James and his mother walks into a local supermarket to buy some fruit for their mixed-fruit desert. James loves fruit, and as soon as he gets to the fruit section, he immediately starts grabbing the fruit he thinks is best for the desert. Everything he chose he puts in the basket his mom was carrying, but halfway through, he realizes that his mother is putting the bags he chose back onto the shelf and taking other bags, but of the same fruit. Confused he turns around and asks his mom why she is doing it, taking the bag of apples he chose in his left hand and the bag his mom chose in his right. He sees that the bag his mom took was more expensive, but the apples were smaller than the apples in the bag in his left hand, plus the ones his mom took doesn’t seem to look in any way better than the ones he chose, so why did she put his back?
His mom explained to him that the bag of apples she chose was grown differently than the bag he chose. “But fruit are fruit, you just have money to waste” James says. “look, the fruit you chose are conventionally grown fruit and the fruit I chose are organically grown fruit, that is the difference.” His mom says. At the pay point, James asks, “so why do you prefer organically grown fruit, and why is it different to conventionally grown fruit?”. Irritated by all the questions, his mom just says, “because its better, no more questions ok”.
Exercise
Divide the class up into small groups. Let each group read the case study and then complete the questions below.
Questions
1) What is the main idea from this story?
2) Tabulate the differences you know between organic and conventional farming.
3) Read the internet article “Organic vs. Conventional Food and Farming” by Allison Michelle Sites (http://asdssites.weebly.com/identifying-organics.html) , follow the links and then add to your table.
4) Why is organic farming becoming increasingly popular?
5) Taking into consideration the differences between the two farming methods, which do you think is better for the environment and your health? List the risks each method has to the environment and to your health.
6) Read “It’s Easy Being Green: Organic vs. Conventional Foods—The Gloves Come Off” and explain in your own words why organic foods are more expensive than conventionally grown foods.
7) Do you think that the organic industry will be able to sustain the growing world population? Explain.
Resources
2) It’s Easy Being Green: Organic vs. Conventional Foods—The Gloves Come Off. Available from: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/09/organic_green.html
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