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The
Food I Eat
Subject
Area
This activity
was designed for Grade 12 Environmental Science as a follow-up
to Applied Genetics, or part of one of the following units: Soils:
An Essential Resource; Pests and Pest Control; Plants, People
and Environmental Modification.
Learning
Outcomes
Teaching,
learning and evaluation will focus on the student's ability to:
- Identify
and describe issues related to the production of food (including
Food Safety, Biotechnology, Environmental Degradation, Animal
Welfare and Urbanization);
- Work
cooperatively with group members to determine the opposing viewpoints
of the various issues;
- Evaluate
and determine where the student, as an individual, stands on
each issue.
Classroom
Development
The following
activities allow the class to brainstorm about food related issues,
explore the various viewpoints of the issues in groups, and finally
clarify their own point of view and develop action plans.
Materials
- Twenty
small pieces of scrap paper per student
- Ten small
pieces of coloured paper per group
- One copy
of the group's issue, cut in strips (ie. one idea per strip,
and one issue per group)
Teaching
Strategy
- Brainstorm
by completing the following steps:
a) Divide the class into groups of 3-4 students,
making sure that the group size and the number of groups are
as equal as possible (for example, 3 groups of 3 students, or
5 groups of 5);
b) Provide each person with at least 20 small slips of paper;
c) Instruct the students that they are to write ideas, one per
piece of paper, which relate to issues of food production;
d) Each group member writes one idea on a piece of paper, reads
it quietly to the rest of the group, and places the paper in
the centre of the table;
e) Get as many ideas as possible (it is acceptable for students
to generate similar or off topic ideas);
f) When enough ideas have been generated, stop the brainstorming,
and have each group review and categorize their ideas;
g) Hand out slips of paper in a second colour, directing students
to write a title for each category on the coloured slip of paper;
h) Ask the groups to describe to the class the headings they
have produced which the teacher will record on the board or
overhead;
i) Circle those topics which you or the class wish to explore
further.
- Expert
Groups
a) Keeping the students in the same groups, assign topics
to be researched (See Issues Bibliography-Information sources)
or provide the students with the slips of paper outlined within
this activity. The five headings include: Food Safety, Biotechnology,
Environmental Degradation, Animal Welfare, and Urbanization.
The goal of the research is to be able to state as a group:
b) Issues And The Food I Eat
> Some People Believe... (what people in one camp say
this about an issue)
< Others Believe... (people in the other camp say
this about the issue)
0 Common Ground... (both camps agree on these points)
? The Jury Is Still Out... (there is not enough information
available for your group to have an opinion on this)
! I Didn't Know That... (something we as a group learned
about this issue)
- Jigsaw
a) Rearrange the groups so that there is one expert
on each of the food issues in each group;
b) Instruct "the experts" to explain to one another
the aspects of "their issue," ensuring that the students
take notes on the issues they are not experts on.
- Clarify
And Express One's Own Point Of View
Instruct each student to determine where they stand on each
issue (it is best to use a continuum approach for this) and
make notes to that effect.
- Develop
Action Plans
Instruct students to formulate an action plan for themselves
which will have some discernible impact on the issue of their
choice. Students may work individually or in groups.
Background
Information
One of the
challenges facing teachers wishing to explore sensitive issues
with a class is ensuring that there is up-to-date information
representing various viewpoints. The resources listed on the following
pages are a sample of what is relatively easily found in a good
public library. High school libraries may now have new technologies
to help students find information. Some of the options include:
- Canadian
Almanac and Directory which lists organizations;
- Canadian
News Index of articles in major Canadian daily newspapers;
- Canadian
Magazine Index of articles in major Canadian magazines. Both
indexes may be available on microfilm, microfiche, or CD-ROM.
- AGinfo.
A Gopher site organized by the university of Delaware. Connect
through your local Freenet and the University of Minnesota Gopher.
See "Gophers" in the appendix on Computer Mediated
Communication.
Students
should be encouraged or assigned to collect information relating
to an issue from the variety of media that may be found in their
homes. Making sure that all of the students are aware of all of
the issues for the class will bring in lots of information quickly.
Timing
Allow one
and a half hours for this activity if the provided information
is used, more if the students do their own research.
Resources
Norman,
Myers. GAIA An Atlas of Planet Management. New York: Doubleday,
1984.
Herscovici,
Alan. Food for Thought. Ontario Farm Animal Council, 7195 Millcreek
Drive, Mississauga, Ont., L5N 4H1.
Cross-disciplinary
Links
In dealing
with sensitive issues of the food production system, this activity
deals with science, geography, and family and consumer studies.
It could, therefore, be used in Biology, Physical Geography, Food
and Nutrition, and, if expanded slightly, in World Issues and
Science and Society curriculums.
Student's
Worksheet
Issues
and the Food I Eat.
Our Sensitive
issue is...
> Some
People Believe..
< Others
Believe...
0 Common
Ground..
? The Jury
is Still Out...
! I Didn't
Know That...
Student
Activities
Issues
Bibliography
Food Safety
Pesticides
- "There's No
Good Reason To Use Them," Robert Harrington, Cognition
Vol. 12, No. 4., October 1988.
- Poisoned
by Pesticides. Waterloo Public Interest Research Group,
1989.
- "Control
of Pesticide Residues in Food," Health and Welfare Canada
Dispatch No. 51, 1989.
- Pesticides:
Discussing Alternatives. Crop Protection Institute of Canada,
no date.
- Martin,
Hugh. Organic Farming in Ontario. OMAF, 1992.
- Pesticide
Registration and Regulation. Fresh Fact Finder. Fresh for Flavour
Foundation, 1989.
- New
Age Farming-Integrated Pest Management. Fresh for Flavour Foundation,1990.
- You
Were Asking About... Agriculture and Food Safety. Ontario Farm
Animal Council, 1992.
- Surgeoner,
G.A. We Drown in Information but Thirst for Knowledge.
University of Guelph, 1991.
Urbanization
- McIlroy, Anne.
"Policy Sows Destruction," The Ottawa Citizen,
Apr. 23 1991.
- Spears,
Tom. "Our Vanishing Farmland," The Ottawa Citizen,
Nov. 4 1990.
- Spears,
Tom. "Growing More Food on Less Land," The Ottawa
Citizen, Nov. 11 1990.
- Farmers
and Foilers: A Simulation Game About the Urbanization of Farm
Land. Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, 1988.
Biotechnology/Genetics
- O'Brien, Laird.
"Chiperzak's Ark," Harrowsmith Vol. 80. No
Date.
- Boyd,
Roger. "Genetics and Biotechnology in Food Production,"
Interactions: The Ontario Journal of Environmental Education.
Vol. 4, No. 4 (March) 1993.
- Sadler,
M. "Quorn: Man's First New Food," New Biotech:
Canada's Biotechnology Magazine. Vol. 15 No. 4, (December).
Guard,
Barbara and Robin Guard. "Genetic Engineering in Agriculture:
The Ethical Issues," Cognition, Vol. 14, No.3.
- Henkes,
Rollie. "Tomorrow's Seeds: Patent Pending," The
Furrow, Sept/Oct. 1992.
- Camp,
Nancy. "B.T. Gene Makes Potatoes Insecticidal," AgriScience.
No Date.
- Aylsworth,
Jean D. "A Boom in Bioengineering," American Vegetable
Growers, Vol. 40, No. 8. No Date.
- Cross,
Sir Barry. "Look at it this way," Outlook on Agriculture,
Volume 20 No. 2. No Date.
- Baker,
Kenneth M. "Biotechnology-a strategic opportunity for agriculture,"
Outlook on Agriculture, Volume 20 No. 2. No Date.
- Straughan,
Roger. "Social and Ethical Issues Surrounding Biotechnological
Advance," Outlook on Agriculture, Volume 20 No.
2. No Date.
Animal
Welfare
- Duncan,
Ian J.H. "Measuring Animal Behaviour to Assess Welfare,"
Highlights in Food Research in Ontario, Vol. 15, No.
4, Dec. 1992.
- Wylie-Toal,
Ian. "Animal rights-and Wrongs," The Rural Voice,
Feb. 1992.
- Toronto
Humane Society. "Animal Factories In Canada-Old Macdonald
Lost His Farm," Animal Talk, April 4, 1989.
- Who
You Eat Matters! People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
No Date.
- The
Meat You Eat: Seared with pain-Laced with Poison. Friends of
Animals Inc., No date.
Farming
and The Environment
- You were asking
about... Agriculture and the Environment. Ontario Farm Animal
Council, 1992.
- Just
Facts. The Canadian Cattlemen's Association, 1993.
- The
Canadian Green Consumer Guide. Pollution Probe, 1989.
- Myers,
Dr. Norman. GAIA: an atlas of Planet Management. New York: Doubleday,
1984.
- Smit,
Dr. Barry. "The Greenhouse Effect: Impacts and Responses,"
Interactions The Ontario Journal of Environmental Education,
Sept. 1992.
- Stone,
Judith. Light Elements, Essays on Science from Gravity to Levity,1991.
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