Research
Essay 2 Assignment– What Forces Affect Our Food Choices? (100 points): Write an essay that answers the question, what forces affect our food choices?You will need to focus your response to the question. Your essay should reflect your own thinking on the topic by using evidence from at least five of the course readings and two additional sources.
Directions: Holly Bauer writes, “In one sense,… we determine what we eat. But our food choices aren’t made in a vacuum; many larger political, social, economic, environmental, and cultural factors help direct what choices are available (and where) and if they are affordable (and for whom).
“A variety of factors, then, affect what we eat – whether we realize it or not. Various laws, policies, patents, and trade agreements play a role in determining what food choices are available to us. Federal guidelines make recommendations about health. Restaurant options and portion sizes help dictate what we choose, and various food movements work to influence our habits and choices. Government agencies regulate buying and selling options. International trade agreements affect what is available and where. Corporate interests and farming practices – and disputes between corporations and farmers – play a part in determining what is planted and harvested, and how it is processed and made available for public consumption.
“We are thus surrounded by institutions, agencies, corporations, and businesses that affect our food choices….”
Consider how the authors in our textbook collectively respond to the question and how their ideas are “speaking” to one another. What is driving their “conversation”? What do they say about the forces that affect our food choices? What ideas do you have to share in answer to this question?
You will write an essay that answers the question: What forces affect our food choices? You will need to focus your response to the question. Your essay should reflect your own thinking on the topic, using evidence from at least five or more of the course readings and two additional sources.
Remember to:
Invite the reader into your essay with an engaging beginning.
Write a narrow thesis statement that directly answers the question: What forces affect our food choices?
Provide necessary background information for the reader to understand your argument.
Write coherent body paragraphs that support the thesis statement.
Fully develop each body paragraph using specific language. Each time you make a statement, be sure to give evidence or an example and explain why or how that evidence supports your point.
Define all terms (“junk food,” “food industry,” etc.)Cite all sources with correct in-text and works cited citations.
Use transitions at the beginning of each body paragraph to show how that body paragraph relates to the thesis statement or to the body paragraph just before.
Use transitions between sentences and between the different parts of sentences to show the relationships
between your ideas within each paragraph.Write clearly and concisely, using as few words as necessary.