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I. Course Objectives
The goal of this course is to achieve a deeper understanding, both theoretical and practical, of the interactions and interdependencies between human societies and the ecosystems that surround us. We will examine current ecological crises and opportunities from as they are expressed in agro-food studies. We will examine political economy of food production and the environment, cultural sociologies of food, environment and risk, and agro-food networks. The course will take a macrosociological approach to analysis of agro-food ecology by focusing on varied patterns of society and nature interactions in particular contexts of economy, ecology, and the exercise of power.
II. Required Texts
Diamond, Jared M. 1997. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W.W. Norton.
Schlosser, Eric. 2001. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the all-American Meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Mintz, Sidney Wilfred. 1986. Sweetness and Power. The Place of Sugar
in Modern History. New York: Penguin
Books.
Pollan, Michael. 2001. The Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World. New York: Random House.
Additional readings will be provided by instructor and/or posted on this website
III. Course Requirements
Class participation
Each class will begin with a lecture that will provide an overview of readings assigned for the class. The lecture will be followed by class discussion. Each student will be expected to participate in discussing each week's readings. Therefore reading assignments should be completed by the date scheduled on the class calendar. University guidelines expect that students will spend about 1.5-2.0 hours preparation for every 1 hour of class time; for our course this means 4.5--6 hours preparation per week. I will try to limit readings on average to 70-80 pages per session.
Presentation
Each student will be responsible for making one class presentation on the assigned readings. The discussion leader(s) will be expected (1) to have read the required texts, (2) to have done additional reading from secondary sources relevant to the topic, and (3) to have considered the contemporary relevance of the problems discussed. The discussion leader will be expected to present a brief overview of 20-25 minutes that summarizes the main points of the work(s) under review. In preparing your overviews you may use handouts, draw diagrams on the board or develop any other activities that you see as appropriate. Below is a suggested outline for the presentations.
1. Major aim/Problematic:
What is the author saying? What is the person trying to accomplish with his/her work? What, in their view, is/should be the major task of environmental sociology?
2. Basic Concepts:
What are the key concepts used and how they are defined? (i.e., nature, ecology, environmental justice, environmental risk, sustainability, etc.)
3. Major Propositions/Theories:
How are the (suggested) most salient features of nature-society interactions explained? (i.e., theoretical framework used such as ecological realisW, social constructivisW, political economy, commodity chains, actor network analysis, etc.)
4. Hypotheses:
What are the key hypotheses investigated and suggested by the theory?
5. Methods Used and Advocated
Documentary, survey, field or experimental
Types of evidence
6. Science and Ideology:
Position on objectivity vs. value-neutrality
Standard of proof
7. Assessment:
In general, what does the author explain and what, if anything, does s/he fail to explain?
What are theoretical and/or practical implications of this book, i.e. "so what?" question?
Presentation/discussion leadership will account for 15% of your grade.
Midterm exam.
This will be a short take-home essay on covered material. Essay questions will be provided in class and posted on the web on February 15th. The midterm will be due on March 1st. Failure to turn in the assignment on time will result in 20% grade reduction.
Final paper.
Final paper is required and can be of three types: (a) commodity analysis, (b) media coverage of environmental issues or environmental legislation analysis, and (c) paper of your own topic/design. On Februrary 8th the typed one page outline of the final paper is due. The outline should contain the topic of your research project, brief summary/abstract of the project, and its structure/table of contents. Brief (1-3 sentence) summary of each section of the paper should also be included. The final paper will be due on April 26th at 12pm in instructor's office.
A. Commodity analysis
Select an agricultural commodity produced in the US and/or in North Carolina:
- Barley
- (Sweet) Potatoes
- Corn
- Soybeans
- Peanuts
- Tobacco
- Cotton
- Apples
- Peaches
- Pork and pork products
- Hogs
- Other agro-industrial commodities
Your task is to find out as much as possible about social relations and ecological problems involved in the production, consumption, and distribution of that product, including:
1. Industry structure
How many North Carolina firms produce that commodity?
How does that number compare to ten years ago?
What degree of concentration is there in the production of that
commodity in North Carolina?
How many, if any, of those firms are foreign-owned?
How many are part of large domestic or transnational corporations (TNCs)?
2. Market structure
Where is the commodity sold? Consumed?
What per cent is shipped domestically?
What per cent is exported? To which countries?
How is production and distribution of the commodity affected by
regulations in the importing countries?
3. Employment
How many workers are employed in North Carolina in the production of
that commodity?
What per cent of those employees are managerial, sales and marketing,
professional/technical, un- and semi-skilled, respectively?
Does the industry employ seasonal workers? How many? From where?
4. Health & environment
What chemicals are used in the production of that commodity in this
state?
How are they applied?
What protection do those doing the application use?
Are there chemical application "spill-over" effects on others?
Do the chemical(s) persist in the commodity? Do they represent any
health threats?
What alternatives to chemicals are being used/experimented with in the
production of that commodity?
5. Community impacts
How does production of that commodity affect surrounding communities?
-- Education
-- Health care
-- Housing
-- Other
Data Resources: Local newspapers (current, archives); North Carolina Department of Agriculture http://www.ncagr.com/ ; local agricultural extension offices; Worldwide Web; Commodity association(s); Chamber(s) of commerce; Trade publications; ECU library; local libraries.
B. Alternative projects:
As an alternative to the above, you can choose one of the following:
1. Media content analysis -- Systematically analyze frequency and content of news media coverage of environmental issues. Is any "spin" put on the stories? If so, in what direction? How do different publications/stations compare in their coverage? Print media (newspaper) research may be historical; broadcast media (radio, tv) research should be daily for not less than 3 wks., video (audio) taping of newscasts recommended.
Local -- Greenville, Wilmington, etc. newspaper(s), radio news
programs, and TV news programs Metropolitan -- Raleigh/DurhaW,
Charlotte, newspaper(s) radio news programs and television news programs
National newspaper(s) -- USA Today, New York Times, NPR radio news
programs and national TV news programs
2. Campaign contributions --Analyze the influence of environmental and agriculture-related groups on North Carolina state or national politics. Examine individual and political action campaign (PAC) donations to major state officeholders (Governor, U.S. Senators, U.S. Representatives). Compare donations with voting on key issues, such as pollution regulation, disease control, agricultural subsidies, trade negotiations, etc.
3. Legislative issues -- Do an in-depth analysis of current bill(s) before the state legislature relating to environment/agriculture. Who introduced the bill? What testimony has been held on the bill? Who are the bills' supporters? Opponents? Where do various agriculture interest groups line up on the issue? Why?
C. Your own design:
A project of your own design. A paper should draw upon the course, but should be a part of your larger goals in education and professional development such as your thesis proposal, scholarly work for publication, presentation at the regional sociological societies conference, or the Melvin J. Williams paper contest.
IV. Grading:
Presentation
15%
Midterm
35%
Final paper
50%
Total
100%
V. Grading Scale
360 points or more = A
359-320 points = B
319-280 points = C
279-240 points = D
239 points and below = F
VII. COURSE SCHEDULE: BY DATES, TOPICS AND READING ASSIGNMENTS
1 week: Introduction and getting started
W, 01/11 An Introduction, overview and getting started.
2 week: Defining environmental sociology
W, 01/18 Buttel, Frederic. "Environmental and Resource Sociology: Theoretical issues and Opportunities for Synthesis." In Rural Sociology, 1996, vol 61(1), pp. 56-75
Busch, Lawrence and Arunas Juska. 1997. "Beyond Political Economy: Actor Networks and the Globalization of Agriculture." Review of International Political Economy, 4(4), pp. 688-708;
Busch, Lawrence. 1993. Emerging Issues in Technological Change and Technology Assessment in Agriculture. Wisconsin-Madison: University of Wisconsin-Madison (provided instructor).
3 Week: Diamond: Guns, Germs and Steel
W, 01/25 Prologue, pp. 13-32; Part I: From Eden to Cajamarca, pp. 35-81.
4 Week: Diamond: Guns, Germs and Steel
W, 02/01 Part II: The Rise and Spread of Food Production, pp. 85-156
5 Week: Schlosser: Fast Food Nation
W, 02/08 Part II: The Rise and Spread of Food Production, pp. 157-191; Part III: From Food to Guns, Germs, and Steel pp. 195-214; Epilogue 405-425.
6 week: Schlosser: Fast Food Nation
W, 02/15 Introduction, pp. 1-10; Your trusted Friends, pp. 31-57; Why fries taste good? pp. 111- 131. Outline of the final paper is due. Failure to turn in on time will result in 5% grade reduction.
7 week: Schlosser: Fast Food Nation
W, 02/22 Ch 6, On the range, pp. 133-147; Ch 7 Cogs in the great machine, pp. 149-166; Ch 7 The most dangerous job, pp. Pp. 169-190.
Gouveia, Lourdes and Arunas Juska. 2002. "Taming nature, taming workers: Constructing the separation between meat consumption and meat production in the U.S." Sociologia Ruralis, 42(4), pp. 370-390 (provided by instructor).
Midterm essay questions are provided and posted on the web at http://core.ecu.edu/soci/juskaa
8 week: Schlosser: Fast Food Nation
W, 03/01 Ch 9, What is in the meat? pp., 193-222; Epilogue: Have it your way, pp. 255-270
Juska, Arunas, Lourdes Gouveia, Jackie Gabriel, an d Kathleen P. Stanley. 2003. "Manufacturing bacteriological contamination outbreaks in industrialized meat production systems: The Case of E. coli O157:H7." Agriculture and Human Values, 20 (1): 3-19 (provided by instructor).
9 week: Pollan: The Botany of Desire
W, 03/08 Introduction, pp. xiii-xxv; Desire: Sweetness. Plant: Apple, pp. 1-58. Midterm essays are due. Failure to turn the essay on time will result in 20% grade reduction.
10 week: No classes Spring Break
W, 03/15 No classes
11 week: Pollan: The Botany of Desire
W, 03/22 Chapter 2 Desire: Beauty; Plant The Tulip, pp. 61-110.
Chapter 3 Desire: Intoxication; Plant Marijuana, pp. 113-179.
12 week: Pollan: The Botany of Desire
W, 03/29 Chapter 4: Desire: Control; Plant: The Potato, pp. 183-238
Arunas Juska, Lawrence Busch and Keiko Tanaka. 1997. "The Blackleg Epidemics in Canadian Rapeseed as a "Normal Agricultural Accident." Ecological Applications, 7(4), pp. 1350-1356 (provided by instructor).
13 week: Mintz: Sweetness and Power
W, 04/05 Introduction, pp. xv-xxx. Ch 1, Food, sociality, and sugar; Ch 2 Production, pp. 1-73.
14 week: Mintz: Sweetness and Power
W, 04/12 Ch 3 Consumption, pp. 74-150.
15 week: Mintz: Sweetness and Power
W, 04/19 Ch 4 Power & Ch 5 Eating and Being, pp. 151-214.
Final Paper
W, 04/26 Final paper is due at 12 AM in my office Brewster A-410. If I am not present in the office, please leave your paper in my mailbox. Failure to turn in the assignment will result in 20% grade penalty. Immediately after the semester is over I will be departing for Europe to carry out research. Please inform me about any problems with the written assignments at least 2 weeks before the semester is over.
