Earth Day Lesson

Climate Friendly Food

Goal:

  • Learn about how food affects the Earth
  • Learn about food waste
  • Learn how locally sourced food is marked and what that means

Duration: One to Five Activities

Below you will find an introduction and five different assignments to learn about food waste in connection with Earth Month in March 2020. The assignments are not connected, and you can choose any interesting assignments!


Introduction Activity

Project Drawdown is a world-class research organization that reviews, analyses, and identifies the most viable global climate solutions, and shares these findings with the world. They partner with communities, policy-makers, non-profits, businesses, investors, and philanthropists to identify and deploy science-based, effective climate solutions -- as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible. Stopping global warming is possible, with solutions that exist today. In order to do this, we must work together to achieve Drawdown, the point when greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere start to decline.

Assignment to start with

Rank the provided climate solutions in the activity below in order of total greenhouse gas reductions.

Answers

  • #3 Reduced Food Waste
  • #4 Plant-Rich Diet
  • #6 Educating Girls
  • #10 Rooftop Solar
  • #31 Insulation
  • #36 Alternative Cement
  • #46 Water Saving - Home
  • #49 Cars
  • #60 Composting


Discussion after the introduction:


  • What can we do if we want to affect the emission of greenhouse gas? (reduced food-waste, plant-based food, eat seasonal produce, and save water are the some easy things easiest for you protect the environment. Those things are also ranked high on the Drawdown list).
  • Discuss different kind of food waste (the waste from the plate, kitchen and inedible -peels, seeds, etc.)

DID YOU KNOW? (Swedish numbers)

  • Every fifth bag carried home from the grocery store is thrown away.
  • Each year every Swede throws away 19 kilos of eatable food in the garbage.
  • A family could yearly save at least $300-600 if reducing their food waste.
  • You can save money if you put food waste in a compost bin food waste which makes your rubbish collection cheaper.


Information from Nacka Water and Waste company:

What is food waste?

Food waste can be separated into waste from the plate, kitchen, and inedible parts. Food waste is food that, for various reasons, was not eaten. Inedible parts of the food are unavoidable food waste, such as apple core, carrot skin, bones, and coffee grounds, but can be used as to the collection of food waste for bio-gas digestion. Food waste occurs in all stages of the food chain, in production, distribution, business, and at the consumer level. In restaurants, school kitchens, and catering, there are two kinds of food waste: waste in the kitchen and waste from plates. Waste from the kitchen can be food being cooked, but that is not used and therefore discarded. Waste from plates is food put on the plate but not eaten and therefore discarded.

Choose one or more of the following assignments

One: The hamburger (fish, meat, chicken, vegetarian)

  1. Watch the film about a fish finger ́s journey from ocean to plate (in Swedish).
  2. Draw a hamburger on a piece of paper.
  3. Draw or write 3-5 kinds of food, for example, bread, hamburger, salad, cheese, etc.
  4. Next, draw one kind of food on a new piece of paper and draw/write where the food comes from. Think about how the ingredients have been cultured and manufactured and how they came to and from the shop. For Example, Meat - from the store - the meat has come by truck - the cow ate grass - grass grows when it gets sun, carbon dioxide, water, and nutrition.
  5. Share your pictures with your friends, family, or teacher!
  6. Think about what happens with the hamburger if you do not eat it all? Does it end up in the bin or the compost?

Video in Swedish, but can follow along the images!

Two: Climate Chef

  1. Discuss how different kinds of food affect the environment (e.g., Transportation, the process of making grocery, where, and how it is cultivated.) You can find some useful information from the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation
  2. Draw a picture of the worst dinner plate according to climate (not environmentally friendly). Identify the food on your plate and write down why it is not good for the environment. For Example, it takes 2,400 gallons of water to produce just 1 pound of meat.
  3. Show your “worst-climate-plate” to your friends, family, or teacher, and explain your choices.
  4. Then research about the different kinds of food affects the climate and then draw the most climate-friendly plate in the same way as above.
  5. You can also make 3D-models of their climate-friendly plates instead of drawing them.
  6. Share your ideas with others and work with your friends or family to make a climate-friendly cookbook.

Three: Reduce food waste

  1. Come up with ideas to reduce your food waste. Use leftovers to reduce food waste. Get inspiration from:
    1. Reduce Food Waste and Creating New Meals with Leftovers
    2. Seven Ways to Reduce Food Waste
  2. First, think or talk about different ways to reduce food waste in your home. Then, make up a recipe to use leftover food. Choose at least two of the following ingredients: old fruits, vegetables, stale bread, or some leftover milk, yogurt, or cream, or a meal from a few days ago!
  3. A suggestion of how to present the recipes: Drawings, short film, or a recipe collection.
  4. Extra assignment: A family is calculated to save at least $300-600 per year (Swedish numbers) by reducing food waste. What would you like your family to do with this money?

Four: Eco Labeling

  1. Look around in your home and on the internet for different kinds of Eco-labels used in groceries. Discuss what the different labels mean and who is behind the label. What is the source?
  2. Some companies make up their own Eco-labeling. Discuss or think about what that means.
    1. Positive: More groceries get Eco-labeling. Companies want to have a climate-friendly profile.
    2. Negative: a third party does not review the Eco-labels. The more traditional Eco-labels become less important to consumers.
  3. Take a trip to a nearby grocery store (or your kitchen) and search for Eco-labels.
  4. Draw different kinds of Eco-labels and what they are for! Notice which items do not have Eco-labels.

Five: The Global Goals

Read about and discuss the global goals with your friends, family, or teacher. Then make a poster to inform other people to make climate-friendly choices. (e.g., reduce their food waste, eat more climate-friendly food, refuse, reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Research the UN Global Sustainable Development Goals. In 2015, world leaders agreed to 17 goals for a better world by 2030. These goals have the power to end poverty, fight inequality, and address the urgency of climate change. Guided by the goals, it is now up to all of us, governments, businesses, civil society, and the general public to work together to build a better future for everyone.

Focus on Goal 2 and Goal 12. Read, then think about or discuss if possible! Which Goals are you most interested in learning about?

Goal 2: Zero Hunger

End hunger, achieve food security, improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.

Look at and discuss the Hunger Map.

Five steps to Zero Hunger:

  1. Put the furthest behind first
  2. Pave the road from farm to market
  3. Reduce food waste
  4. Encourage a sustainable variety of crops
  5. Make nutrition a priority, starting with child ́s first 1000 days

More suggestions:

  • Learn to cook! By cooking food yourself, you can ensure you (and maybe people around you) get tasty, nutritious, and healthy food.
  • Do not throw food away! If you have fruit or any other kind of food you do not want to eat, give it to someone who needs it or compost it!
  • Play the game Free Rice every day! One simple thing you can do to fight hunger is to play the UN quiz Free Rice. When you answer a question, 10 grains of rice are donated to a family in need of food.

Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

  • Reduce your amount of garbage by refusing, reducing, reusing, and recycling. Food heroes, see the lesson plan from The Global Goals. Here you can find a poster about the goal to print of share.

More suggestions:

  • Turn it off! Turn off the lights and turn off electrical appliances when you are not using them.
  • Don ́t throw away food! Did you know that between 20-50% of all the food we buy is thrown away? Plan grocery shopping with your family and do not buy unnecessary food.
  • Start composting! Each Swede throws away around 500 kilos of garbage every year. By composting, we can reuse products and save the Earth's resources.

Summary

This lessons was created by our PEAK Partners in Nacka, Sweden!

Karin Skarstedt and Annelie Adolfsson (PEAK-coordinators)

Karin.Eliasson.Skarstedt@nacka.se - annelie.adolfsson@nacka.se