Problem

The purpose of this assignment is to better your research skills and your knowledge of modern food systems. You will select a food commodity and research the origin of the food and how it enters a world market and reaches your or someone else's dinner plate.

In this assignment you will learn to make better use of the searches you can conduct using Google and other searchers. You will gather the "best of" what you find and assemble these in a short report. The report will take the form of a bibliography. Your best findings will appear in alphabetical order of the author's last name. You should have ten or more sources in your bibliography. We will conduct an advanced search in class. All your sources should be online PDF files!

First you have to pick a food commodity. Here are some suggestions: pineapples, coffee, wheat, bananas, soy beans, corn, sorghum, rice, mangos, kiwi fruit, salmon, grass-fed beef, potatoes, tuna, olives, tea, chocolate, vanilla, sugarcane. It should be relatively easy to research, and have to do with agriculture and food markets.

Second you want to organize your preferences. For example you can conduct a search of government documents relating to Monsanto soybeans like this: Go to Advanced Search in Google. It's a well-kept secret: http://www.google.com/advanced_search. This is the top of the Advanced Search page.