In this session we're going to look at an article from an academic journal that considers a different aspect of food security: obesity, and its social and environmental costs. The article focuses on the USA, but the discussion is relevant to other contexts.
Read through the introduction to the paper, and be ready to discuss the following questions:
Who is the intended audience (in other words, who is most likely to read this kind of article)?
How does the language differ from the editorial that we looked at last week? Is easier/more difficult to understand?
What did you understand by the terms internal and external costs?
What do we mean when we talk about words, phrases, clauses and sentences?
What examples of noun phrases did you find in the article?
In breakout groups of three, compare your notes on the answers to the two questions you chose to look at on page 6.
Is obesity as big a problem as the author makes out?
Does the discussion apply to other countries?
Do you eat much fast food, and if so, how would you feel about taxes on unhealthy food types?
Can you think of any other solutions to getting people to eat more healthily and become more active?