READING RESPONSE QUESTIONS
GEOGRAPHY 4742---GEOGRAPHY OF FOOD
This packet contains all the reading response questions for the term. You are required to
answer THREE questions in a 4-6 page essay (double spaced, 12 point type, one inch
margins). You need to produce one essay for each section of the term.
Some of the weeks have “Questions to Think On.” You may not answer these
questions in writing---they’re just to guide you through the article. Please choose a
“Question to Write On.”
Be sure and reproduce the question you are answering at the top of each essay. If I do
not see the question, and I cannot figure out which question you’re answering, you will
lose points.
Remember to outline, and to create a well-structured essay. Good arguments get high
marks! And please proofread for grammar and spelling.
Good luck!
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WEEK ONE: SCHLOSSER
TO THINK ABOUT:
1) Eric Schlosser discusses several types of drawbacks to the American system of fast food
production, including health issues, labor problems, and environmental dilemmas. Of all the
issues raised in the book, which is most important to you? Why do you think it should be the
central issue in the critique of industrial agriculture? Do you know of any arguments counter to
the ones Schlosser presents about your primary issue?
2) Since the publication of Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser has been advocating much more
stringent food safety regulations. What might be some arguments AGAINST toughening
national food safety laws to prevent e.coli or salmonella?
3) Schlosser discusses the eagerness of fast food companies to avoid hiring skilled workers and
to rely instead upon highly unskilled workers. In fact, some chains openly embrace "zero
training" as their ultimate goal. Since these companies are providing a steady paycheck, is it
really the obligation of fast food chains to take an interest in their workers and to teach them job
skills? Also, since many of the workers are recently arrived immigrants, doesn't employment at
fast food restaurants offer them a toehold in the American economy and an opportunity to move
onto a better job?
4). Over the last several decades, fast food companies have aggressively targeted children in
their marketing efforts. Should advertisers be permitted to target children who lack the
sophistication to make informed decisions and are essentially being lured into eating high fat,
high calorie food through toys and cute corporate mascots? Is it possible that fast food
companies - like tobacco companies - are recruiting increasingly younger consumers in order to
insure a steady customer base as their older constituents die from heart disease, diabetes, and
other obesity-related disorders?
5). Upton Sinclair's The Jungle was the first book to sound the clarion call about the appalling
abuses inherent in mass-produced beef. In the decades since its publication, the state of
meatpacking has received scant attention. Were you shocked that Fast Food Nation documents
some of the same unsafe conditions and practices that Sinclair revealed nearly 100 years ago?
Were you under the impression that the unsafe conditions in meatpacking had largely been
eliminated and that the United States' beef and poultry industry set the standard for other
countries? Does the author's contention that not enough has changed in the meat industry
challenge the progressive belief in American capitalism-that it will lift all boats and make
constant improvements in working and living conditions?
6) Fast food chains, despite the myriad problems documented by the author, have an undeniable
appeal-they are convenient and offer inexpensive and tasty food. Even if you are disturbed by
the practices of these corporations, could you realistically swear off your food, given its
ubiquity and mainstream appeal? If you are driving home from work, tired and hungry, and
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your two choices are a familiar fast food restaurant or an unknown Mom-and-pop, which would
you choose? What kinds of implications does this choice have?
7). If one accepts the author's assertions that the beef processors and fast food corporations are
engaging in patterns of unethical conduct, what can the consumer do to modify their behavior?
Can the conduct of an individual have an impact on a company's practices? Why is a company
most likely to change its conduct? To generate public goodwill? To respond to its employees'
concerns? To address diminishing profits?
8) Was the creation of the current fast food industry inevitable given changes in technology
(technology allowing McDonalds to keep food production costs and prices down) and the
changing nature of the American family?
TO WRITE ABOUT:
(If you choose to write this week, this is the question you must answer):
1)Using examples from Fast Food Nation, define and illustrate the terms “economy of scale”
and “consolidation.” What factors have led to these processes in the meat industry? What have
the effects of economies of scale and consolidation been on the beef commodity chain?
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WEEK TWO: MINTZ, FRIEDMANN, HARPER & LEBEAU
HARPER AND LE BEAU: QUESTIONS TO THINK ON
Words to know:
Vertical integration
Horizontal integration
CAFO
Oligopoly
globalization
food system
Green Revolution
monocropping
1) How did changes in farming technology, food distribution technology, and food preparation
techniques change the U.S. food system between WWII and the present? What role did
transportation play? How did all of these changes alter the ways, places, and foods that
Americans ate?
2)The Green Revolution introduced high-yield plant varieties both to the US and to the
developing world. What else, other than seeds, did the Green Revolution require Third World
farmers to start using? What were the effects of this socio-technical package?
3) Is hunger in the US the result of insufficient food production? Or does the problem stem
from other factors?
4) Do you agree with the idea that poor people should only choose foods on the basis of the
most nutrition for the least money? Why or why not? What do Harper and LeBeau say?
5)What are the arguments in favor of GMO foods? What are the arguments against? Are you
in favor of consuming GMOs, and do you consume them already?
6)What changes in the American lifestyle have promoted the rise of fast food and highly
processed foods? What are the effects of these lifestyle and culinary changes?
7)Is farming today a high-margin or a low margin business? Why?
8)What effect does consolidation in agricultural processing (not farming, but the subsequent
processing of foods) have on prices for agricultural commodities (like wheat, vegetables, and
meat)?
9) What do you think the positive and negative effects of vertical integration are?
10) What effect do you think globalization has on farmers in the Third World?
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MINTZ: QUESTIONS TO THINK ON
1) What is an inside meaning of food? What is an outside meaning?>
2) What was the outside meaning that led to the adoption of sugar and tea by the English
working class? What was the inside meaning that made sugared tea so essential to
English identity?
3) How did WWII make changes in outside, structural factors that promoted the
widespread adoption of the habit of drinking Coca-Cola? How did inside factors change
in a way that made Coke so popular? Why and how did Coke become a symbol of
American identity?
4) Which kind of power, inside or outside, is more powerful? Why?
FRIEDMANN:QUESTIONS TO THINK ON
Words to know:
GATT
embargo
food regime
subsidy
WIC
NIC
dumping
NAC
durable foods
détente
1) Who are the main players in contemporary disputes over agriculture? Are all of them at
the table during GATT talks?
2) Is the world food regime since 1947 characterized primarily by shortages or by
surpluses? What are the effects of chronic shortage or surplus?
3) Do US farmers operate purely according to the laws of supply and demand, or is the
market for agricultural goods shaped by other forces? What are those forces?
4) What role did nation-states play in organizing the world food regime?
5) Are government-funded food aid programs, like the School Lunch Program, WIC, and
international food aid, purely charity? Or are they designed to affect American
agricultural markets? If so, how?
6) Between 1947 and 1972, were Third World countries focused on growing food for their
own populations, exporting foods, or importing foods? Were most Third World
countries self-sufficient in food production? Why or why not?
7) Based on the US experience during the early 1970s, do you think it is possible for the
United States to fully control prices for agricultural products on the world market?
8) Why did the surplus regime end? What effects did the end have on world agriculture?
9) Why does Friedmann say that today, the focus of political action is on food and not
agriculture?
10) Friedmann says that a democratic food policy would be radically different than our
current trade-based food policy. Based on your reading of Fast Food Nation, do you
agree with her?
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QUESTION S TO WRITE ON: HARPER, MINTZ FRIEDMANN
1)Explain what Mintz means by inside and outside meanings of food, and tell us whether
Harper and LeBeau and Friedmann are analyzing the inside or outside meanings of food. Then,
find and discuss at least three inside meanings for specific foods, and at least three outside
meanings of specific foods. Which kind of power is more powerful in each of these foods?
Brownie points will be awarded for every time you can come up with both an inside and an
outside meaning for the same food, and explain how those two meanings differ.
2) Describe three major differences between the contemporary food regime (1972-present) and
the one that preceded it (1947-1972). What difficulties has the transformation of the global
food regime since 1972 posed for Third World agriculturalists? (This question is very difficult,
and I will grade it with an easier hand. There is a strong possibility it will be on the exam,
though, so you may choose to answer this question and get feedback on your answer before you
have to respond to it on the midterm)
3) Using your food diaries from last week, analyze what you eat and write an essay that explains
how what you eat is shaped by the “outside power’ of the global food regime. What
macroeconomic and macrosocial forces help determine how you nourish yourself? How would
what you eat have been different in, say, 1930?
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WEEK THREE: HEFFERNAN&CONSTANCE, FRIEDLAND, BESTOR
QUESTIONS TO WRITE ON
1) The globalization of the food system has changed diets, production practices, markets
and the connections between distant locales. Using data from at least TWO of the
readings, discuss at least TWO aspects of the globalization of food. Be srue to explain
how globalization has changed the food system, and explain the significance of the
aspects you choose to discuss.
2) In his article, William Friedland says there has been a “bimodalization of the world
population, in terms of “income, education and other socioeconomic indicators.” Using
data from Bestor’s article on sushi, explain how this bimodalization has driven the
development of a global food chain. How does the global food chain link producers in
one place to consumers in another, and how does that relate to socioeconomic class?
3) Why do global food chains favor large firms over small investors or entrepreneurs? Use
data form at least two authors to explain.
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WEEK FOUR: BUSCH, DUNN, GOLDMAN
QUESTIONS TO THINK ON:
1. Dunn says that EU sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPS) are “Trojan Pigs.” What
does she mean by the term “Trojan pig,” and how do SPS act as “Trojan pigs” in
Poland?
2. Dunn argues that regulations do not have the same effects in all places. Why would EU
SPS have different effects in, say, Germany or England as opposed to Poland?
3. Small farms like the ones in Poland are generally seen as “inefficient’ because they can’t
achieve economies of scale, and thus can’t produce large volumes of product at low cost.
But is closing them down and sponsoring large consolidated farms really more
“efficient” in a larger sense? What social and economic costs does consolidation have,
and why might it be more cost-effective for the Polish government to work to keep small
farms in the market?
4. According to the European Union and the World Bank, different national standards are
technical barriers to trade. That is, they keep some people out of markets. To remedy
that, the EU and the WB believe that standards should be harmonized, or made the same
for all nations. Does this, in fact, eliminate trade barriers and give all producers equal
access to markets?
5. Do you think that the way “risk” is used in making EU SPS actually reflects the real risk
of meat-borne disease? Do you think that the standards are in fact “science based,” or
does politics play a role in formulating standards? Use data from our readings to
support your answer.
6. Dunn says that the very standards designed to prevent foodborne disease may foster it.
Why does she say that? How does that contrast with what Schlosser argues? What do
you think?
7. Busch says that food quality standards demand the ‘standardization of things”. How
does standardizing agricultural products affect the products themselves, and how does it
affect the environment? (Hint: a key term you may want to think about is biodiversity.)
8. Goldman argues that the standards the Chilean fruit packers used created an “aesthetic of
cognitive mapping.” What was that map, and how did it classify people in the world
economy? Do you think the map accurately represented the fruit packers’ places in the
world economy? How did they contest that representation?
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9. Reading Goldman’s article, did you think that people’s salaries in the Chilean fruit
industry accurately represent their skills? Why are some people paid less than others?
Do you think that is fair?
QUESTIONS TO WRITE ABOUT (Pick One)
1) What role to small-scale or village-level processors play in the commodity chain
for smallhold farmers? Why does an attack on small-scale processing have such
a strong negative effect on smallhold farmers?
2) Busch argues that grades and standards, which are supposedly “scientific” and
“value neutral,” actually carry strong ideas about morality and what (or who) is
good or bad. Using information from the articles by Goldman and Dunn, explain
how EU grades and standards sort people from around the world into different
grades of consumers.
3) Goldman cites Strathern, who says, “To select an apple for its appleness is to
discriminate between those which conform more and those which conform less
to cultural expectations about what the natural apple should be.” What does she
mean by that, and how does that affect the way quality is defined in standards?
Are there alternate ways of determining what is a quality product?
4) Busch says that food quality standards require not only the standardization of
things, but the standardization of many other things as well. Using data from
Dunn or Goldman to illustrate your answer, explain how standards standardize
and discipline workers and markets.
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WEEK FIVE: FRIEDBERG
TERMS TO MAKE SURE YOU KNOW:
Commodity Chain
Value-Added
Capital Mobility
Subsistence Farming
Vertical integration
Oligopoly
Contract Farming
Economies of Scale
QUESTIONS TO WRITE ON:
1. Why do Burkina Faso and Zambia have such different institutional and social
frameworks for producing and exporting green beans? Explain precisely how they differ
and why these differences came about.
2. Why do producers from the second and third world voluntarily adhere to standards given
by first world wholesalers and retailers? Using data from at least two of the readings
we’ve done this term, explain what factors shape their decisions to comply.
3. How does the production and consumption of export crops encourage bimodalization in
the world economy? Cite specific evidence from French Beans and Food Scares and at
least two other readings in your explanation.
4. What kinds of informal rules and norms shape the global food trade, and how do they do
so?
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WEEK SIX: GUTHMAN, WURGAFT, POLLAN, BUCK
Questions to Write On:
1) How is the production and consumption of organic food related to class?
Think specifically about the conditions of production, the symbolic meanings of
organic food, how it shapes bodies, and the need for high profits per acre of
food in production. (That is, think symbolically as well as economically).
2) Is eating organic food a good antidote or a way of opting out of the
industrial food system? Why or why not? Be specific in your reasoning, and
remember your answer will be judged on its logic and the evidence you bring to
bear on the question. Don't be vague!
3) Lawrence Busch argues that all standardds represent a "moral economy" which
expresses culturally constituted ideas of goodness and badness, virtue and
vice, and social identity. Using the pieces by Guthman and Wurgaft, talk about
what similar ideas organic produce is meant to express and how that has changed
over time.
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WEEK SEVEN: CLARK, WILK, MINTZ
Words to know:
Commodity fetishism
sweet breads and sweetbreads (know the difference—one is a pastry and one is the thymus
gland of a calf!)
Questions to think on:
1) How is scavenging or stealing food like cooking for punks? How does being scavenged or
stolen change the symbolic properties of the food? In your answer, be specific about the
ideologies surrounding food that is taken from dumpsters or stolen from shops, and explain
how it is the ideological antithesis of mainstream industrial food.
2) In our discussion of food conglomerates, we talked about the reasons that mega-firms like
ConAgra choose to use dozens of individual brands rather than marketing all their products
under a single corporate name. Knowing what you now know about the relationship
between food and identity, why do you think that industrial conglomerates choose to use
brands? How does branding and product differentiation increase consumption?
Questions to write on:
1)
In his article on punk cuisine, Dylan Clark tells us that “food practices mark ideological
moments.” Using data from at least two of today’s readings and one example from your own
experience or knowledge, explain how ideologies are expressed through food practices.
2)
Do you agree or disagree with Sidney Mintz that there is no such thing as an American
cuisine? Why do you think the students that Mintz gave this idea to were offended? Do you
think Wilk’s argument about real Belizean cuisine could be used to argue that there is a real
American cuisine? Be sure to address Mintz’s arguments specifically---points will be given to
the degree you engage the readings.
3) Mintz argues that “not having a cusine….might be a price we should be happily prepared to
pay for ‘what’s great about America.’” Why does he say that? Do you agree with him? Why
or why not?
4) Mintz says, “…the worry is not that we will let our consumption gluttony destroy our
economy; it is, rather, that we might let our obsessive notions of individual freedom destroy our
democracy. The long term lessons of our economic and agricultural policies are there to be
learned now.” What are those lessons? Do you think there is a connection between our cuisine
(or lack thereof) and our foreign policy?
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WEEK EIGHT: GUY, GABBACIA, PENFOLD
Guy
Words to know:
terroir
Questions to think about:
1) When Hippel and Ludwig discover that “wine is not a simple product of the soil but of
the soul,” what do they discover about being French? How does this vision of the soul
contribute to the making of national identity?
2) How does terroir link land, people and nation?
3) How do ideas about wine express both social stratification and social solidarity in
France?
Gabbacia
Questions to think about:
1) What role did the food and drink industries play in assimilating immigrants in America?
How did the industrialization of food and drink affect the ability of immigrants to rise in
that industry?
2) Why did alcohol, in particular, become dominated by European immigrants?
3) Why was it more difficult for firms owned by foreign-born founders to become
conglomerates or “trusts” during the great era of trusts at the turn of the 20th century?
4) What role does alcohol or the rejection of alcohol play in making American national
identity, now and in the past?
Penfold
Questions to think about:
1)How is anti-Americanism, or at least a contrast to the US, embodied in the role that Tim
Hortons plays in Canadian culture?
2) What role does Hortons play in the formation of class identity in Canada?
4) Why do you think a mass market chain like Tim Hortons is somehow “more Canadian”
than McDonald’s or another chain? What other virtues or values of Canadianness do
donut shops embody?
Questions to Write On:
1) French national identity was forged in a crucible of alcohol overconsumption, both in terms
of solidarity and stratification. How are both solidarity and stratification forged in American
collegiate ritualized overconsumption of alcohol? What kinds of social relations are forged?
Are forms of identity, including national, class or gender identity also created?
2)Does the production and consumption of beer in the United States perform the same functions
in terms of national and class identities as the production and consumption of wine in France
does? How are they alike and how are they different?
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3) Using data from three of our readings, explain how national identity is expressed
through consumption of mass produced commodities. Extra points will be given for a
detailed rendering of the process of identity construction, rather than just simple
correlations between symbol and identity.
4) Penfold tells us that Tim Hortons donuts are “commodities whose production and
consumption follow the rhythms of North American capitalism.” What are those
rhythms, and what does Penfold mean by “McDonutization”?
5) Why does Penfold tell us that the linkage of donuts both to national identity and certain
cities as donut capitals “are, at base, simply ways to observe and acknowledge the
McDonutization of the foodscape”?
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WEEK NINE: BENTLEY, ALLISON, WRIGHT
Bentley:
Questions to think on:
1) How have beliefs about what to feed children changed over time in America? What
non-food factors changed American children’s eating habits?
2) Why did breast-feeding decline in the US? What role does Bentley believe canned fruits
and vegetables played in this decline? How was this related to Americans’ faith in
science and technology?
3) What role did the discovery of vitamins play in the marketing of industrially produced
food for children? What role do this and similar discoveries play today? Does the
addition of vitamins really make industrially processed food healthy? What do the food
manufacturers tell us?
4) According to Bentley, how did the introduction of canned food change breastfeeding
practices? Why?
5) What kinds of qualities did the Gerber brand come to embody? How did it acquire these
attributes?
6) Why do you think women in the early 2oth century would have valued the “freedom”
and “mobility” that pre-prepared foods promised? What larger “outside meanings” or
social changes of the period would encourage this?
Wright:
Words to know:
matrilineal
Questions to think on:
1) How is breastmilk part of Navajo spiritual life? What role do it and other bodily fluids
play in creating proper people with proper behavior? How is bottlefeeding linked to
aberrant behavior?
2) Why do some Navajo believe that feeding artificial formula makes children into “cow
people”? What do they mean by that?
3) What psychological benefits do the Navajo believe breastfeeding has? How does it link
people together?
4) How do the Navajo believe breastfeeding contributes to the reproduction and
maintenance of Navajo culture?
Allison:
Words to know:
arbitrary
ideology
ISA
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SA
Questions to think on:
1`) According to Allison’s reading of Althusser, what’s the difference between a repressive state
apparatus (SA) and an ideological state apparatus (ISA)? Which do you think there are more of
in contemporary market democracies?
2) What does an ISA do? How does it naturalize power and inequality?
3) Allison says “ideology is potent because it becomes not only ours but us.” What does she
mean, and how does she illustrate this principle using obentos?
4)What are the structuring principles for an obento, and how do they contrast with American
principles for organizing and presenting food?
5) What does Allison mean when she says obento are a “second order myth”? What is the
second meaning that takes over from the first, pragmatic meaning?
6) Why does Allison say that obentos are a device to “socialize children and mothers into
the gendered subjectivities they are expected to assume in a political order desired and
directed by the state”? Do you agree that schools aim to teach children the places they
will assume in the larger social order?
7) What does the construction and consumption of obentos teach children about what it
means to be Japanese?
8) How do obentos teach parents and children to submit to the authority of “group life”?
Of the state?
9) If, as Allison says, “women are what they are through the products they produce,” what
do the industrially produced foods we sampled in class make American women into?
QUESTIONS TO WRITE ON:
1) How do ways of feeding children shape ideas and practices of gender? Using data from
at least two of this week’s readings, describe how parents’ performance of gender is
shaped by ideologies of child feeding.
2) Compare the foods you evaluated in our “kids food tasting” with the obento boxes that
Allison describes. How might the foods you tasted be part of an “ideological state
apparatus”? Do you think the foods we evaluated play a role in disciplining parental
behavior or shaping parental identity?
3) What kinds of beliefs about science, health or the body are brought up in the articles we
read for this week? Do you think that any of those beliefs are reflected in the claims for
the foods we evaluated in class, or any other children’s foods you know of? (Hint: think
about claims related to vitamin-enriched foods, or the new use of whole grains in
children’s cereals….)
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4) Using two foods NOT evaluated in class, describe how parents are encouraged to
construct and display their sentiments about their children through the purchase,
preparation, or giving of particular foods. Are they generally encouraged to express
their feelings through the use of homemade or industrially prepared foods? What kinds
of foods, and why do you think those foods are particularly encouraged? And how does
this compare to the way that Japanese, Navajo, or early 20th century American parents
were encouraged to display their sentiments?
5) Anne Allison tells us “ideology is so potent because it becomes not only ours but us.”
Explain what Allison means, and illustrate it using at least two examples from our readings
and one from your own knowledge or experience.
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WEEK TEN: FOUNTAIN, NESTLE&JACOBSON, SOBO, JACOBSON&BROWNELL
Question to Write On:
In this week's readings, we read a proposal for putting a ‘vice tax,' like the one on cigarettes or
alcohol, on junk food. We also read that in many cultures, including those shared by some
immigrants (such as, perhaps, Jamaican Americans) and some lower income people, being fat is
valued rather than being seen as something bad. Given that not all people in this country agree
that obesity is something that should be prevented, should the federal government seek to
impose a tax on “junk" food? Make sure that your arguments are spelled out clearly and that
you use citations from the literature we've read to support them. You must also address possible
counter-arguments that the other side might make.
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WEEK ELEVEN: BRUMBERG, BORDO, BYNUM
Questions to Write On:
1) In our readings on organic foods, we learned that restricting food intake, whether by banning
certain foods or elements from the diet or just consuming less food, is often a way that
Europeans and Americans show that they are members of society's upper classes. Using the
readings on anorexia, please discuss the ways that anorectics display middle- or upper-class
status using restriction, and compare this to the ways the poor are criticized for not restricting
their diets appropriately.
2) The literature on anorexia shows that it is highly correlated to ideas about what a "proper"
woman is, both in terms of behavior and body shape. Can you recall some of the ways that food
and restriction are linked to femininity in Victorian culture and in our own culture? How do
you think these ideals play out in low-income communities, where there is an epidemic of
obesity among women?
3) Using the work of Caroline Bynum, Susan Bordo and Joan Brumberg, discuss the reasons
that women are often less well-fed than men. Show how this relates to power relations among
people of different classes and genders.
4) Many of the articles we've read suggest that women fast as a means of gaining social power.
Describe how this might happen in medieval Europe or Victorian England, and discuss how
effective it was as a strategy.
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WEEK TWELVE: SEN
QUESTIONS TO THINK ON:
1) (From lecture): What are the three most common analytic lenses for looking at famine?
Which one do you think holds out the most promise of alleviating famine?
2) What does Sen define as an “entitlement,” and how is an entitlement determined for
each person or household? Be sure to address the three components of entitlement that
Sen explains, and illustrate with examples.
3) Sen says, “Famines represent a shared predicament,but not necessarily a shared
causation.” What does he mean, and how does this statement reflect his overall theory
of famine?
QUESTIONS TO WRITE ON
1) How does Sen explain the Bengali famine of 1974? Would either Green Revolution
technology or direct food aid have prevented it? Why or why not? What do you think, based
on Sen’s analysis, could have prevented it?
2) How do cultural beliefs and political issues make famine more likely, or, conversely, prevent
it?
3) Why, in times of famine, does food actually get exported from regions experiencing famine?
What can be done to prevent this?
4) Why, according to Sen, has there never been a famine in a multiparty democracy? Do agree
that democracy addresses some of the root causes of famine?
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