Geography of Food |
Assignments -- each student must do the following: |
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1) Before coming to class, students will email a summary/critique of 2 readings for each week, as assigned. These are due Mondays at 5:00. This represents 15 percent of the course grade. Students will take turns leading discussion. 2) Essay #1: Food Issues of the day. Students will search and read major magazines, newspapers and academic journals of the United States to identify and analyze the pressing and popular food issues consuming us (wait, who consumes who?) today. Also consider books and book reviews, even movies -- what is being published. Reading archives and using sophisticated search engines (e.g., Lexu-Nexus, Ebsco Host, J-Stor, others) and not just Google, write an essay -- a proper one, beginning with a hypothesis and ending with a conclusion -- in which you investigate the food issues getting all the attention. What are the most prominent issues, to whom, where, who cares, what ought to be done, what should more people understand ? -- these are the kinds of questions you should be coming up with, and don't just use mine, come up with your own. As in all essays, you need to support your argument with evidence, develop your argument so that the essay is value-added and works toward a proper conclusion, cite all sources, and include a list of references. How thoughtfully and well you do this reflects your grade. In the course of your searches, identify and make available contributions to the GEOG 369 Resources Web page. This represents 15 percent of the course. 3) Essay #2: What do you eat and why do you eat it? Write an essay in which you explore your relationship with food. As you think through this, think about what you eat and why. Keep a journal on everything you eat over that two-day period, and why, and compare this to what you grew up eating (and why) and to what/how you would rather be eating (and why, and why you are not), for example, in the future when you have a job and are entirely responsible for your own food choices. About the foods that you ate and documented in your 2-day journal, what do you know about the food you ate? What do you know about the food you would rather be eating? Your paper will be graded on thoughtfulness, neatness, creativity, organization, presentation, grammar and spelling, and connections to course materials (use the course readings to help you explain what you are experiencing and exploring). This represents 10 percent of the course. 4) Essay #3: What does it mean to eat locally? For this, you will visit the Eau Claire Downtown Farmers' Market in September and other area food retail outlets to identify what is available locally (what makes it local? -- you develop the criteria or cite & use somebody else's). Make a chart of all the available foods, separate out agricultural products & foods from processed foods. Talk to providers of these foods to find out where they produce them, why they do this, what is local, why we should buy local, and any other questions that you are lead to ask. Be inquisitive. For example, ask the providers at the farmer's market about how the produce they sell changes over the course of the farmer's market season. Who sells at the farmers' market and the different retail outlets? Compare the experience to buying local at a conventional supermarket (Target, Mega, Copps, Festival, Gordy's). Expand your chart with to be able to compare the farmers' market local foods with the local foods you can get from the supermarket. How do you know the supermarket local foods are local? Your assignment is to write an essay on what it means to buy locally in Eau Claire. Be sure to include discussion of the types of meals you would be eating and an exploraion of the entire range of benefits & costs in doing so. Give some thought to the obstacles we face in trying to eat locally, and what kinds of recommendations you can give to overcoming those obstacles. Attach, as an informative table, your chart (neatly formatted, labled, titled, etc), and any other appropriate graphics. Your paper will be graded on thoughtfulness, neatness, creativity, organization, presentation, grammer and spelling, and connections to course materials (use the course readings to help you explain what you are experiencing and exploring). This represents 15 percent of the course. 4) Essay #3: Critically evaluate UWEC's food policies and contracts and make recommendations for improving them to support our foodshed and community. Final project is a group letter. This represents 10 percent of the course. 5) TENTATIVE Essay #4: Conduct a food miles comparative analysis of a food item that is produced locally and compare it to other sources. Analysis should include a systematic explanation of the food system of which it is a part, and include maps as part of the explanation. This represents 10 percent of the course. 6) Participate in all food-related field trips, locally and to Minneapolis-St. Paul. A final, written paper on how your perspectives on food changed as a result of taking this course is due at the time of the course final exam. This paper is to include a reflection on each of the field trips and how they contributed to your changing perspectives on food. Be sure to include, and maybe conclude, with a discussion of how you will take these changes into your future. These represent 15 percent of the course. 7) Informed participation (not simply attendance) means coming to class prepared to meaningfully contribute. This will include leading a class discussion.You are expected to keep a journal (3-ring binder) of your notes, readings, your responses & writings, and your projects. Bring to class. Your Journals may be collected on occassion. These represent 10 percent of the course. |