Sustainable Cities Field assignment on plant-based diets

Objective:

To consider possibilities and barriers associated with adopting a plant-based diet in US cities OR to consider the relationship between environmentalism and plant-based diets.

Due:

A hard copy of your responses to one of the following options is due in class on Tuesday November 19.

Please type your assignment. You can prepare your assignment using bullet points, but make sure that your ideas and explanations are clear.

Instructions:

Choose one of the four options below.

Option 1.

Adopt an entirely plant-based diet for 4-5 days (give it your best effort). Do not select this option if you are already plant-based.

You will hand in the following:

· A food diary (date and time of each snack/meal; what you ate)

· Notes on

· What was easy about this diet (include examples of opportunities)

· What was difficult about this diet (include examples of barriers/problems)

· Whether and why cities in general, and Los Angeles in particular, are easy or difficult places in which to maintain a plant-based diet

Option 2.

Create a list of 10-15 grocery store items that might be included in a plant-based diet (e.g., apples, tofu, vegan mac&cheese).

Visit a grocery store in a high-income zip code and a grocery store in a low-income zip code. Look for these items in both stores. Collect data on their availability (whether the item is available in that store at all; if so, how many different varieties or brands are available) and pricing (e.g., cost per package or per pound).

You will hand in the following:

· The list of items that you searched for

· Names and locations of the stores that you visited

· A table displaying the availability and cost data for your items

Option 3.

Watch the documentary Vegucated, which follows several New Yorkers attempting to adopt a plant-based diet for various sustainability and ethical reasons. It may be available through the LMU library, depending on licensing; it should be on Amazon Prime.

You will hand in the following:

· Notes on

· The opportunities that being in New York City conferred upon the characters

· The barriers and difficulties the main characters experience in adopting a plant-based diet, and the extent to which these are related to the urban setting in which they live

· How these characters’ experiences of going plant-based might have been different, had the film setting been Omaha, NE (a small city in the center of U.S. beef cow production activity)

Option 4.

Conduct short informal interviews with 3-4 people in your life who identify as environmentalists. Please do not interview other students in our class.

These interviews must cover the following topics: 1)What these people know to be the cause(s) of climate change 2)What they know about the relationship between animal agriculture and the environment or climate 3)Whether they believe that environmentalists must eat plant-based diets, and why or why not.

You will hand in the following:

· The list of interview questions you used. You can easily rephrase the above 3 topics into interview questions. You can also ask additional questions.

· Notes on each person’s responses to your questions. It will be best to structure your notes like this:

· Person 1

· Responses to Q1

· Responses to Q2

· Responses to Q3

· And so on, if additional questions were asked

· Repeat the above structure for persons 2-4