiveness of environmental laws and policies that have been adopted to address a diversity of challenges the world faces.

1. Transboundary Environmental Risk & Law: Lessons from Nuclear Technologies
2. Food, Agriculture & Technology: Cost-Benefit vs Risk-Only Decision Criteria
3. Trade & Environmental Risks: International Law vs NGO Certification: Palm Case
4. Plastics, Wastes, & Contamination: Pathways toward a Circular Economy
5. Biotechnology, Oligopoly, & Environmental Risk Management
6. Certification of Food Quality: Organic Standards
7. Air Quality and Planetary Health: Control Strategies to Protect Health, Climate, Economy
8. Diet, Energy, & Climate: Strategies to Improve Health and Climate Stability.

For each of these cases, students will be challenged to consider the following:

1. Laws, Regulations, and Policies: Purposes, Evaluation Criteria, Effectiveness Assessment
2. Economic Valuation of Benefits & Externalities
3. Disparities: Who Benefits, Who is Harmed?
4. Scientific Evaluation of Environmental & Health Risks
5. Ethical Reasoning Relevant to Decision-Making
6. Private Sector Initiatives to Reduce Negative Environmental Effects.