Write an essay in which you analyze a meal you eat. Please be sure the meal has a minimum of four ingredients. For example:

1. Beef steak, baked potato, butter, and 2% milk.
2. Eggs scrambled with cheese, strawberries, and coffee.
3. Peanut butter, grape jam, white bread, and potato chips.

Address the following questions as you write your Assignment:

1. Meal analysis: Discuss the events and methods of production that allowed your local grocery store to carry these items.
   1. Source identification: If you were to purchase each item at a local chain grocery store, where would these items be sourced? For example, where were the fruits, vegetables grown, or meats raised immediately prior to sale? Do not discuss the history or origin of the item (e.g., corn or maize originated in Mexico around 2500 BC.).
   2. Farming and labor practices: What farming methods were likely used to grow these items, and how do these methods impact the environment around the farms as well as the employees who work within these establishments?
   3. Packaging, processing and shipping: Were the items grown and shipped in from another country? What types of processing and packaging must take place in order for you to be able to purchase the product?
2. Economic and ecological analysis of food choice: Discuss the ecological and economic advantages and disadvantages of purchasing food items that are locally sourced versus those shipped from other areas of the country and from around the world. Use your assigned Reading for this unit, as well as supplemental sources, to explore the impacts our food purchases may have on the environment and economy and how these choices influence multiculturalism and diversity around the globe.
3. Applying food choice to Think Globally, Act Locally: The food choices people make have the potential to generate both local and global impacts and potentially serve as solutions to some of the challenges discussed so far. This concept can be summarized in the phrase "Think Globally, Act Locally." Discuss:
   • How you would interpret this phrase based upon your analysis of the meal provided by your instructor for this Assignment. For example, if you were to follow the suggestions shared within the articles provided above, where could you purchase the items (name specific local places within your community)? If a food item is not available locally, is there an alternative that you could use as a substitute?
   • How your individual actions can serve as a possible solution through the choices you make when planning and buying meals might change in the future.
   • How your choices, when combined with those of others, can have a global impact.

To complete this Assignment, review the Assignment template and rubric. This essay should be a minimum of 1,000-words in APA style format. Provide appropriate citations and references for any information you use in this paper. Your paper should include a minimum of five sources. These can include those provided within the project directions and the course materials. Be sure to avoid copying and pasting large sections of text from any given source. No more than 10% of your assignment should be taken verbatim from any outside sources. For help with citations, refer to the APA Quick Reference. For additional writing help, visit the Kaplan University Writing Center and review the guidelines for research, citation and plagiarism:

Kaplan Writing Center. (2012). Research, citation, and plagiarism. Kaplan University. Retrieved from: https://kucampus.kaplan.edu/MyStudies/-AcademicSupportCenter/WritingCenter/-WritingReferenceLibrary/ResearchCitationAndPlagiarism/Index.aspx

Be sure your essay analysis is clearly written, uses correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling, and that the writing is well ordered, logical, unified, as well as original and insightful.