Food Assignment

Introduction

In this assignment, you will attempt to track a food item through the food commodity
chain from production to consumption. You will identify where and how the food is
grown (and by whom), how it is processed, packaged, and transported (and by whom),
and where/how/by whom it is sold to the consumer. In this assignment, you are expected
to draw on issues, concepts, and theories from the course material to help you understand
your food’s journey from field to table and the environmental and social issues that arise
during that trip. You will also be expected to assemble appropriate and reputable sources
of evidence to support what you say, and to communicate effectively in writing.
You can pick any food item you wish. A few notes on this: first, the more complex the
food item, the more difficult it becomes to track – for example, a pizza has a lot of
different ingredients, and following each of them to their source could be extremely time-
consuming. If you really want to do a complex food item, talk to your TA about how you
could streamline your assignment (e.g., by picking only a few ingredients, or by starting
your investigation partway along the chain). Second, you may wish to be very specific
about the food you pick (e.g., “this carrot from Sobeys”), since food purchased in
different retail outlets may come from quite different places. At the same time, you may
not be able to trace your food item that precisely, and so may need to identify instead
where most of that particular food item comes from – just be clear about what parts of
your “food chain” are specific versus more general (and of course cite your sources).
Third, be careful about picking specific items that are covered in the class readings (e.g.,
cranberries, French beans, wild rice, etc.) – you are allowed to choose these items, but
will be expected to go well beyond what is contained in the readings in your own
investigation. Finally, the materials that you use to describe your food’s journey should
primarily be written in English, so that your TAs can assess them appropriately.
Following your Food: Sources and References
To find information on your specific food item, you should make use of the library
catalogues and journal databases. You may also want to use general search engines such
as Google to find popular sources, but remember that these sources will not be sufficient
by themselves.
To ensure that your research is at least minimally comprehensive, you should have
an absolute minimum of seven (7) sources for your report in order to pass. In
summary research like this, citing a large number of sources is a good way to show
how familiar you are with the material (and how much work you’ve done), so the
more sources the better.

University of Toronto Department of Geography
GGR 107Y – Environment, Food, and People

Fall 2017

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Not all sources of information are created equal. Articles from peer-reviewed academic
journals are considered the most credible sources by academics – therefore, you should
cite an absolute minimum of two peer-reviewed articles. (Tip: ask your personal librarian
to show you how you can tell which articles are peer reviewed – if you don’t know
who/what this is, go ask at the library!). Other good sources include “scholarly” books
from academic publishers, and government documents. In some cases, it may be hard to
find academic articles that are specifically related to your food item, but you should be
able to find articles that could be cited in a more general way (e.g., that describe how
foods are transported from the source country to Canada, or that talk about labour
conditions in a particular country, without specifically mentioning your food item).
‘Popular’ sources (e.g., magazines, newspapers, non-academic books or website content)
may be useful for fleshing out the specifics about your food item. Please note that
“Wikipedia” and similar sites, while often a good place to start your research, are not
considered reliable sources and so are not acceptable to use as references in academic
research papers.
Your sources should be as up-to- date as possible, since newer information is more likely
to be accurate and/or relevant. What counts as "recent" will depend on the issue: in
general, things published in the last 5 years can be considered up-to- date.
All source materials should be referenced in the text of your assignments, as well as in a
reference list at the end of the assignment. It is usual in the social sciences to use APA
citation format: see http://ift.tt/2hsZDRh
sources/documentation?start=2 for more information about this format.
Adequate referencing is essential to all academic work, since plagiarism (not citing work
done by someone else) is a very serious academic offense. If you unsure about what
plagiarism is, or how to avoid it, please ask your TA!
Evaluation
Your assignment will be evaluated in terms of how well it:
1. Traces your food product from its point of origin to you, including where, how,
and by whom it was grown, harvested, processed, packaged, transported and sold.
2. Highlights issues of importance that link to the course material – for example (but
not limited to) the sustainability of growing practices, treatment of workers,
nutrition, or consumer culture.
3. Communicates your ideas clearly.
4. Provides appropriate sources of evidence for your points, and references them
appropriately.
For more information, see the assignment #2 grading rubric. This is the rubric that TAs
will return to you with your grade.