Geography of your breakfast

1000 words, plus 2 maps, 5 sources Topic: Geography of Your Breakfast Food First at all students who don’t eat breakfast are not excused for not submitting this paper. Skipping breakfast is not healthy but if you absolutely don’t have breakfast you will do the geography of your lunch or dinner. Your access to the breakfast you eat depends on environmental conditions, economic networks, labor relations, political decisions and other events that have happened over time in particular places. Many people in many places have been involved in producing, transporting, and marketing the ingredients that make up your breakfast. Many other people have been involved in disposing of the waste created all along those processes. In addition to those who grew and harvested your orange, for example, others have negotiated international trade agreements, signed on to labor contracts, established government subsidies for certain crops, and so on. In this way, sitting at your breakfast table, you are connected to coffee growers in Latin America, jam makers in England, labor leaders in the southeast United States, trade negotiators in Washington D.C., and their counterparts in dozens of other countries. In this project, you are asked to think about, investigate, and map the networks of food production that result in the breakfast on your table. In particular, you are asked to think about the places where food is grown, processed, packaged, distributed, consumed, and how they are related to one another. The Why of Where of Foodstuffs For this assignment, you need to research a primary foodstuff or ingredient, (if you eat doughnuts for breakfast, then you need to do your project on an ingredient of doughnuts such as wheat, sugar, cinnamon, chocolate, or coconut). This is an assignment about agriculture. Some suggestions (healthier than doughnuts) might be fruit like cranberries, apples, blueberries; cereal (the grains that they are made from) bacon or sausage, cheese, yogurt, coffee, cocoa, etc. Use maps, charts, diagrams and photographs throughout the project. I encourage you to do your map with the tools that we have used this semester but you could also use existing maps and charts that you locate in the process of your research. Your discussion should be well informed and written as a formal presentation. Include images, maps, etc. that help show your research. Include a title for your project, your name, the course name, the project name (Geography of my Breakfast Food) on your title page. Cite your sources throughout the text, cite your sources for illustrations, and include a bibliography/works-cited list with annotations to explain what information you found in each. You should have a minimum of five sources. Example: Outline A. Where and how is the breakfast item produced? Provide a brief description. For instance: 1. Climate, soil, and terrain _____ 2. Farming practices 3. Technology used B. Why is the breakfast item produced in that place? Explain 1. When was it first produced there? _____ 2. How important is this food to the region or country’s economy? _____ 3. What are the global markets for this food?_______ C. How and where is the breakfast item processed? 1. Use of a chart, pictures, or diagram 2. Identify characteristics of special handling. For instance: plants - perishable, fragility, speed and conditions for ripening OR animals – grass or grain fed, free range or feed lot, etc. ______ D. Map it (Maps, Flow charts, diagrams, photos) Includes a minimum of 5 sources