OPERATION CORNBREAD

Most of the food we consume comes directly or indirectly from the soil. It may be that an age of synthetic foods is approaching and that the technological age will bring a declining dependence on the soil, but for the time being practically everything we consume is the product of a process or a sequence of processes that begins in the earth itself.  Farming has become the basis of existence all over the world.

Yet, many of the world’s people go to bed hungry each night. The range and variety of products familiar to us on the shelves of supermarkets is an anomaly in this world of simple, ill-balanced, often inadequate, diets. A global network of farm products is oriented to the one- fifth of the world’s population which is highly urbanized, powerful, wealthy, and living in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Japan.

Still, wouldn’t it be great if we could feed all the hungry people of the world? Of course, our present level of production, transport availability, and monetary system make this impossible.  However, you are about to have an opportunity to imagine feeding some of the world’s hungry people and, who knows, you might have the opportunity, in reality, to do so someday. It is hoped that some of the lessons you learn in this lab titled OPERATION CONBREAD will be useful to you in the future.

You are a member of a geographic research team employed by the U. S.  Department of Agriculture and have been assigned an urgent task. The code name for this assignment is OPERATION CORNBREAD.  The Department of Agriculture laboratories have developed a revolutionary new hybrid corn. This new seed produces fantastic yields per acre/hectare on any soil, although climatic limitations remain the same as for present hybrids.

The new hybrid also contains amino acids in amounts adequate for nutritional purposes. This means that where climatic limitations do not preclude the growing of corn, increase in yields will be so great that hunger will practically be eliminated, provided the people can be persuaded to eat cornbread, grits, corn flasks, corn-fritters, corn soup, spoon bread, and the like €“ anything  that can be made with corn.

The U.S.D.A. has asked your team to consider possible countries that could benefit from the use of this hybrid corn. However, since there is a shortage of the seed and it will continue for several years, the organization must limit the initial decision to one country. Advisors recommend that initial consideration be accorded only developing countries where the cropland per person is so low as to indicate an imminent diet deficiency, but this is not mandatory.  Corn requires a minimum of 20-25 inches of rainfall per year (or comparable irrigation) with at least 10 inches in the summer, a warm summer, and a 180-day growing season.

Very good, colored maps are provided in your textbook that will assist your research.  A large map section is located at the end of Chapter 7.  A map of world corn production is provided (essential to review) as well as several other maps that you will find useful, including caloric intake, percentage of people engaged in agriculture, etc.  You will need to also research these issues online.

ASSIGNMENT €“ Per Problem-Based Learning (PBL) you have been assigned a task (or problem) and it is your job to choose the solution to this problem.  In this case, conduct research and choose a country that will most benefit from the hybrid seeds, and be prepared to back up your choice with valid arguments.

Copy and paste the questions below into a Word document, save per instructions in Instructor Contact section, and address the following questions.  Of course, websites such as the CIA Factbook will greatly assist your research. Be sure that you include a cover page and a complete APA bibliography.

1. First, based on your research, list what you believe are the top five (5) developing countries most conducive to growing corn? (from what source did you obtain this data?)
2. From this preliminary list above, what one country have you selected, and will recommend, as the best choice?
3. Are they diet deficient? (elaborate)
4. What type of political system do they have and is it stable? May the U.S. gain a political advantage? (elaborate)
5. Does this country have resources the U.S. may need? (elaborate)
6. Will the U.S. gain an economic advantage from this offer? (elaborate)
7. Is this country already a significant corn grower?
8. If not, can they be persuaded to switch? What cultural attributes may help or hinder corn consumption?
9. What are the dietary mainstays of this country?
10. What is the level of economic development?
Finally, after answering the above questions, list in bulleted short paragraphs, the most persuasive reasons (4-6 total) for choosing this country to receive the hybrid corn at this time.

Checklist to ensure potential full credit on this and all research-based labs:

Did you include a cover page?
Did you meet the minimum length requirements?
Did you cite your research in the paper correctly?
Is your bibliography correctly formatted?
Did you answer the questions correctly?
Is it obvious that you have read the required readings to date (including the introduction to this module, the textbook reading and the introduction above) before completing this lab?
Did you follow the instructions for saving your document?