The goal of this exercise is to generate discussion among assigned student groups on the issue posed below. Discussion is online and occurs through discussion groups linked in WebCT.
Agriculture can be sensitive to climate change, but at the same time, agricultural practices can contribute to climate change, such as through burning fossil fuels to produce and transport agricultural products and through the clearing of land. Consider reducing agriculture's "carbon footprint". In what ways could that be done and what impacts would that have on agriculture's output (i.e., yields) and costs (economic viability)?
To get to your discussion group and participate, login to WebCT and then follow the link to our class. When there, click on the "Discussions" tab on the left column. This will automatically take you to the discussions for your group. Select "Agriculture and Climate Change" to go a web page where you can read contributions by others and add your own.
10 points maximum, but you are welcome to make additional postings
You must complete your work by the last day of classes at midnight to get full credit.
NOTE: Scholarly article = journal article, book or other major peer-reviewed publications for a discipline. It is not a blog or other opinion piece, nor Wikipedia or the like. It also does not include newspaper or magazine articles. Rather, you should cite primary sources, which can be found through the lists above.
Plagiarism is unacceptable! You must document the source of any piece of information that is not yours in the dialogue. This of course is necessary also in order to get credit for referencing a scholarly article, as requested in the "Grading guidelines". If you choose to copy a phrase directly from a source, you must place it in quotes and cite its source. However, it is recommended that you employ your own words to describe a set of data or to explain a concept. The sources of data and each assertion that is not yours (including interpretations and point of views) must be acknowledged by citing the source within your dialogue entry. Because you are not writing a formal paper in the dialogue, please treat citations a little differently. Citations in this case should be in parentheses and give the author(s) or "Author et al.", followed by the year and the source of the information (e.g., journal name and page numbers).