The phrase "animal, vegetable, mineral" has been used to describe many things from game shows (http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Animal,_Vegetable,_Mineral (Links to an external site) to comic book characters, and even to an adaptation for Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/ (Links to an external site.) . However, for this assignment, you will focus on ideas stemming from the taxonomy (biological classification) presented by Carolus von Linnaeus that everything can be classified as animal (alive), vegetable (grows), or mineral (from the ground).
Your assignment is to choose something you eat or wear and, similar to your last blog post, trace it back to its roots. You may be able to start with labels on a manufactured product, or if you grew or wove it yourself, the process you went through to get it to the end product.
Write a short essay discussing a narrow aspect of your search process. Were there difficulties finding its roots? What attracts you to this product? Did you find information you really didn't want to know or that will change your buying habits in the future? If you performed part of the production process yourself, discuss what you did, why you produced it yourself, and perhaps what you learned through the production or growing process. These are just some questions and ideas to explore. Remember that you are graded on your unique approach to the topic.
Purposes:
- Become an informed consumer by researching the products you use and eat
- Articulate your knowledge of agricultural industries through proper terminology
- Personally connect to the farm
Requirements for Essays:
- Minimum of 500 words
- Minimum four distinct paragraphs with topic sentences
- Intro to subject
- Analyze at least one narrow topic / connection
- Provide evidence, experience, or both to the connection(s)
- Connect (explicate) to the larger discourse/conversation surrounding the farm
- Fully cited references in MLA style (including citations for personal interviews, if any.)