COURSE DESCRIPTION ANTHROPOLOGY 17:
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON FOOD AND CULTURE
Allan Lönnberg Room 432 Spring 2008
Sec. # 55094, TTh, 2:30-4pm
Office: Room 429C
Office hours: TTh, 9:30-11, or as arranged
e-mail: allonnbe@cabrillo.edu
Phone: 477-3579 (3579 from on campus)
webpage: www.cabrillo.edu/~alonnberg
Student Disabilities: Students needing *accommodations* should contact the instructor ASAP. As required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), accommodations are provided to insure equal opportunity for students with verified disabilities. If you need assistance with an accommodation, please contact Disabled Student services, Room 810, 479-6379, or Learning Skills Program Room 1073, 479-6220.
Course Overview: Anthropology 17 is an overview of globalization through the lens of food resources and commodities, as they are produced, distributed and marketed. Employing the holistic perspective of anthropology, students will be exposed to traditional patterns of subsistence, which will then provide a backdrop for the global and rapid cultural changes that have been brought about by forces of development and modernization.
Course Objectives: After completing the assignments, readings, and having attended the lectures, the student should be able to:
1.) Comprehend and identify traditional subsistence patterns.
2.) Critically assess contemporary theories of culture change and globalization
3.) Analyze the impact of globalization on food and traditional societies.
4.) Undertand the effect of commodification, corporate ownership, and the impact of global trade on local foods.
5.) Understand the relationship between food and ethnic identity.
6.) Place within the context of food trade the role of international resistance to globalization.
7.) Understand the impacts of the dietary changes brought about by globalization on human health and nutrition.
8.) Understand the role of biotechnology in developing genetically modified foods.
Required Books:
Kimbrell, Andrew Your Right to Know
2007 Columbia University Press
Pilcher, Jeffrey M. ¡Que Vivan Los Tamales!
1998 University of New Mexico Press
Stull, Donald D. and Slaughterhouse Blues
Broadway, Michael J. Wadsworth Publishing
2004
Overview of Class Activities:
l. The class will meet on the scheduled days. Students are expected to make every effort to attend the class meetings on time, and will be responsible for obtaining lecture notes from other students should a lecture be missed. You are encouraged to participate in class discussions.
2. There will be one midterm and one final exam. These are scheduled below. They will consist of both essay and "objective" type questions. The final will be comprehensive but will stress the material covered after the midterm. Note: No make-up exams will be given unless prior notification has been made or a valid excuse given for missing the regularly scheduled exam. Similarly, no incomplete grades will be given.
3. Three other short assignments: a supermarket sampling, a Farmers’ Market interview and a weblog are required. All written assignments must be handed in on time. Assignments turned in late will be devalued by 10% for each class day after the assigned due date. There may also be some extra assignments.
3. There will be a research paper/presentation assigned for this course. Students will write on topics of their choice, subject to the instructor’s approval. The papers may be collaborative—that is, students may team up and write papers on related topics, again subject to my approval.
4. There will be some guest speakers/presenters scheduled to come to class. This may entail some additional expenses—because, in some cases, food will be involved. I will let you know about the additional costs and keep them as minimal as possible.
Attendance Policy: Attendance will be taken each class day. Students are expected to come to class on time unless unavoidably detained. Attendance (and punctuality) and class participation may be factored in your grade. For example, if you have 89.5% and your attendance is good, you will receive an A, or if you have 80.5% and your attendance is poor, you will receive a C. Students who withdraw from the class are expected to do the proper paperwork. Failure to do so may result in a F grade.
Grading Policy: Grades will be based on the distribution of points achieved by the student at the end of the semester: 100-90% of the total = A; 89-80%=B, etc. The total number of points is 450 as follows:
One supermarket sampling/analysis 50 points
One Farmers’ Market interview 50 points
One weblog 50 points
One midterm @ 100 points 100 points
One final @ 100 points 100 points
One paper/presentation 100 points
TOTAL........................................................450 points
Dates to Remember:
February 12 Class begins
February 28 Supermarket sampling due
March 24-19 SPRING BREAK
April 8 Midterm; paper topic outlines due
May 6 Research paper/presentation abstracts; Weblogs due
May 22 Farmers’ Market interview due
May 27-29 Class papers/presentations
June 5 Final (1-3:50pm)
Class Assignments:
The Supermarket Sampling: This is an exercise designed to initiate you, as consumers, into the wonderful world of food commodity labeling and the concept of “virtual” oil. Your task is to choose, at random, five packaged food commodities from a local supermarket. List each commodity by name and price, then try to determine for each item where it was originally produced and how many miles it has traveled to arrive at your market. From this, try to determine how much of the price reflects packaging and distribution costs passed on to the consumer. You must also let me know what steps you took to attempt these calculations. Due February 28, 50 points.
Weblogs: Below you will find ten websites that deal with food-related topics over and beyond which we have time to discuss in class. I want you to visit each site, summarize the main points contained within and check out at least two links and write a shorter description for each. In addition, please include a personal reaction to each site. Due May 6, 50 points.
1.) http://www.sirc.org/publik/food_and_eating_2.html
2.) http://www.zmag.org/bios/homepage.cfm?authorID=90
3.) http://www.polyfacefarms.com/
4.) http://www.sustainable.org/economy/agriculture.html
6.) http://stuffedandstarved.org/drupal/frontpage
9.) http://www.organicconsumers.org/
10.) http://www.unfao.org
The Farmers’ Market Interview: Each student is required to visit one Farmers’ Market and interview a farmer, based on an interview questionnaire I will provide you. The most critical aspect of this assignment is that you request permission from your subject and arrange for a time that is convenient for you both. Complete openness and willingness to have your interviewee review and edit your work is an essential part of doing ethical fieldwork. Due May 22, 50 points.
Project/Presentation:
Our class research project is based on the supposition that we all have much to learn about the intriguing and complex set of topics around food, globalization and culture. It seems important that the research you do for this class be shared, so that everyone may learn and benefit from your efforts. Thus, the research projects may either take the form of classroom presentations along with a shorter research paper, or a longer paper.
How you do the presentations is up to you; what is important is that the research you do is thorough and well-documented, exhibits a critical awareness of related concepts presented in class, and is clearly presented. See below for some suggestions. I suggest a presentation time limit of 5 minutes, but that is flexible, as long as we reserve enough time for everyone. Presentations may be collaborative, such as a debate, in which case the time limit would be increased.
Requirements:
1.) All students must present to me a brief topic outline due on April 8. I have set aside the the last week of class time (May 27-29) for presentations, but you may wish to do them earlier, especially if your topic corresponds to a particular lecture topic.
2.) In addition to the topic outline, an abstract of your project is due on May 6. This abstract should be approximately 75 words long and should include all of the basic points in summary form that you will present, as well as a bibliography of source materials and the intended format.
3.) On the day of your presentation, or no later than May 29, your research paper is due. The length of the paper for students doing the oral presentation should be 8-10 pages, but their presentation should not be a simple reading of those pages—it should be a lively discussion! For students only doing the paper, it should be 10-12 pages long. All papers should be based on library and peer-reviewed internet sources, but fieldwork is permissible as a source of additional data, subject to my approval. They should include a bibliography consisting of a minimum of three books or printed articles (or two books/printed articles and two internet sites) that are scholarly and appropriate to the subject you have chosen. All sources should be cited as needed and listed in a bibliography.
• Papers should be word-processed and double-spaced, using plain white 8.5"x11” paper. You should leave margins adequate enough for me to make suggestions.
• Do not use cover sheets or insert any blank pages. Do not place your paper in covers or binders of any kind. All covers and binders will be discarded by me, as they hamper the ease of handling large numbers of papers. Staple or clip the pages together in the upper left-hand corner.
• Retain a copy of all material submitted!
• Proof-read and correct your paper carefully before submitting it. Errors of spelling, grammar, typing, etc. can lead to errors of interpretation. Materials that contain many errors is difficult and unpleasant to read, and conveys the impression of sloppy work and careless thinking.
• Don’t hesitate to consult with me about any apprehensions or problems you might have about your writing project.
Suggestions
Select a topic which interests you. Brainstorm a number of possibilities. I am particularly interested in organizations that are actively engaged in challenging the global food system status quo. Here is a small sample:
•The Arizmendi Association of Cooperatives in the S.F. Bay Area
•The Landless Rural Workers Movement in Brazil
•The Centre for Sustainable Agriculture in India
•The Campesina a Campesino movement in Latin America.
• Urban farms, such as City Slicker Farm in West Oakland.
•Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
• ALBA, Salinas (Agriculture Land Based Training Association)
• The merits of “free trade” versus “fair trade”, with respect to a particular commodity, e.g. coffee.
• Big organic or local: What is a conscious consumer to do?
• The politics of commodity subsidies (choose one) and their implications for international trade
• A “commodity chain” analysis of a particular food commodity, e.g. tomatoes, strawberries, tea. (A team of three students could integrate the processes of production, distribution and marketing/consumption for each commodity)
• The impact and sustainability of fish farming.
Schedule of class activities:
(NOTE—this schedule is very tentative; there will be changes with the addition of guest speakers, possible field trip, the arrival of hot new topics or the whim of your instructor! Go with the flow!)
Feb. 12-14 Introduction—The Culture Concept and Food. Film—Hopi Corn; Reading: Begin ¡Que Vivan Los Tamales!
Feb. 19-21 Food Preferences; Film—“A World of Food”
Food and Identity
March 4-6 Film: “Maharaja Burger”; Traditional food production
March 11-13 Class discussion, ¡Que Vivan Los Tamales!
Class discussion, supermarket samples and “virtual” oil
March 18-20 Introduction to economic anthropology: patterns of exchange. Bananas
.
March 25-27 Spring Break
April 8-10 Midterm ; Food Systems, Commodity chains; Films: “Dirty Business” and “The True Cost of Food”; begin reading Slaughterhouse Blues
April 15-17 Green revolution
Film: “Coffee: A Sackful of Power”.
April 22-24 Agroecology; Film: The Greening of Cuba”;
Corn
April 29-May 1 Genetically Modified Organisms; Read Your Right to Know; Film: “The Future of Food”
May 6-8 Paper abstracts and weblogs due; MacDonaldization
Film: “Mac profit” or “Jungleburger”
May 13-15 Class discussion on Slaughterhouse Blues
Food and Health; Film: “When Hamburgers Can Kill”
May 20-22 Guest Presentation: Tim Galarneau of CAFF
Guest Presentation: Chloe Lieberman of CAN; Farmers Market Interviews due.
May 27-29 Class presentations.
June 5 FINAL (1-3:50pm)