The world of food

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 3

The world of food

Do you sometimes throw away food?
Why do you usually do this?

Did anyone throw away leftovers in the school restaurant during lunch break? ...

Do you think this affects the planet
and our environment? Why (not)?

The impact of food waste

• Wasting food costs a lot of money!
• When we waste food, we also waste all the energy, water and other natural resources it takes to grow, harvest, transport and package it. 
• When food rots, it produces methane (= a greenhouse gas), which affects climate change immensely.
  

It could be enough calories to feed every undernourished person on the planet.

worldpopulationreview.com

data.footprintnetwork.org

Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity has exhausted nature's budget for the year. For the rest of the year, we are maintaining our ecological deficit by drawing down local resource stocks and accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

What can you do to reduce your ecological (food) footprint?

Ask whether there are some vegetarians in the group, as well as their reasons for no longer eating meat.

The impact of our food industry

• The mass production of food is governed by a handful of companies who focus on making money as fast as possible, regardless of the environmental impact they have. 
• The meat industry is responsible for the largest percentage of ecological pollution in the world. 

Critical thinking: why are there less commercials on eating less meat than on drinking more tap water?

Watch the documentary about the farming industry in the US.

Take notes while watching!

Food Inc.

• What made the industrial food system so influential?

• What was the role of the McDonald brothers in this? What did they do? 

• Which system did they introduce? What are the advantages of this system?
• What does McDonalds do to make sure they can offer the same hamburgers and fries all over the world? 

Food Inc.

• How are chickens raised now, compared to 50 years ago? Why do farmers do this? Name 3 reasons.
• Why does Carole want to show the inside of her chicken houses while other farmers don't? 
• A lot of the chickens can take a few steps and then plop down; why?
• Why do the companies like to employ Latino workers?

Food Inc.

• How can the major food companies keep the food indusrty and the farmers so much under control? 

Describe the documentary
in three words

Ask students who will not go to McDonalds that often anymore.

The impact of our food industry

Producing food has a big impact on our environment and climate change:

- meat production = deforestation + water shortage + methane

- crops = deforestation + water shortage

- ...

cf. avocado plants in Spain > consequences directly visible!

By producing certain foods, we enhance climate change. This makes the problem of world hunger even worse, because most hungry people live in underdevelopend areas and countries  where climate changes makes it hard or even impossible to grow food. 

The impact of our food industry

Producing food has a big impact on our environment and climate change...

...but still we throw away that food (and therefore all the energy and resources that are used to make it) every day...

When we say we want to do something about climate change, should we maybe stop throwing away our food first and not be such hypocrites? 

As the world’s population continues to grow, our challenge should not be how to grow more food, but to feed more people while wasting less of what we already produce. 

> We produce enough food to feed all the people on this planet *1.5

> More than 80% of the world’s hungry people live in places that are highly prone to extreme weather, where a changing climate is only making things worse!

Reducing food loss and waste are key aspects to create sustainable food systems for the health of our environment, climate, and people.

The Nordic Food Waste Summit brought together experts, politicians, authorities, businesses and civil society in an effort to increase co-operation and bring about urgent action to reduce food loss and waste. The summit comes at an important time when our food loss and waste need to be reduced.   

https://summit.refed.org/ 

2 good 2 go is a is a service with a mobile application that connects customers to restaurants and stores that have leftovers and unsold food. The service was founded in Denmark in 2015 as a way to reduce global food waste and its environmental consequences. 

The company covers major European cities, and in October 2020, started operations in North America. In 2022 Too Good To Go was the fastest-growing sustainable food app startup by number of downloads. As of August 2022, it claims 164,000 businesses, serving 62 million users, have saved 155 million bags of food.

https://www.toogoodtogo.com/nl-be  

Here are a few tips to reduce your food waste on a daily basis: 

• Plan ahead and buy only what you need. Going to the store without a plan or on an empty stomach can lead to buying more than we need. To keep your kitchen on track, try to eat leftovers, think of meals you might eat out, and avoid unnecessary purchases by planning your grocery list ahead of time.

• Use your freezer. While there are plenty of benefits to eating fresh food, frozen foods can be just as nutritious. They also stay edible for much longer. A lot of seafood, for example, is frozen before it reaches your supermarket and then thawed and put on display. That means it will only stay fresh for a few days. By buying frozen seafood, you can extend the shelf life of the product considerably. Cooking and freezing food—especially produce—before it goes bad is a great way to avoid having to toss it.

• Be creative with leftovers. Before you shop, use the food you already have. Websites like Big Oven, Supercook, and MyFridgeFood allow you to search for recipes based on ingredients already in your kitchen. You can also use apps like Epicurious and Allrecipes to make the most of what's in your fridge and pantry.

• Blend, bake, or boil. Fruits and vegetables that are beyond ripe may not look pretty, but that doesn't mean they can't still taste delicious in recipes. Try using your wilting, browning, or imperfect produce to make sweet smoothies, bread, jams, sauces, or soup stocks.

• Talk it up. Preventing food waste is the most effective way to shrink its impact on the planet. If we avoid producing food that we don't eat, we can save the land, water, and energy that would have been used to make it. And awareness is a good first step; according to ReFED, educating consumers about food waste could prevent 7.41 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.