Essay on production of favorite meal

Capstone Directions, Simplified Example and Rubric: Foot printing Your Favorite Meal – Drat due 4.28 , Final due 4.30.17 Formatting: 4-5 pages 1500 word MINIMUM, double spaced, 1 inch margins, 12 font size, plus all article(s), journal(s), lecture(s), presentation(s) and other items you refer to cited in APA format. http://www.library.arizona.edu/search/reference/citation-apa.html Expectations: You will be using your observation, analysis, research, critical thinking, and scientific writing skills to complete this assignment. 1. Research the concept of “ecological footprinting” using your research skills and the links on D2L 2. Complete at least 2 ecological footprint quizzes by following the links provided on D2L to report the number of earths needed to support your lifestyle, the number of hectares you require for your lifestyle, or the number of gallons of water used per day to support your lifestyle. 3. Take a moment to think about your favorite meal ( a meal = everything required to create that meal for you: all courses, sides, beverages and serving plates/utensils, ingredients, transportation of the ingredients that are grown, labor, land and water and fertilizer to grow the ingredients, transportation for the laborers who tend the fields, and for the restaurant chefs and staff, or for you to go to the store to buy the ingredients, the livelihoods of those who harvested the food etc.) 4. Evaluate the footprint of your favorite meal” by listing all of the footprinting aspects you believe you should consider as a footprinting expert and list all the essentials that go in to the preparation of your favorite meal. 5. Being as thorough as possible - list everything you need to create, serve and enjoy your favorite meal – then after descrbing your meal to us – write about its life and transport cycle by asking what it takes to produce, package, transport, store, prepare and then recycle/dispose of each item. 6. Researching recipes/nutritional facts/restaurant/grocery store chain web pages/produce and vegetable sites etc., research what is in your meal, the humane/inhumane/chemical/chemical free conditions in which your food is produced, how far these items travel to get to you from where they are produced or grown, and how much water and energy are needed, to help you evaluate each ingredient. Be sure to take notes as you research every ingredient AND all of the materials needed to create your favorite meal – don’t forget the serving ware and glasses and the packaging. 7. Using your library research skills evaluate all of the global impacts and footprinting factors that are required to produce your favorite meal, and discuss your findings, reaction to your impacts, and how this research exercise has improved your ability to self-evaluate and adjust your lifestyle choices. 8. This should be easy for you – its your favorite meal so you should be able to describe it, share all of the details, and analyze what it takes to create your meal and discuss the global tradeoffs/impacts YOUR lifestyle choices are contributing to. SIMPLIFIED EXAMPLE – Your capstone will need much more details than this: Let’s say your favorite meal is just a Sonoran Hot Dog and a Coke on a hot dry pre-monsoon July day – the ingredient list is below. Now just think of all the veggies and meat production needed and the water and packaging and transportation and storage of food costs – and we still have to cook it and refrigerate the ingredients too! If you eat ingredients outside of a regular growing season, it’s even more intensive and may need more packaging – You’d definitely want to research where the tomatillos and avocadoes were grown and what they are sprayed with to keep them fresh as they travel. You also want to know where the cattle or hogs were raised and butchered to understand how far the meat had to travel and then be processed and packaged as a hot dog or bacon and you may even want to think about the water and energy needed to create and store those products. Even the hot dog bun needed grains and water and packaging! You’d also want to think about the metal used for the beverage and the water and the ingredients, and transport, and refrigeration, and labor needed to produce the corn syrup in other places in order to coke enjoy the coke. And of course you’d need to think about the paper napkins and maybe even a straw or a plastic fork and paper plate or foil that the hot dog was served in if you are eating at a restaurant or street vendor cart. You’d also have to think about the car you took to get to a place that sells your favorite meal or think about going to the grocery store on the motorcycle and having the checkout person wrap everything in two plastic bags for the safe ride back to your climate-controlled home or apartment. Tradeoffs/Solutions: After thinking about and researching all the meals and products and things you enjoy every day, perhaps you decide to still enjoy your favorite meal YET reduce your footprint by riding your bike to the store with your own bag, splitting a larger package of buns with your friends so there is less waste and packaging, not using plastic cups or straws, using cloth napkins, drinking cool but not iced water flavored with fresh cut local citrus gleaned from the UA campus with the meal instead of a coke, and buy locally sourced meat products at the farmers market on campus or at the UA Farm, and substitute the usual suggested toppings that may have been grown thousands of miles away picked early, sprayed with preservation chemicals and shipped to the store or restaurant with whatever local chilies that are in season. Sonoran Hot Dog: What is the life cycle and impact of enjoying that one Sonoran Dog? For the Salsa Verde: 1 lb. tomatillos, husked and washed 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves 3 fresh serrano chilies, seeded and minced 1 cup minced sweet onion 2 tsp. minced garlic pinch of sugar 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice sea salt For the Hot Dogs 4 tsp. mayonnaise 1 tsp. Tabasco or other hot sauce Juice of 1 lemon 4 all beef wieners (fat ones work better than long ones) 4 slices extra thin bacon 4 torpedo rolls or bolillos 4 Tbs. warm refried beans 8 Tbs. chopped avocado (or guacamole) 4 heaping Tbs. grated Monterey jack or cheddar cheese 4 Tbs. chopped onion 4 Tbs. chopped tomato 4 Tbs. Salsa Verde Serves 4 Make the Salsa Verde: Put the cleaned tomatillos in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then turn off the heat and allow the tomatillos to soak for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, drain, and puree the tomatillos in a food processor. Add the cilantro, serranoes, onion, garlic sugar, and lime juice to the food processor and pulse three or four times to combine. Season with salt to taste. Make the Hot Dogs: Mix the mayo, Tabasco, and lemon juice and use a funnel to put the mayo blend in a squeeze bottle. Wrap the wieners with the bacon slices so the sausage is completely covered. Cook the wieners, rolling them over until the bacon is crunchy on all sides, about 7 minutes. Cut a pocket into the buns to form a "boat" and toast them on the grill. When the wieners are cooked, divide the beans and avocado among the four rolls, spooning them inside the pocket and spreading on either side. Spread the cheese down the middle. Using tongs put one piping hot bacon wrapped wiener into the pocket of each roll. Top each wiener with onions and tomatoes. Spread the Salsa Verde across the top. Apply the mayo blend in squiggles across the top of the hot dog. I Can of Coke: What is the life cycle and impact of enjoying that one Coke? See Aluminum Production or CocaCola Website Coke Ingredients: Carbonated Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Caramel Color, Phosphoric Acid, Natural Flavors, Caffeine. Capstone Rubric (the criteria that will be used for grading) Criteria Your Pre-Submission Checklist (Total = 100pts) Describe the concept of ecological footprinting and the type of decisions and impacts that are made by individuals Did you describe footprinting and what factors increase or decrease a footprint and how footprints may be measured in different ways? 10 Describe your daily choices/lifestyle, discuss the methods used to measure and evaluate your ecological footprints and report on at least three measurements of your personal ecological footprint Did you connect lifestyle choices to footprints? Did you analyze and report your average footprint in multiple ways? Did you evaluate your choices and how they impact others/resources/poor or good practices? 10 Describe your favorite meal and all of the necessary materials and ingredients required to create and enjoy this fabulous meal Did you make us want to stop grading and go out and have your delicious meal because you described it so well? Did you include an exhaustive list of everything we would need to create and enjoy your favorite meal? 10 Describe all of the impacts you are making when creating and enjoying this meal and cite the research you have done to identify these impacts Did you describe and discuss the impacts and how you researched those impacts? 10 Discuss your personal reaction to your impacts on the planet, and how this research exercise has improved your ability to self-evaluate and adjust your lifestyle choices. Did you provide a thorough analysis of your habits and choices and the trade- offs associated with your choices? 10 Discuss how you might be able to reduce the global and environmental impacts of your favorite meal Did you provide alternatives, solutions, suggestions? 10 A minimum of 6 sources cited issues Have you conducted scholarly research? Cited 6+ sources all of your research including your ingredient list or recipe? Citations in text and listed in APA format under works cited, and minimal spelling and grammar 10 Provide critical feedback and reflection to a peer’s capstone project In class on 5.1.17 you will be required to read a peer’s capstone project and YOU are graded on your ability to critique and provide scholarly feedback on ways to improve. 30