ENVS2130: Eating Sustainably in Ontario
Assignment 2: Analysis of a Meal
Submit your assignment via Dropbox on Courselink (before 11:59 pm)
Course level learning outcomes:
Evaluate methods of food production and outline which methods are more
sustainable
Describe critically the broader environmental impacts of individual and societal
food choices
Reflect on your own food choices in the context of eating sustainably
This assignment is worth 25% of your final grade.
Instructions:
Select a meal (breakfast, lunch or dinner) from your food diary (Assignment 1). You
should choose a meal that was prepared, as much as possible, from raw ingredients,
i.e. choosing a meal prepared from processed foods will make this assignment very
difficult. You should also choose a meal that has at least 5 ingredients.
You will then attempt to produce this meal sustainably by investigating and sourcing
sustainable ingredients. You should use the internet for your research, but additional
creativity would be advised. For example, you might want to visit a farmers market,
speak to a farmer or store owners/employees or you might want to email food
companies. You MUST begin your research early. It is impossible to complete this
assignment the night before it is due!
You might want to consider questions such as:
Where are the ingredients produced? How far have they travelled?
How are the ingredients produced and distributed?
What kinds of inputs (e.g. energy, fertilizers, pesticides, etc) contribute to
the production and distribution of these ingredients?
Were the ingredients produced ethically (animal welfare, fair trade,
etc)?
What kind of waste is associated with the ingredient?
Other issues you might want to discuss include:
Your ability (or inability) to find sustainable ingredients.
Your need to make ingredient substitutions, i.e. if you are considering a
fish meal, you might have to substitute a more sustainable fish for the
fish that you normally would purchase.
2
You will then prepare a written report detailing your research on the sustainability of
your meal. Your report should be no longer than 2500 words. Please do not pad your
report. Short and concise is better! A well-structured and well-written 2000 word
report is much better than a long and rambling 3000 word report.
Format:
I would like you to be creative in the way you present your information so I do not have
a prescribed format for this assignment. Remember that being creative does not
preclude good organization and structure. You should spend a considerable amount of
time drafting an outline before you begin writing. Headings and sub-headings are
always helpful!
I would imagine the format will be along the lines of:
Introduction:
A brief opening statement
An explanation of what food sustainability means to you
A brief explanation of what you are going to do in the report
It is very important that you explain food sustainability. For example, if local food is
important to you then you should briefly state why you consider this an important
sustainability criterion. Make sure that you have evidence to back up your statements!
The report body:
This is where you will discuss your research and make a strong argument for the
sustainability of your meal. See above for some of the questions/issues you might want to
consider.
This is the part of the report where you really need to focus on organization. For example,
it might make sense to group ingredients. Paragraphs and sub-headings would be useful
here and you might want to include table(s)/figure(s) in this section.
Concluding remarks
Bibliography:
Please list all of the sources that you use. You should strive to obtain information from
reputable websites or other publications. For example, government and university
websites are reputable; reallycoolstuffaboutlocalfood.com is NOT!
You should also include personal communication if you obtain information from
grocery store employees, vendors at the market, etc.
