Further Resources for Food

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Don't stop thinking and reading about food just because we're shifting focus.

Further Resources (I'll add more from some of the best sources cited as evidence from you HW 12 outlines):

Video:
Mark Bittman TED talk about "What's wrong with what we eat?" (pro plants)
7 More TED Talks related to food reform
Dean Ornish - World's Killer Diet (3 minutes)
The Meatrix - short and sweet

Text:
Math Lessons for Locavores (debunking some food reform claims)
Omnivore's Delusion (anti-Pollan)
Food Movement, Rising by Pollan (growing the movement for food reform)
Big Food/Big Insurance by Pollan (if huge insurance companies lose profit because of diabetes, maybe they'll join the fight for healthier food)
Common Kitchens for Local Farmers

• Food, Inc Activism Website
• Coalition of Immokalee Workers
• Reforming School Food in NYC
• Labels on Front of Food Packages Coming - NYT
• NYT - Chefs in NYC Schools
• NYT - New Method of Killing Chickens

HW 12 - Final Food Project 2 - Outline

Picking a Thesis Video

Over the semester you're going to write, piece by piece, an exhibition style paper outline based on the major focus of the course. Naturally, an exhibition style paper needs a thesis, supporting arguments, and lots of evidence.

So you will first select a tentative thesis for the overarching paper, and then write a supporting argument (including lots of evidence) from the food unit. Next unit you will write a supporting argument for the overarching thesis from the "Illness & Dying" unit.

1. So right now you need to select a tentative overarching thesis. Some options are below - but feel free to write your own, from any political perspective or angle. But make sure it includes the phrases ("normal routines" or "dominant social practices" AND the phrase some version of the phrase "nightmarish industrial atrocities").

Many of the dominant social practices in our society - practices that define a "normal" life - on further investigation turn out to involve nightmares and industrial atrocities.

Sustainable and humane alternatives to nightmarish dominant social practices in our culture fail the tests of scalability, achievability, and/or desirability.

Dominant social practices in our culture - nightmarish industrial atrocities they may be - evolved to fit this culture's demands and will not be replaced by voluntaristic feel-good tree-hugging utopian fantasies.

An individual living in our culture must recognize and respond to the nightmarish industrial atrocities at the root of dominant social practices in order to live a morally satisfactory life.

2. Using the food unit as a basis, outline a persuasive argument that supports the thesis you've selected. You can think of this as "Argument 1" proving your thesis. "Argument 1" will include its own major claim, several supporting claims, and several pieces of evidence for each claim.

Supporting Your Thesis Video

For instance, if I selected the thesis;
Dominant social practices in our culture - nightmarish industrial atrocities they may be - evolved to fit this culture's demands and will not be replaced by voluntaristic feel-good tree-hugging utopian fantasies.

Then my food argument would attempt to show that food practices in our culture haven't been and likely won't be changed by feel good "eat right" campaigns. So my outline would look like this;
Major Claim: The failure of the ongoing food movement to significantly alter U.S. food ways shows that voluntaristic fantasies can't resist the juggernaut logic of our culture.

Supporting claim 1: There has been a food movement, it's gotten a lot of press.
Evidence: Sales of Pollan, Schlosser, and viewers of "Food, Inc."
Evidence: Michelle Obama's campaign
Evidence: Sampling of titles from the last 6 months in the NYT.

Supporting claim 2: The food practices in our society keep getting worse despite the food movement's efforts.
Evidence: Still rising obesity rates.
Evidence: Still rising diabetes rates.
Evidence: Continued expansion of fast food restaurants.
Evidence: Continued increases or maintenance of per capita meat and corn syrup.
Evidence: Continued expansion of corn-based practices - such as fish farming.

3. Now please find the proof of all the related evidence that you've named so that you have at least one hyperlink or text citation for each piece of evidence. Put those in a works cited at the end of the outline and hyperlink the evidence that you have good sources for.

4. You don't have to write the paper! (at least not yet).

Due Monday, Nov. 1 at 8:30am.

HW 11 - Final Food Project 1

For your last experience in the food unit, please select one of the following modalities;

A. Experiential (change diet, change shopping, change how you prepare food, how you eat). Note, if you select a change in how you do food that includes your family or would be weird to your family, please get parental/guardian consent and support!

B. Academic (research a particular aspect of what we've learned, double check key claims from Pollan & Schlosser, research related material)

C. Activist (do something to build a movement for better food - consider the Food, Inc website, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the Slow Food Movement, and the School Food issue)

Then write about what you did and learned in 4-5 paragraphs. Explore especially what you did, how it is connected to what we've been working on, what you learned from doing it (including what would help you do it more effectively next time), and why it matters (to you and/or others).

Due Sunday, Oct. 31 at noon.

HW 10 - Food, Inc. Response

Tuesday and Wednesday you watched Food, Inc - the 2008 movie that combines the perspective of Fast Food Nation and Omnivore's Dilemma into an analysis of industrial agriculture.

1. Please summarize the main ideas of the film in a single paragraph succinct precis.
2. What does the movie offer that the book didn't? What does the book offer that the movie didn't?
3. What insights or questions or thoughts remain with you after watching this movie? What feelings dominate your response? What thoughts?

Please post your answers to these questions by Friday, Oct. 22 at 8:30am.

HW 9 - Freakonomics Response

Today we took a field trip to see Freakonomics. If you missed it you should go on your own.

Please write, edit, revise, proofread, and then publish a post which addresses 2 out of 3 of the following questions and replies to the statement below.

1. What intellectual moves serve as the basis of "Freakonomics"? Just as Allen Iverson relied on his crossover dribble to beat bigger and stronger defenders, intellectuals such as the protagonists in "Freakonomics" have a "tool box" of particular ways of looking at the world: figuring out topics, asking questions, finding evidence, and evaluating truth. Please describe the 3-5 "tools" that the film repeatedly shows in use, with an example of a moment from the film for each one.

2. How do the Freakonomics authors address the "correlation versus causation" issue? Do they pretend correlation IS causation? Do they prove that some correlation is causation, and if so, how? Or do they explicitly acknowledge the lack of proof of causation?

3. What sources of evidence do the Freakonomics authors most rely on? Why is this innovative?

Statement (please reply to this after answering 2/3 of the above questions):

Freakonomics serves as an inspiration and good example to our attempt to explore the "hidden-in-plain-sight" weirdness of dominant social practices.

a. Agree or disagree.

b. Explain why.

c. Use an example or idea from Freakonomics and relate it to our investigation of US foodways.

Due 8:30am Saturday Oct. 16.

HW 8 - Growing Our Own Food

Please post a photo of your sprouts and a one paragraph mini-essay about the experience. How did it feel to grow some of your own food? What realizations did it lead to? Did the process seem magic or sacred or forced or unpleasant to you?

Due Wednesday October 13 at 8:30am.

HW 7b - Reading Schedule

Below are the required schedules of reading and writing responses to the assigned food books. Please avoid falling behind because that will likely lead to lame discussions and lower motivation and less success and worse grades. If you want to read (and write) ahead - do it. That might give you time to read more and different material.

I recommend that you make a special time at home for reading, plus use available time on the subway or in-between-moments. When you write your responses (precis, gems, thoughts) it will be helpful to have the book in front of you. Please label each chapter and also put "Precis", "Gems", and "Thoughts & Questions" as a bold subheading over the corresponding section of your work.

Omnivore's Dilemma & ODYR:

If you are reading Omnivore's Dilemma or Omnivore's Dilemma: Young Readers' Edition please follow or exceed the following schedule for chapters and written responses (precis, gems, and thoughts per chapter). Add the written responses to HW 7 (edit post).

Due Wednesday 8:30am - Chapter 3

Thursday 8:30am - Ch. 4

Friday 8:30 am - Ch. 5

Add the following written responses as a new post HW 7b.

Tuesday Oct 12 by 8:30am - Ch. 6, 7, 8, 9

Wednesday Oct 13 8:30am - Ch. 10

Add the following written responses as a new post HW 7c.

Thursday 14th at 8:30am - Ch. 11

Friday 15th at 8:30am - Ch. 12

Monday October 18th at 8:30am - Ch. 13, 14, 15, 16

Add the following written responses as a new post HW 7d.

Tuesday 19th of October at 8:30am - Ch. 17

Wednesday Ch. 18

Thursday Ch. 19

Friday Ch. 20

ODYR readers - same as above but for 7d also add

Monday October 25th at 8:30am- Chapter 21 & 22

Fast Food Nation:

Add the written responses to HW 7 (edit post).

Due Thursday 8:30am - Chapter 3

Add the following written responses as a new post HW 7b.

Due Tuesday Oct 12 at 8:30am Chapter 4 & 5

Wednesday Oct 13 at 8:30am - Chapter 6

Publish the following written responses as a new post HW 7c.

Friday Oct 15 at 8:30am - Ch. 7

Monday Oct 18 at 8:30am - Ch. 8

Add the following written responses as a new post HW 7d.

Tuesday 19th of October at 8:30am - Ch. 9

Wednesday at 8:30am - Ch. 10

Friday Oct 21 at 8:30am - Epilogue

HW 7 - Reading Response Monday

Please read the introduction, chapter 1, and chapter 2 of your assigned book.

Please write a very short post which includes the following for each chapter (edited and sharpened):

• Author and title of book, which chapter it is:
• A summary of 3-4 sentences in "precis" form - which means you write it as a super-condensed version of the chapter, as though you were the author (so no, "It is basically about" or "The author is sort of arguing").
• Gems you found in that chapter (brilliant insights, great lines of writing). Just quote these or paraphrase them.
• Your thoughts - a list of 2-5 interesting responses or questions or arguments you're thinking about in response to this chapter. First just get these down. Then go back and revise them so that they're powerful and punchy like a person wearing brass knuckles.