Politics of FoodPre-Reading Discussion Questions

Surveying the Text(Activities 3 and 4)

English 3 CPFall 2014

Directions

• In your group, discuss the following quotations from the essay you are about to read and be ready to discuss your responses with the class. Please make sure that all group members are actively participating in the discussion. You have five minutes for each question.

Question 1

1. Wendell Berry asks, “When the food product has been manufactured or ‘processed’ or ‘precooked,’ how has that affected its quality or price or nutritional value?” What do you think he means by “processed” food? What is the difference between processed food and natural food? What are some common examples of each kind?

Question 2

2. Berry says, “The industrial farm is said to have been patterned on the factory production line. In practice, it looks more like a concentration camp.” We tend to think of farms as being very different from factories and concentration camps. What does the term “industrial farm” make you imagine? Why would anyone want to make a farm more like a factory?

Surveying the TextBefore we read the article, complete the following tasks:• Read the title of the article and guess what it

might discuss. Jot down your ideas and be prepared to share.

• Wendell Barry’s essay “The Pleasures of Eating” comes from a collection of his essays titled What Are People For? What do you think the title of the collection might mean? Jot down your ideas and be prepared to share.