Download Stakeholder Perspective on GMO Agriculture in Developing World - Prof. Joseph Hannah and more Papers Geography in PDF only on Docsity! Geog 270 – Autumn 2007 Final Paper Assignment Due: Friday, Dec. 7 (last day of class) Length: 5 pages, double-spaced, 12 pt. font, 1” margins Topic proposal due: Thursday, Nov. 15 in section The final paper assignment is your opportunity to explore one of the issues of GMO agriculture in the Developing World in more depth. This is a research paper, requiring you to find high-quality sources to back up your position. But this is NOT just a report on the literature. You are required to provide a balanced and critically evaluative assessment – an analysis – of the GM debate from a particular point of view, your “stakeholder perspective.” I. A Stakeholder Perspective In this assignment, I am asking you to research the GM food debate from a particular point of view -- that of a ‘stakeholder’ who is 1) located in a specific developing country, or 2) attached to an international development organization, or 3) employed by a transnational corporation:. For example, you might choose to write your paper from the perspective of: a farmer India (or Ghana or Peru), a GM scientist working for Monsanto Corporation in China, an anti-globalization campaigner concerned about a specific Third World Country, a consultant to the Food and Agriculture Organization worried about food aid in Somalia, a businessperson wanting to invest in Indonesia, an environmentalist from Mexico, etc. Choose your stakeholder perspective in such a way that you can speak about the effects of GM agriculture in a specific place – a country, sub-national region, community, etc. Choose carefully; some choices will open lots of available information, and some will make it very hard to find resources. You will write your paper to represent the particular concerns that your stakeholder would have on these issues. You will not write in that stakeholder’s voice, but rather you will represent his/her concerns in your research and writing. II. Pick a Sub-debate Focus on a particular sub-debate within the broader controversies surrounding GMO agriculture in the Third World. The decision on which sub-debate(s) you choose will partly depend on the stakeholder position you have adopted for the assignment. For example, as a poor Brazilian farmer you may want to focus on economic aspects of GM crops or on their environmental impact. As an international aid worker, you are more likely to be interested in issues surrounding emergency feeding and local resistance to accepting GM food aid. In other words, you will want to focus on one aspect of the GM debate such as trade, environmental concerns, food consumption, or the actual or potential impact of GM food on a particular region of the world. Some possible sub debates: Geog 270 – Autumn 2007 Final Paper Assignment p. 1 effects on the environment, human health, economic issues, including costs of adoption, equity and poverty, the politics of patenting laws, etc.. Geog 270 – Autumn 2007 Final Paper Assignment p. 2
