Assignments

a) Essay 1: Food in Context            (3-5 pp)

Your task in this assignment is to craft a narrative description of a food-related memory or experience.

b) Essay 2: The Curious History of Food (4-5 pp)

Option 1: The History of Processed Food

Research at least three of the ingredients in a processed food item in your home and write an historical analysis of that product. This item can be anything from cereal to English muffins to a box of yellow rice or a bag of Doritos. The only demand is that it is processed food (i.e., an item not in its natural state, such as, say, a banana or a chili pepper). With Pollan’s The Botany of Desire and Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation as your model, will compose a full history of at least three ingredients detailing their travels from farm, forest, or factory all the way to your pantry.

Option 2: Dinner, how did you get here?

Choose a recipe with at least four ingredients to write a historical analysis of. This recipe should be traditional enough that many people would recognize it as a traditional dish of a particular cuisine (for example: braciola, shrimp dumpling soup, biryani, plov). You do not need to ACTUALLY make the dish (although I think you probably should), but you do need to identify the actual products you would buy/acquire in order to do so. With Pollan’s The Botany of Desire and Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation as your model, compose a full history of the ingredients in the dish, detailing their travels from farm, forest, or factory all the way to your plate.

c) Assignment 3: Annotated Bibliography (2-3 pp)

This assignment is not an essay, but an annotated bibliography (a bibliography with brief summaries of the texts) for the final research assignment.  You will be required to have at least four annotations in your bibliography, and six total sources.  All four of your annotations must be for texts that you found independently of class. 

d) Essay 4: Research Paper            (7-9 pp)

Research and expand upon a question raised in class that remains unresolved for you. By now we’ve discussed the more literary aspects of food writing and attempted some of its most familiar forms. We’ve also debated and written about some of the most pressing political concerns surrounding food consumption more generally. Your assignment is to choose one food-related topic that remains unexhausted and write an essay with a compelling argument supported by original research.  For example, Schlosser’s macabre depictions of life in a food processing plant may have left an impression—perhaps you want to explore the connection between labor and food more fully. Other possible ideas include:

• Food safety regulations
• The cultural significance of a particular cuisine
• Food production and the food industry
• Technology around food safety
• Access to food/hunger issues
• Food and identity
• The rise of organic farming
• The rise of “artisanal” food products
• Historical or cultural analysis of a food ritual or event
• The ramifications/implications of food replacement systems like Soylent
• The relationship between fast food and inequality

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