Carlie Magier

   This is a good start on the first writing assignment.  
   You have done a good job, for the most part, on the 
   "they say" part.  However, for the next stage, you 
   are going to want to combine the two short essays
   about the two articles into one introductory "They say"
   section.  I think you may have misunderstood the assignment
   in a small way.  The idea was not to write two separate
   essays, but rather to summarize both of the articles in
   one connected piece of prose and then add your "I say"
   section at the end.  Please come and discuss this with
   me if it is not clear.  

   I have made a number of suggestions for rewording
   or rewriting things directly on a printout of the 
   paper.  Ask me what I meant if the markings are not
   clear. 

   Comments 
   
   1.  Since you focused on the "all we got was ethanol
   and an unsustainable diet" quotation, you should explain
   what Laskawy is getting at there.  The ethanol reference
   is to the fact that some relatively large percentage of
   the corn grown in this country goes to producing ethanol
   as a gasoline additive.  This was originally done to 
   reduce dependence on imported oil.  But that is essentially
   a non-issue now, as we will see in the Chapter Project
   for Chapter 3 in our mathematical textbook.  That corn
   is not used for food at all.  The "unsustainable diet"
   part refers to the fact that a lot of the rest of the 
   corn grown is used to feed beef cattle.  This is a very
   inefficient use of the resource because the amount of
   corn it takes to produce a pound of beef contains far
   more energy than the meat itself.  Plus Laskawy and 
   others would argue that eating too much beef is not 
   healthy for people anyway.  We're over-consuming meat
   and not eating enough vegetables and fruits.  You 
   might use a fuller discussion of this to set up your
   response in the "I say" part.

   2.  What does "expanding pre-market value" mean?
   This is not clear.

   3.  Maybe it's not so much "advertising" literally,
   but rather efforts to change peoples' minds about 
   the issue more generally.

   4.  This sounds dangerously like saying "the ends
   justify the means."  Do you buy that?  Again, this is 
   something you could bring up in your "I say" part.

   PS:  One of the main points of the Laskawy article
   is that increased resistance to pesticides and herbicides 
   is negating the benefits of GMO crops.  The interesting
   point here is that that resistance develops naturally 
   through evolution.  In effect, the genomes of the
   pests and the weeds are changing in response to 
   our genetic modification of the crops.  Some people
   compare the situation to an arms race where neither
   side can ever gain a decisive advantage.