Page 19 - SpringBoard_CloseReading_Workshop_Grade6_Flipbook

Close Reading of argumentative nonfiction Texts (continued)
key ideas and deTails
What information does Peirce include about Richard Pirog before including his calculations? How does this information help make Pirog’s analysis persuasive?
key ideas and deTails
Peirce offers several policy changes to solve the problem. Which approaches seem most logical and why? What solution does Peirce appear to favor?
8 By contrast, Pirog found food traveled an average of just 45 miles in a local food system of farmers selling to nearby restaurants, conference centers and institutions. 9 Then he compared the fuel and greenhouse-gas emissions. Our continent-wide
distribution system uses four to 17 times the fossil fuel, and emits five to 17 times the total carbon dioxide — greenhouse gas — emissions of a local system.
10 Can consumers help? Pirog believes so. He suggests point-of-sale labels — he calls them “ecolabels” — that indicate the energy impact of any given food. Local foods would show low impact; products such as Hawaiian pineapples, borne to market by gas- guzzling planes and trucks, a “very high” rating.
11 Our national agriculture policies tip blatantly to agribusiness’ side. Still, U.S. regions can make a strong start at popularizing local food production. And many are: Check the growing number of farmers markets — doubled to more than 3,700 in the past decade. Americans are increasingly voting with their grocery dollars, selecting the fresher, and often much more flavorful and nutritious produce grown locally. Smart restaurants are starting to feature fresh, local produce.
12 But supermarkets are mostly uninterested. The significant growth ticket for local agriculture may be institutions — schools, hospitals, universities and the prisons where we hold 2 million inmates.
13 Food policy can be a powerful connective issue, too. Many of us are already trying to burn less fossil fuel, to conserve energy to help avert global warming and its potentially calamitous consequences. Becoming “locavores” (people whose instinctive first choice is local foods) is a logical complement.
14 It’s not just gulping down one’s spinach. It means savoring fresh foods and scorning mass-production food “products” that are better fit for long-distance packaging than eating. It is a strategy that unites healthier bodies, reduced greenhouse gases, more resilient farms and a stronger and more self-sufficient regional economy. As American, I’d argue, as (fresh) apple pie.
18 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 6
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