Monday, April 8th

Starter 4.8:  Sure, the local sustainable (and/or Do-it-Yourself) food chain(s) sound wonderful.  But what problems arise when we think about feeding 7-9 billion humans this century?  What solutions or approaches might we consider in the bigger picture of the global food crisis?

Video: Feeding Nine Billion

React/Discuss:  How does this information impact your emerging food ethic?

TO-DO!

1. JOURNAL 4.8 (upon completing Part 4 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma):  REACT TO SECTION 4 of POLLAN’s FOOD ADVENTURES and REFLECT ON THE DIY FOOD CHAIN.  What role might hunting and/or foraging play in your own food ethic?  What about for the human community? What makes this particular ethical approach special?  Why might it be a part of someone’s ethic? What makes it challenging in today’s world?

2. FIELD TRIP PREP:

Come up with a short list of questions you might have for the folks giving us tours on Wednesday.

3. Personal Essay: Your Food Ethic (Draft due for CRITIQUE next Monday, April 15th)

• Re-read your journal and/or brainstorm your essay’s content in any way that works for you.  Begin drafting.

4. CONFERENCE with me about your philosophy project ideas and progress.

MY BOOKS!

Turn in The Omnivore’s Dilemma if you are done with it!

Do you have Into the Wild or any other of my books?  Please turn it in ASAP!

Friday, April 5th

WORK TIME:
Finish yesterday's Written Response and turn it in by the end of today.
Finish Part 4 of the book by Monday
Begin drafting your Food Ethic essay
Work on Philosophy Project (Conference with ME?)

Thursday, April 4th

Written Response: “Local Sustainable”

Synthesize Fresh and Part 3 of The Omnivore's Dilemma

If you finish early, read Part 4 of the book and/or brainstorm your Food Ethic essay!

Wednesday, April 3rd

Written Response: Local Sustainable

Film: Fresh

Take notes in such a way that it sets you up to do the response writing!

Tuesday, April 2

Starter 4.2: How have you engaged with food for the last two weeks?  How has your thinking changed since you have been studying this topic in both classes?  Do you find yourself contemplating your food differently?

UPCOMING!

Food Ethic Essay Assignment

Meal Planning Guidelines

Field Trip next Wednesday!

Please take this survey to express interest in where you would like to go.

Drop back in to The Omnivore’s Dilemma
Check out this interesting piece from the Rational Optimist about the misguided superiority complex of industrial organic (Thanks, Simon!)

Reading Time, Part 3 due tomorrow (or Thursday, but this is the only class time you will have to read)

HONORS: Let's meet up and chat about what is left!

Friday, March 15th

Starter 3.15:  How much should the food industry be regulated by government laws?  What sorts of things should and shouldn’t be regulated?

What is a "muckraker"?  

(Michael Pollan is a contemporary one, nowadays known as an investigative journalist.)

What impact can muckraking journalism have on social issues and problems? What are other examples of effective muckraking?

A Century Ago's Muckraking Journalism and the Food Industry:

Throwback to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (1906)

Historical Context

Excerpt from The Jungle

What is the FDA?  

Why does it exist?  Should it exist?

Does the food industry have too many regulations?  Not enough? What are some examples?

Watch clip from Food, Inc.  

DISCUSSION/JOURNAL 3.15:  

What is your reaction to this information?  Do you think the federal government should play a role in the food industry?  How important are regulations on food? What happens if labor and food safety laws are lax or deregulated?  Whose interests are served by this?

Your choice:

Reading Time

OR

More Four Corners?

PART 3 of the book is due the Wednesday after break!

Possible Four Corners

• It’s not that important how food animals live; after all, they were born to be our food.
• The FDA should heavily regulate what food companies put into our food.
• GMO’s are an amazing technology that we should not be afraid of.
• I would give up produce from far away to reduce my carbon footprint.

Thursday, March 14th

MINI-QUIZ Part 2

Starter 3.14: Watch this video:  Whole Foods CEO interview

To what degree do you see America’s relationship with food evolving?  Is the Whole Foods CEO expressing a greater societal shift in thinking or is it just specific to their niche market?  What do you see in your own generation?

Watch clip from Food, Inc. “Big Organic”

Four Corners

Eating organic food is worth the extra cost and effort.

Honors: Cat's Cradle seminar!


Work Time:

• Read for tomorrow: Excerpt from The Jungle
• Annotate questions and underline a few passages that strike you!
• Keep reading The Omnivore's Dilemma
• Catch up any starters and journals
• Philosophy project work?