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AP English 11 Portfolio

AP Synthesis Essay

AP Synthesis Essay

Imagine that a community is considering organizing a locavore movement. Carefully read the following seven sources, including the introductory information for each source. Then synthesize information from at least three of the sources and incorporate it into a coherent, well-developed essay that identifies the key issues associated with the locavore movement and examines their implications for the community.

                Locally grown food does have both benefits and cons to it. The benefits of the practice outweigh the cons for locals, but the global government and economy sees it as a bad practice. Through the use of locally grown food, it allows people to feel better about what they eat. The locavore movement will decrease health problems and allow local farmers to be more prominent, but destroy larger food distributors and farmers.

                The locavore movement has many health and local economy benefits. Fruits and vegetables gain carbon dioxide form the stores they are in and during the transportation of the foods (Source D). This carbon dioxide is relatively bad for human consumption. Locally grown foods are not transported as far and have a shorter shelf life, both decreasing the amount of carbon dioxide. “It would allow farmers to make a decent living while giving consumers access to healthy, fresh food at affordable price” (Source F). Farmers are more depended on and since they do not transport the foods as great distance the prices go down, but the farmers still make a profit. The locavore movement would increase the local economy according to Maiser: “a dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy” (Source A).  This would help boost the world economy, after a while though.

                Since there are many positive benefits from the locavore movement, there has to be something bad. Using the practice of locally grown food, large food distributors will decline and decrease the world economy as a whole, at least for a long while. “As with Wal-Mart’s Solute to America’s Farmers program, which is now periodically showcasing local growers” (Source F). The large distributors are feeling threatened, so to get the profit they need it buys from local farmers, so that consumers are able to get fresher, healthier foods. McWilliams states that “it also hurts famers in other parts of the world” (Source C). Most of the food comes from other countries and when those people stop buying their food, the farmers in the other countries lose profit. Some countries do not have a stable enough economy to buy locally. Smith and MacKinnon would disagree that locally grown food is healthier: “there will be nutritional differences, but they’ll be marginal… but people are not nutrient deprived” (Source B). Fresher, locally grown foods are slightly better, but to them it doesn’t matter because, internationally transported foods have slightly less nutrients. Either way people are not nutrient deprived so it does not matter what they eat.

                Through the practice and consumption of locally grown foods, people will feel better about what they eat. This does not really matter, since locally grown foods contain slightly more nutrients. It will, however, improve local economies, but decrease the world economy. Locavores will just have to settle with their food choice and let all other people make their own food choices.

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