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Global Food ProductionText Overview

We will read a series of analytical texts and argumentative essays on the topic of food production. The titles, authors, and locations of these texts are indicated in the Unit Text List. Unit Readers are available through Open Up Resources.

Core

  • Digital Access
    • “7 GMO Myths Debunked by Vandana Shiva,” Julia Kent, North Atlantic Books, January 22, 2016
    • “A Five-Step Plan to Feed the World,” Jonathan Foley, National Geographic
    • “‘Fate of Food’ Asks: What’s for Dinner in a Hotter, Drier, More Crowded World?,” Terry Gross, Fresh Air, National Public Radio, 2019
    • “Feeding Nine Billion Video 1: Introducing Solutions to the Global Food Crisis,” Evan Fraser, Feeding 9 Billion, February 21, 2014
    • “Food System Primer: The Food System,” Center for a Livable Future, Johns Hopkins University
    • “How Does Agriculture Change Our Climate?,” Barrett Colombo, Paul West, Pete Smith, Francesco N. Tubiello, James Gerber, Peder Engstrom, Andrew Urevig, and Eva Wollenberg, Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota
    • “Introduction to Food Security,” Agriculture in Education, YouTube, 2015
    • “Local Food Systems,” Evan Fraser, Feeding 9 Billion, February 21, 2014
    • “Organic Farming is Rarely Enough: Conventional Agriculture Gives Higher Yields Under Most Conditions,” Natasha Gilbert, Nature, April 25, 2012
    • “Pilot: Harvesting Equitable Food,” Berkeley Food Institute, Just Food Podcast
    • “The Case for Engineering Our Food,” Pamela Ronald, TED Talk, 2015
    • “The Dizzying Grandeur of 21st-Century Agriculture,” George Steinmetz, The New York Times, 2016
    • “The Vertical Farm: A Keystone Concept for the Ecocity,” Dickson Despommier, TEDx Warwick, April 9, 2013
  • Unit Reader
    • “10 Things You Need to Know about the Global Food System,” Evan Fraser and Elizabeth Fraser, Guardian News & Media Ltd., 2019
    • “Chapter 3: Moving Up the Food Chain,” excerpt from Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity, Lester R. Brown, W.W. Norton & Company, 2012
    • “Eat Less Meat: UN Climate-Change Report Calls for Change to Human Diet,” Quirin Schiermeier, Springer Nature Limited, 2019
    • “Enough with the Vertical Farm Fantasies: There Are Still Too Many Unanswered Questions about the Trendy Practice,” Stan Cox, Salon.com, LLC., 2016
    • Excerpts from The Locavore’s Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000-Mile Diet, Pierre Desrochers and Hiroko Shimizu, PublicAffairs, 2012
    • Excerpts from The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Michael Pollan, Penguin Press, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC., 2006
    • “History and Overview of the Green Revolution: How Agricultural Practices Changed in the 20th Century,” Amanda Briney, ThoughtCo., 2020
    • “Impossible Foods, Impossible Claims,” Anna Lappé, Medium, 2019
    • “Indoor Urban Farms Called Wasteful, ‘Pie in the Sky’,” Stacey Shackford, Cornell Chronicle, 2014
    • “Nourish Food System Map,” Nourish, WorldLink, 2014
    • “The Future of Food and Agriculture: Trends and Challenges,” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2017
    • “Why Industrial Farms Are Good for the Environment,” Jayson Lusk, The New York Times Company, 2016

Optional

  • Digital Access
    • “Growing a Nation: The Story of American Agriculture,” United States Department of Agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture
    • “Whole Food Blues: Why Organic Agriculture May Not Be So Sustainable,” Bryan Walsh, TIME

Text Icons

The following text icons are used in the Text pages:

Unit Reader Unit Reader Texts

Digital Access Digital Access Texts

Tradebook Tradebook Texts

Multimedia Multimedia Texts

To find digital access texts on the Internet, complete the following steps:

  1. Locate the reference information for the text (text title, author, date of publication, and publisher) found on the Text page for a unit, section, or lesson.

  2. Highlight and copy the reference information.

  3. Paste the information into a search engine.

  4. The text will appear as one of the first search results.

  5. Verify the result by comparing the reference information on the website to the information on the Text page.