Production and consumption of a food product for sustainability
This is a paper that is focusing on the production and consumption of a food product for sustainability. The paper also provides additional information to use in the assignment paper.
Production and consumption of a food product for sustainability
Guidelines for Food Sustainability Paper
You will complete a project related to food sustainability or other topic relevant to the class. The portfolio project is intended to give you practice in the skills needed for research and writing, compiling and evaluating relevant data and information, and crafting and disseminating scientific information to a wider audience.
Final Paper
The final paper should use 12 point font, 1.5 line spacing, 1-inch margins, and should be 6-8 pages in length, or approximately 1,500-2,000 words (I would say around 1900 words double spaced, which is somewhat an equivalent to 7 pages 1.5 spacing). You must also include at least 10 reputable references, preferably peer-reviewed academic sources (e.g., journal articles or book chapters), but popular media resources such as the Washington Post, The New York Times, or The Economist are acceptable. Additionally, you could also acquire information from “gray” literature which includes annual reports, technical papers, working papers, or white papers produced by think-tanks and other organizations such as The Brookings Institution, Natural Resources Defense Council, World Health Organization, or the United Nations for instance. You may find it useful to strike a blend of different types of resources to round out the paper component of your portfolio.
Production and consumption of a food product for sustainability
There are essentially two directions you can take the final paper:
(1) Firstly, examine how the production and consumption of a specific commodity or food product has evolved over time, either globally or in a particular geographic context. To trace this evolution, you will need to discuss some of the environmental, political, and/or economic drivers of changes associated with the production and consumption of your selected commodity or food product. You will also need to evaluate the implications of these changes on social, environmental, and/or economic conditions. Additionally, some potential topics include: pork/poultry in China; dairy products across the African Sahel; sugar consumption in the United States; poultry consumption in the United States; pigeon pea production in Mozambique; global consumption of palm oil; rice cultivation in Southeast Asia; tulip production in The Netherlands; ethanol production in Brazil; and, also other topics relevant to the course.
(2) Secondly, identify a specific policy, business model, technological invention, or production method which might improve the sustainability of a given food system. You should describe the problem at hand and how the proposed policy or solution would address it, but, recognition should be given to the potential winners and also losers associated with the “solution”. You will also want to describe and discuss how it might be (or already has) been implemented.
Potential topics
Some potential topics include:
ex.
Firstly, “Efforts to reduce food waste or increase composting”
Secondly, “The success or failure of soda taxes”
Thirdly, “The consolidation of US food and beverage companies”
Fourthly, “The soybean moratorium meant to regulate forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon”
– “The Conservation Reserve Program in the United States”
– “The costs and benefits of GMO crops”
– “Policies in the US that promoted exporting industrial chemicals to the developing world”
No matter which direction you decide to take, some fundamental questions should be considered, for example: What is happening and where? How has consumption/production of the good changed over time? How have markets, policy, trade, or technology transformed the consumption/production of the good, or the location of production? What are the impacts of these changes on nutritional outcomes? How have local economies, regional cultures, or environmental conditions been altered? You do not need to address each of these questions rather they are intended to give you some guidance as you complete the final paper.
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