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Topic for Assignment: Concerned about the meat production market and how the meat is processed and what kind of growth medications and antibiotics are given to the animals. Also concerned about the potential disease risks from animals in foreign countries due to poor sanitation and if they meet the same regulations that the FDA would have on food products in the United States. As a final concern, I am also concerned about animal cruelty in foreign countries.
Directions for assignment
WA #1 – Analysis: In this written assignment, you’ll now pull apart your chosen problem into specific aspects and the factors that influence it, along with potential solutions either already used/feasible or reasonable to expect to occur. To brainstorm this, we can meet via zoom or share ideas via email. Your analysis should include:
Summary of the issue. This needn’t be long, but should indicate the nature of the problem you’ve focused on and how narrowly or broadly it applies to other goods that consumers engage with (e.g. following my China example above, perhaps you’re concerned specifically about fresh foods but not processed foods; or in the US car example, perhaps you are concerned that labor maltreatment is a problem beyond the auto industry). This section of WA#1 should be able to stand alone in terms of anyone who reads it being able to see clearly what you are concerned with.
A clear identification of influencing factors. You should research your topic well enough to understand the variety of factors that contribute to that problem area. Aim for at least 3-5 key factors and explain them in terms of how important they are to creating the issue. Depending on the nature of those factors, be sure to identify any specific players (e.g. government v. business; or federal v. state laws; or industry organization v. unions, etc.) who are key to the current ‘norm’. These players may be working to maintain the norm or to break it. It is not enough to say that a company seeks profits so they cut corners – think more deeply about their industry or competition, or about how they can get away with cutting such corn

ers.
A reflection on what can change. Here, identify the steps that can and should occur to reduce the negatives that originally concerned you. You should be clear in this section about who should do what, so be sure to indicate if there is need for different policy at the federal level (federal government responsible), or if businesses should use different technologies (specific firms responsible), or if consumers should select their products more carefully (consumer responsible), and so on. Perhaps research & development (R&D) is needed in some particular area and you’d like to see a corollary industry step up to improve processes or technology. Perhaps you’d like a developing country to not be a push-over regarding foreign use of their natural resources – then they have to take action to protect their lands. Note: the steps you propose should align in some way with the “influencing factors” that you identified. If those factors are the problem, then how would you solve them (and more)?
Full in-text citations and reference list. This is true any time you consult other sources.
You have 3 major sections of questions to address, and point values are shown in the guidelines document.
This paper must be 5 pages. (Use 11 or 12 point font, 1 inch margins, and either double or 1.5 line spacing.)
Stay organized and USE HEADINGS to help the reader (me!) follow your points.
Build a solid argument regarding the problem, its influencing factors and what changes you think should be undertaken by using facts, not opinion. Stay away from “I believe”, “I feel” etc. as they are ALL about opinion.
Your reference list should be organized formally (not just a list of web addresses), following APA, MLA or another consistent referencing format.
Please do not use titles or portions of titles as in-text citation format (e.g. “How sweatshops evade the law”, 2020). If you cannot find an actual author, look for an authoring organization (copyright at the bottom of a website, perhaps). If you still cannot find an author/org’n, then consider numbering your reference list, and then citing sources in this format [2].