Are we eating good food?

Other Online Resources

• Class Tumblr:  goodfoodsp12.tumblr.com
• Service project instructions, including for journals:  bit.ly/w2KGx3
  
• Writing Philosophy Papers
• A Short Introduction to Formal Logic
• In-class reading summaries
• Young, from Justice and the Politics of Difference: section A, section B
• Mitchell, `The Import of Uncertainty':  section A
  
• Notes for the design of the producer pages:  part 1, part 2, part 3
  
• Final paper instructions
  

Course description

Learning Goals

Intellectual Learning Goals

• become familiar with basic theories of political philosophy (including egalitarian liberalism, libertarianism, and communitarianism), ethics, and philosophy of science (including issues surrounding knowledge of complex systems and issues in the philosophy of biology),especially as these are relevant to disputes over whether food is `good',
  
• become familiar with current controversies and problematic issues surrounding `good food' and the food system, at the local, national, and international levels, and
  
• develop skills in self-education, including engaging with work in unfamiliar academic disciplines and conducting research on an unfamiliar topic of personal interest. 
  

Civic Learning Goals

• specific versions of the issues, views, and arguments presented in the readings as they appear and impact this community, e.g., how government food safety policies influence the practices of small-scale dairy farmers in the Michiana area;
  
• the practices of this community, especially as responses to these issues, views, and arguments, e.g., smallholder sustainable farming and membership in a local food co-op as forms of solidarity and insurgency that rely on neither government regulation nor market competition;
• the value and effectiveness of these practices, i.e., whether they produce good food and whether they produce better food than the industrial food system; and
• the standards used to determine whether food is `good', whether the proponents and critics of the industrial food system have the same standards for good food, and the implications of that (dis)agreement for the dispute over whether we're eating good food. 
  

Instructor

Where and when

Grades and writing assignments

• regular participation in class discussions (weighted 3)
• This class is a seminar, not lecture-based. 
  
• Your participation grade is based on your contributions to class discussions, not how clever or impressive you are.  And asking an honest question can be a much better contribution to the discussion than giving a brilliant answer. 
  
• Electronic participation (very experimental -- let me know what you think!)
• Questions, comments, and discussions about issues raised in class over electronic media can be used to boost your participation grade.  They don't take the place of in-class participation, though. 
  
• You can email me questions and comments shortly after class -- follow-up questions, things that you didn't fully understand, and comments on the discussion are good. 
  
• If you have a discussion with a classmate over email, instant messenger, or some other electronic medium, you can submit a transcript of the exchange to me.  Note that everyone involved must consent to submitting the transcript! 
  
• Electornic participation isn't graded as a writing assignment, so it's not held to the same standards of writing.  But I still have to be able to understand what you're talking about and see how it's related to class.  
• You may also submit to the class Tumblr.
  
• 2 long response papers (1500-1800 words, approx. 5-6 pages, weighted 2 each)
• Sign up sheets
  
• If it's been a while since you've taken a philosophy class, check out my Giant Philosophy Papers Packet. The first few pages include the grading criteria that I use, so you might want to look at those in any case. At the end of that packet, there are two examples of good long responses for an Intro to Philosophy course. 
  
• A long response is a philosophical discussion of part of the readings assigned for the next class meeting. For example, if your long response is due on Monday, write on the reading assigned for Tuesday. 
  
• Use your long response as an opportunity to (1) engage with the readings, thinking through the arguments they present (or even just trying to understand them in the first place) and (2) relate the point of view in the readings to the point of view of the producers you interact with at Purple Porch.  You might ask and answer questions like these:  
• What is the author arguing for, overall?  Do I [you] agree with that argument?  Why or why not?
  
• What does `good food' mean for this author?  By this standard, are we eating good food?  Do I agree?
  
• How does this reading relate to something else that I've read -- for the same day, from earlier in the course, or from outside of class entirely?
  
• How do these issues show up in the Michiana food system?  How are they relevant to Purple Porch producers?  How are they relevant to my life? 
  
• Note that I [Dan] can require you to rewrite your paper, or refuse to accept it at all, if it doesn't make an original contribution to the discussion, doesn't consider both sides of the debate, or contains excessive grammatical and punction errors.  Don't just write a summary of the reading, and make sure you proofread thoroughly. 
  
• Long responses are due Monday or Wednesday; you'll sign up for the particular due dates.
  
• 2 short response papers (300-600 words, approx. 1-2 pages, weighted 1 each)
• Sign up sheets
• Short responses are based on the long response papers:  After the long responses are turned in, they will be forwarded to the rest of the class.  And likewise, short responses will be forwarded to the author of the long response. 
  
• Short responses do the same sort of thing as long responses.  They contribute another round to the discussion of the readings.
  
• Like the long responses, I can require you to rewrite your paper, or refuse to accept it at all, if it doesn't make an original contribution to the discussion, doesn't consider both sides of the debate, or contains excessive grammatical and punction errors. 
• Short responses are due on Fridays; you'll sign up for the particular due dates.
  
• final research paper (2400-3000 words, approx. 8-10 pages, weighted 4)
• Detailed instructions
  
• This will be either a review essay of a recent food-related book or a research paper on a food-related topic of your choice. 
  
• The final paper will be due during the registrar-scheduled final exam time. 
  
• no final exam
  
• participation in the class service project
• Participation in the service project is required but not graded.  That includes the various writing assignments related to the project.  More details are given below.

Reading assignments

• As per the course description, the class will decide together exactly which topics to cover.  About half of the readings have been set prior to the beginning of the semester.
  
• The bookstore will order the following books:
  
• [SS] Steve Sapontzis, ed., Food for thought:  The debate over eating meat  (ISBN 9781591021186) (required -- I expect vegetarianism to be one of our topics)
• [GJ] Gottlieb and Joshi, Food Justice (ISBN 9780262072915) (recommended -- as general/background reading)
  
• [RC] Ruse and Castle, eds., Genetically Modified Foods (ISBN 9781573929967) (recommended -- a topic we're likely to cover later in the semester)
• Updated January 27:  We will not be using SS, and you may return it if you wish.  You can access GJ electronically through the ND library.  We will be using RC, but it is not yet in the bookstore. 
  
• In light of the structure of the course, you may end up buying books that we don't use.  I apologize in advance for this.  I've tried to take this into account by ordering relatively inexpensive books. 
  
• Other readings will be distributed electronically, via links to PDFs below.  Use your netID and password to access the readings. 
  
• This is the official version of the syllabus.  You can view the in-progress version -- which includes some additional notes and some reading possibilities -- here. 
• Summary results of the Food Awareness Inventory are available
  
• Long response sign up sheets

Service project

• semester-long project with Purple Porch Co-op
• More detailed information can be found here:  http://bit.ly/w2KGx3
  
• first half of the semester: 
  
• visit Purple Porch during a distribution night (approx. 4:45-6pm on Jan 25 or Feb 2)
  
• conduct site visits at 2 or 3 local farms, gardens, or kitchens (in groups of 3 students or so)
• each site visit will require approximately 3 hours and scheduling will be flexible
  
• second half of the semester:  
• conduct follow-up site visits, as necessary
  
• on-campus writing work: 
  
• webpage and tabletop information about producers
  
• Meet Your Farmer column for Purple Porch newsletter [PPP]
  
• information/opinion piece for Purple Porch newsletter based on research project
  
• mix of group and individual writing
  
• additional opportunities throughout the semester to participation in co-op events and activities
• total required time off-campus for the semester will probably be about 10 hours
• reflections on the service project will involve periodic short writing assignments (journal entries) and small group and one-on-one discussions