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Description of the Exam:
This exam is open everything (open notes, open book, open internet, open conversations with classmates, etc.). The only stipulation is that your work is your own. You must provide your own original thoughts and back up your assertions with evidence and experiences you have picked up throughout ASI thus far. There is no single "right" answer to these exam questions. I am most interested in your thinking process...how do you go about answering the question and supporting your answer?
General Comments about Taking the Exam
You should NOT take more than 2 hours to take the exam - budget your time accordingly
There are point totals listed for each question. Use these point totals to determine which questions you need to focus more on and which need a little less detail
You should NOT type more than 1 page for any numbered question (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5) - this means your TOTAL number of typed pages for this exam should not exceed 5 pages (though being shorter is just fine)
I value concise and direct speech. Don't waste your time with overly-verbose answers. Try to say what you want to say without resorting to "filler phrases".
This Exam is closed Thurs July 7th at 11:59 PM..no late exams will be accepted because I need time to grade
Specific Features to be Included in each Answer:
You MUST support your statements with evidence. A statement without evidence is not useful here.
You MUST use experiences from your field trip stops and class discussions. I expect a lot of illustrations from your field trop and class experiences.
Your answers MUST be in your own words - no copying and pasting from the internet (I check)
You must endeavor to seamlessly synthesize your answer. I expect it to be well written, flow, and be easy to understand. If I have to work to try to understand what you are saying this will impact your grade
Grading of the Exam:
I provide a single percentage for each question. This percentage corresponds to the following grade categories and their accompanying definitions:
|A = 94 to 100| --> Excellent job...has gone above and beyond expectations and provided an excellent answer. All features are included and show unique insight into the issues at hand. An exemplary answer.
|A- = 90 to 93 | --> Great job...still above expectations and all features are represented. Still insightful but not quite as "above and beyond" as an "A"
|B+= 87 to 89| --> Very good job...still slightly above basic expectations. All or most features are represented.
|B = 84 to 86 | --> Good job...all basic expectations are met. This is a solid answer. Most features are represented.
|B- = 80 to 83| --> Satisfactory job...all basic expectations are met and most features are represented. Still a solid answer but some slight omissions or lacking clarity.
|C+= 77 to 79| --> Meets most Expectations...most basic expectations are met and most features are represented. A mostly solid answer with some omissions, lack of clarity, and/or misconceptions.
|C = 74 to 76 | --> Meets many of Expectations...many basic expectations are met and many features are represented. This answer is getting a bit shaky with obvious omissions, lack of clarity, and/or misconceptions
|C- = 69 to 73| --> Needs Improvement...some basic expectations are met and some features are represented. Obvious omissions, lack of clarity, and/or misconceptions make answer incoherent at times and difficult to follow.
|D = 60 to 68 | --> In Great Need of Improvement...a few basic expectations are met and a few features are represented. Obvious omissions, lack of clarity, and/or misconceptions make answer largely incorrect and difficult to follow.
Please keep in mind:
All of our field trip stops
All of the information found on the websites for class periods
The four major topics we covered throughout the food system course:
Farm to Fork: Exploring different economic models of how food gets from farm to table with emphasis on local food systems
Food-Oriented Community Development: Food Security, Food Equity, Food Justice, Food Sovereignty, (Healthy) Food Access, Food Literacy, Food Apartheid - towards Improving Health Outcomes and Strengthening Communities
Transparency in the Food System: Value(s) chains and Life Cycle Assessment - what is the impact of our food choices and how do we know?
Levers for Change in the Food System: Both individual actions and systemic change - entrepreneurship, advocacy, policy, regulation, volunteerism, building movements, grassroots, etc.
Farm-to-Fork: Think across all the different food operations you have visited thus far during your ASI experience. You have visited CSAs, herd shares, co-ops (producer and consumer), for-profit (Metzgers, Hawkins, Claybottom, Lunar Infusions, Miller, Fry Farms, Maple City Market, etc.) and non-profit operations. Please comment on the opportunities for local/regional food producers and processors to participate in the food system. Choose from your ASI experiences to provide the most effective and coherent answer you can for this question. Namely I would like to hear your thoughts on the following:
(i) what types of systems or approaches seemed to facilitate the participation of local food in the food system? [12pts]
(ii) what barriers did you perceive/notice? [8pts]
(iii) why is it important for local/regional food to be part of our food system? [10pts]
(iii) what sorts of practical solutions can you imagine to drive further participation from local food producers/processors? [8pts]
Food-Oriented Community Development: There are many terms that are used when describing food from a community development lens. These terms include Food Security, Food Equity, Food Justice, Food Sovereignty, (Healthy) Food Access, Food Literacy, Food Apartheid, etc. Some of these terms have very distinct definitions while others bleed over and overlap with other terms in this list. Other terms may have imprecise definitions that seem to shift depending on how they are used. Think about the food-oriented community development work you have seen, heard about, and learned about during your entire ASI experience to date. Namely I would like to hear your thoughts on the following:
(i) define the terms in bold. In these definitions you MUST use at least one field trip stop (or ML program) to illustrate your definition. Feel free to use any given field trip stop in more than one definition if you want. [15pts]
(ii) choose a good example of Food-Oriented Community Development or Equitable Food-Oriented Community Development from our field trips stops (or ML programs). Break it down and explain why it is such a good example. Also how can it be improved to better serve the community? [10pts]
(iii) The local food movement and food-oriented community development may work synergistically (work together towards a common goal) or not work together at all. In the worst cases the local food movement may actually work against food-oriented community development (i.e. boutique markets and gentrification). Please flesh out this statement with experiences you have had as part of ASI. What are some key practices in encouraging synergism? [8pts]
(iv) Is food-based community development the start of systemic change or just a band-aid destined to fail? This is a very active area for debate with a lot of nuance so I don’t expect you to solve it...I would just like to hear your thoughts supported by what you have seen during ASI. [8pts]
Transparency in the Food System: These days there is a lot of greenwashing and throwing around the term "sustainable". Foods in particular are full of claims about their environmental impact, health, humaneness, etc. This is especially problematic if folks are concerned about participating in a value(s)-based supply chain (see examples here). If one is lucky there are Life Cycle Assessments done on the products in questions to ascertain their sustainability, but this is almost never the case. So we continue to be left with the question - what food should I choose if I am concerned about sustainability and why? Namely I would like to hear your thoughts on the following:
(i) going from what our field trip hosts have said - how have you seen the power of value(s)-based supply chains manifest amongst our field trip stops? Please give specific examples of both (a) how values motivate how a business operates and (b) how values motivate consumer spending. [10pts]
(ii) what are your own personal values when it comes to the food your want to purchase and systems you want to support? What experiences in ASI have helped to develop that further and how? What barriers keep you from being able to act on your values when purchasing food? [8pts]
(iii) now think more broadly about the types of barriers folks run up against when it comes to being able to buy healthy and nourishing food for themselves and their families while also supporting their communities. What solutions have you learned about in ASI that are present and available to folks locally that allow them to overcome these barriers somewhat? [8pts]
(iv) Comment on the labels present on packaging from Miller poultry. What do the labels tell you about their methods (both officially and from what you observed on-site)? Do you feel these labels are helpful guides to consumers - why or why not? [10pts]
Levers of Change in the Food System: Remember the following list of "types of levers for change" that we discussed in class:
Individual Action....Vote with Your Fork -- though some folks disagree!
Individual Action....Appeal to Ethics/Morality/Spirituality/Philosophy -- Vegetarianism, Veganism, Halal, Kosher, Creation Care, Hinduism (Hare Krishna)
Bottom-Up collective action....Grassroots -- let's start a movement! - Slow Food, Coalition of Immokalee Workers
Top Down collective action....Policy and Regulation -- often influenced by other earlier movements - French conversion to Agroecology, "Hawkins Law"
Education....Food Literacy -- influences all other sectors -- EMLSF!
Commerce & Innovation....For-Profit Companies & Entrepreneurs lead the way! -- may need help of legislation & education etc. to unlock potential - General Mills and Regenerative Agriculture, HARVIE, Crossroads Kombucha
We all have particular combinations of talents and inclinations that are unique to ourselves (recall our earlier discussion on movement building and roles within movements). There are many angles and positions from which we can affect change in the food system. Please consider how well you know yourself and answer the following:
(i) How do you see yourself promoting change in the food system (what kind of lever)? What role(s) do you see yourself particularly suited for? Please use examples from our field trip stops to illustrate both (a) what you are well suite for and care a lot about and (b) what is not as good of a fit for you. [20pts]
If you could change one thing about current agricultural policy in the USA what would it be? How would you change it? Please explain how it would lead to the results you want to see. [15pts]
[+2 EC] When taking this exam look back and appreciate all you have learned in 4 short weeks. Please write a couple sentences describing your own assessment of your learning.
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