Lesson 1

Lesson Goals

Texts

Core

• • “A Five-Step Plan to Feed the World,” Jonathan Foley, National Geographic
  • “The Case for Engineering Our Food,” Pamela Ronald, TED Talk, 2015

• • “Enough with the Vertical Farm Fantasies: There Are Still Too Many Unanswered Questions about the Trendy Practice,” Stan Cox, Salon.com, LLC., 2016
  • “Impossible Foods, Impossible Claims,” Anna Lappé, Medium, 2019
  • “Indoor Urban Farms Called Wasteful, ‘Pie in the Sky’,” Stacey Shackford, Cornell Chronicle, 2014

Materials

Tools

• Delineating Arguments Tool

Reference Guides

• Academic Discussion Reference Guide
• Argument Reference Guide
• Claims Reference Guide
• Literacy Toolbox Reference Guide

Question Sets

• Global Food Production: Section 4 Question Set

Editable Google Docs

• Delineating Arguments Tool

• Global Food Production: Section 4 Question Set

Activity 1: Read – Discuss

We will reconsider the unit and Culminating Task questions, and discuss what our various responses might be based on what we have learned in the unit.

As a class, reread and discuss the unit’s Central Question:

How do we feed a growing population in a viable way?

Having shared perspectives and thoughts about this question and its relationship to the argument you delineated in Section 3, return to the task questions:

1. What are the critical challenges facing our food system locally, nationally, or globally?

2. How should we address those challenges using food production practices that are viable (effective, safe, and sustainable)?

Share and discuss the perspective you have developed regarding the most pressing challenges of the global food system and the best responses to those challenges.

Activity 2: Read – Write

We will read and delineate a research-based model argument written by a professor at the University of Minnesota who led a team of scientists in a study addressing the following question: how can the world double the availability of Food while simultaneously cutting down on the environmental harm caused by agriculture?

Step 1

In preparation for a class discussion of a model argument, access the National Geographic online presentation and argument titled "A Five-Step Plan to Feed the World" by Jonathan Foley, director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota. The article is accompanied by images by George Steinmetz and Jim Richardson. Note that you began the unit by examining “Super Size,” a series of photo images by Steinmetz, and you previously examined another presentation from the Institute on the Environment titled “How Does Agriculture Change Our Climate?”

We will study this argument as an example and model of how to approach the Culminating Task of writing our own argument in response to the following questions:

1. How do we feed a growing population in a viable way?

2. What are the critical challenges facing our food system locally, nationally, or globally?

3. How should we address those challenges using food production practices that are viable (effective, safe, and sustainable)?

Note that the presentation begins on its first page with a similar framing question to the one we have addressed throughout the unit:

1. Where will we find enough food for 9 billion?

The presentation then suggests that the answer is not an “either-or” issue: “It doesn’t have to be factory farms versus small, organic ones. There’s another way.”

Examine the three photos that begin the presentation, and the captions that frame issues that cause experts to say “we’ll need to double crop production by 2050.”

Step 2

On your own, read the first page of the presentation, titled “A Five-Step Plan to Feed the World.”

As you read, note that Foley has introduced the argument by making claims about the following:

• the challenges facing our food system

• the polarized debate about how to address these challenges

• an approach to solving them that involves exploring all the good ideas

Notice that his introduction sets up an argument that will do all of the things you need to do in writing your own argument.

Identify and write down three key claims that you find in the introduction to the argument. Compare the claims you have identified with ones identified by a partner.

As a class, discuss how the introduction presents a set of linked claims that introduce and overview an argument that will propose a five-step plan to feed the world.

Click through the sixteen “Faces of Farming” that are featured after the introduction, and discuss observations you can make after seeing these varied faces and images.

Step 3

Preview the organization of the web presentation by scrolling through it. Note that there are five sections, one for each of the steps in the plan that the argument will make a case for:

• Freeze Agriculture’s Footprint

• Grow More on Farms We’ve Got

• Use Resources More Efficiently

• Shift Diets

• Reduce Waste

Think about how these five steps, and the issues and challenges they suggest, relate to what we have learned about in this unit. Consider also how they relate to the argument you delineated in the Section Diagnostic about how to address food system challenges.

As assigned by your teacher, closely read one of the five proposed solutions. Record a sentence that you think presents its central claim, and note evidence presented to support the claim.

Step 4

As a class, use the Delineating Arguments Tool to analyze anddelineate the argument presented in "A Five-Step Plan to Feed the World." Record the class’s thinking on your own copy of the tool so that you can refer to it later.

Based on the introduction, determine what you consider to be the question or issue, perspective, and central position of the argument.

Consider also the purpose and audience for the argument. Why might Foley have written it? Who is his audience?

As you review the five sections of the presentation, identify the major claims used by the author to develop the argument, and note whether you think each claim is more informational, explanatory, or argumentative in nature. Note evidence presented to explain or support each claim.

Activity 3: Discuss

As a class, we will study the structure of a model argument and the ways that researched evidence has been incorporated to set up, explain, and support its positions and claims.

Step 1

In a class discussion, review what you have delineated as the elements of the argument from "A Five-Step Plan to Feed the World."

Discuss how Foley’s argument addresses the unit’s Central Question, the Culminating Task questions, and what his purpose might be in writing it.

Respond to the following questions:

1. According to Foley, how do we feed a growing population in a viable way?

2. According to Foley, what are the critical challenges facing our food system locally, nationally, or globally?

3. According to Foley, how should we address those challenges using food production practices that are viable (effective, safe, and sustainable)?

Identify the major claims presented by the author, discussing whether each is primarily informational, explanatory, or argumentative in nature.

Step 2

Using the Delineating Arguments Tool, notice how the author has sequenced and organized the argument by presenting a series of related steps that together make up the solutions proposed in the presentation.

Read the final two paragraphs that conclude the argument. Notice how they restate and extend the central position of the argument and relate back to its introduction.

Discuss how this argument has been organized and presented in the following way:

• Introduction: states what the challenges and problems are and suggests a position about how to respond.

• Body: presents a series of linked responses to the challenges, stated as claims about practices that need to be followed, with supporting explanations and evidence.

• Conclusion: summarizes what has been presented in the argument, suggests what a big-picture solution entails (“a big shift in thinking”), argues for that solution, and makes a call to action:

  • “Addressing our global food challenges demands that all of us become more thoughtful about the food we put on our plates.”

Discuss the concept of organizing an argument in a deductive reasoning pattern such as this one. You will likely be doing much the same thing as you plan and write your own arguments.

Activity 4: Read – Write

We will review the argument about the Food system that we delineated in the section 3 diagnostic.

Step 1

With a writing partner, review and discuss the Delineating Arguments Tools that you developed, presented, then revised for the Section 3 Diagnostic.

Determine if the perspective, position, and claims that you recorded on the tool still make sense to you and reflect your thinking about challenges and practices in the food system.

Step 2

Study the sequence of claims you set up in the tool:

• claims that present one or more critical challenges facing the food system, including why they are critical

• claims that explain the farming practices you will argue for (or against)

• claims about how the practices can be effective in addressing the challenges

• claims about how the practices can be safe in terms of human health and the environment

• claims about how the practices can be sustainable within the economic, environmental, and social systems

• claims about possible solutions to food system challenges

• at least one counterclaim to an argument against your position and proposed farming practices and solutions

Think about how this organizational sequence compares to the one you delineated for the model argument "A Five-Step Plan to Feed the World.” Consider if you might use Foley’s model argument or another you have read as an organizational model for your work.

Step 3

Study the claims you listed to determine if they are still what you want to use as the building blocks of your argument. Using a new copy of the Delineating Arguments Tool, revise, add, or remove claims as needed.

Think about places in your argument in which someone with an opposing position might offer a counterargument. For these situations, develop one or more counterclaims.

Think about the most logical, interesting, or effective order to sequence your claims, then number them to match that order.

With a partner, read through your numbered sequence to see what the skeleton of your argument looks like. Share feedback about each other’s proposed sequence of claims and counterclaims.

Make notes about changes you will make as you continue to think about, plan, and develop your argument.