Lesson 7

Lesson Goals

Texts

Core

• • “7 GMO Myths Debunked by Vandana Shiva,” Julia Kent, North Atlantic Books, January 22, 2016
  • “The Case for Engineering Our Food,” Pamela Ronald, TED Talk, 2015

Materials

Tools

• Global Food Production: Section 2 Diagnostic Checklist

• Delineating Arguments Tool

• Evaluating Arguments Tool

Reference Guides

• Literacy Toolbox Reference Guide

Question Sets

• Global Food Production: Section 2 Question Set

Editable Google Docs

• Global Food Production: Section 2 Diagnostic Checklist

• Delineating Arguments Tool

• Evaluating Arguments Tool

• Global Food Production: Section 2 Question Set

Activity 1: Read – Discuss

We will review our notes from the previous lesson and discuss some of the benefits of using genetic engineering in the production of Food.

Review your notes and claims from the class discussion and Pamela Ronald’s TED Talk. With a partner or small group, share your responses to the following questions:

1. What is genetic engineering? What are the different ways that food can be modified genetically?

2. How can genetically modified food assist in helping combat malnutrition?

3. Thinking back to the different elements of the food system map, what might be some of the beneficial economic, societal, environmental, and farming impacts of using genetically modified seeds and plants to produce food?

4. What might be some benefits to making a plant more resistant to environmental stress and disease? What might be some of the potential negative impacts?

5. Based on what you have learned so far about some of the challenges of growing food to feed a rapidly increasing global population, how do you anticipate genetically engineered foods being used in the food system?

Activity 2: Read – Discuss

We will re-examine elements of Pamela Ronald’s argument about the use of gmos to determine if her argument is credible and convincing.

Step 1

Follow along as your teacher reviews the Evaluating Arguments Tool, which organizes a process and set of questions to help you determine if you think an argument is one you find believable. Note that the tool is organized similarly to the Delineating Arguments Tool you used previously, but it now asks you to evaluate the elements of an argument you have already analyzed and delineated.

Review the section in the Literacy Toolbox Reference Guide for the tool. Note the organizational elements of the tool and the process outlined for evaluating an argument with it.

Step 2

As a class, review the elements you delineated for Pamela Ronald’s TED Talk argument about the use of GMOs. Use the process steps for the Evaluating Arguments Tool to re-examine her argument.For each of the elements and questions on the Evaluating Arguments Tool, discuss whether you would rate the argument as questionable (-), reasonable (✓), or a strength of the argument (+). When you get to the elements and questions for credibility and bias, discuss how what you learned from the TED Talk either confirms or changes what you predicted about Pamela Ronald as an expert on GMOs. Then rate these elements.

Individually, do the final “Convincing Argument?” rating for the argument, based on the questions: Does the argument make sense to me? To what extent do I agree with its positions and claims? Am I convinced?

As directed by your teacher, signal to indicate how you rated the argument. Look around the class to see how your overall evaluation compares to those of other students.

Activity 3: Read – Write

We will read and annotate the article “7 Gmo Myths Debunked By Vandana Shiva,” an excerpt from the book seed sovereignty, Food security: women in the vanguard of the fight against gmos and corporate agriculture.

Step 1

Follow along as your teacher does a brief introduction of environmental activist Vandana Shiva.

With this background, read and annotate the article "7 GMO Myths Debunked by Vandana Shiva." Pay attention to the arguments made by Shiva, and make notes about how these arguments are supported. Note places in the argument that indicate Shiva’s perspective on GMOs.

Step 2

With a partner, use the Delineating Arguments Tool to identify the issue, controversy, perspective, position, and major claims presented in Shiva’s argument.

Referencing what you have written on the Delineating Arguments Tool, now use the Evaluating Arguments Tool to guide you as you analyze and evaluate the elements of Shiva’s argument. Use the process you practiced in the previous lessons and activity to make evidence-based judgments about the text. You will use your observational notes from the tool in the next activity.

As you read, address the textual details above, using the following questions:

1. How does the author’s background, approach, or language indicate a bias that affects the argument’s perspective or reasoning?

2. How does the author use supporting evidence? How credible, convincing, and complete is this evidence?

3. Is the argument well-reasoned and logical? Are its position, claims, and evidence organized and presented coherently?

Activity 4: Discuss

We will review some of the major benefits and risks of using genetically modified seeds and plants to grow Food.

Step 1

Based on the arguments made in the article summarizing Shiva’s perspective and what we have already learned about some of the benefits of GMOs, make a list of the benefits and risks of using this technology.

Your teacher will make a list with two columns, one for the benefits and one for the risks. From your notes, provide examples for each, citing where you found them in the previously used materials.

Discuss what the lists of benefits and risks seem to add up to.

Step 2

As a class, return to the questions that have framed this section of the unit about farming practices. Discuss the use of GMOs in relationship to those questions:

1. How can we best feed a growing population using methods that are effective, safe, and sustainable?

2. Which agricultural practices are the most viable? Which practices are not viable?

Based on what you have learned, determine if you think that GMO use is viable, based on whether it is an effective, safe, and sustainable agricultural practice.

Step 3

In your Learning Log, write a short paragraph that responds to the following question:

1. Is the use of GMOs a viable agricultural practice to help us best feed a growing population? Why or why not?

Activity 5: Read – Discuss

We will review the task for the section 2 diagnostic, then consider the different perspectives on industrial agriculture, organic farming, and the use of gmos we have studied. We will select a practice to focus on and develop a position on the viability of that practice.

Step 1

Access, read and annotate the Section 2 Diagnostic Checklist, noting the task questions and expectations:

Task Question:

In what ways is an agricultural practice either viable or not viable within our food system?

Task:

Identify an agricultural practice and analyze the ways in which it is or is not viable (effective, safe, and sustainable) within the food system. Form and develop an evidence-based claim that presents your position about the viability of the practice.

Discuss what you will be expected to do, in terms of choosing one of the practices you have studied so far (industrial agriculture, organic farming, and the use of GMOs), analyzing whether it is viable, developing an evidence-based claim, and explaining your claim using evidence from at least two texts from the unit.

Step 2

Review the notes and tools you have developed in Sections 1 and 2, particularly those related to the texts you have read on either side of arguments about industrial agriculture, organic farming, and the use of GMOs. Think also about the challenges you identified in Section 1 and wrote about in your Section 1 Diagnostic response.

Determine which of the practices you want to focus on for the Section 2 Diagnostic and whether or not you see that practice as viable.

Activity 6: Read

For homework and in preparation for the Section Diagnostic, we will review the materials used throughout section 2 and highlight the key issues and possible evidence these pieces present.

For homework, independently review your notes from all materials used in the six lessons and the claims you have studied and developed. Look for what strikes you as most important, or identify a theme that appears multiple times across various materials. To guide your review, think about the following questions:

1. What issues in the current food system do the materials highlight?

2. Which issues impact you directly?

3. Which issue are you most passionate about or interested in?

4. How do the issues and ideas connect to the challenges facing the global food system?