Learning Objectives
Students will
1. Explore several issues surrounding our current food system, including food waste, food deserts, agricultural land use, and the environmental impacts of diet choices.
2. Learn more about how food sustainability and environmental issues are impacting people and habitats around the world.
Terms for Students
Sustainability: the ability of a system to last or endure; meeting current human needs without endangering our descendants
Land footprint: the total amount of land required to produce something (e.g., to grow crops, to raise farm animals, or to mine minerals)
Food system: all of the steps a food goes through from being grown to being consumed, including packaging, transporting, and selling.
Materials
Computer with Internet access
Projector
Flipside Science video: The Environmental Impact of Feeding the World
A computer lab with at least one computer for every 2 students
(for Day 2 only)
The Environmental Impact of Feeding the World Journal (1 per student, also available in Spanish, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese)
A few (2-3) very misshapen fruits or vegetables (e.g., from a local farmer’s market)
A few (2-3) empty restaurant take-out containers
A few (2-3) packaged food items with ‘expired’ sell-by dates (but that are not spoiled)
Examples of processed and packaged convenience store food items (like cheese puffs, candy, bottle of soda)
DAY 1: Teacher Prep
1. Print out one The Environmental Impact of Feeding the World Journal per student
2. Set up stations around your classroom with the following materials:
Food Waste Station: Misshapen fruits/vegetables, empty take-out containers, packaged food items with expired sell-by dates
Food Deserts Station: Examples of processed and packaged convenience store food items
Part I: Introduction to food sustainability and environmental issues (15
min.)
1. Introduce your students to food sustainability and environmental issues by showing them the Flipside
Science: The Environmental Impact of Feeding the World video.
2. Ask for volunteers to talk about one or two things they learned from the video, and make a list of these
things on the board. Explain that the youth in the video are talking about some important
environmental and sustainability issues related to food. Check that students have an understanding of
what ‘sustainability’ means.
3. Replay the video for students a second time.
4. Working in pairs, students will dive deeper into two of the food sustainability and environmental issues
introduced in the video (they will explore the other two issues during the following class period or
hour).
Part II: Exploring examples (30 min.)
1. Divide students as appropriate among the stations so small groups can explore the materials up close.
It may be best to have students pair up with a single thinking buddy as they complete their journal.
2. Give students 15 minutes at each station, and then have them switch.
3. After students have completed the two activities, bring everyone back together as a class.
Part III: Day 1 Reflection (15 min.)
1. Ask students to share some of their thoughts from the food waste station activity. After you have heard
from several students, tell the class that all of the food items at that station are edible and unspoiled.
Why do you think people don’t like to eat produce that isn’t perfectly shaped? How could you inspire or
encourage people to embrace misshapen fruits and vegetables?
What do you think the ‘sell by’ date on a food package actually means if it isn’t the date the food is no longer
edible? Why do the producers put this date on there?
2. Ask students to share some of their thoughts from the food deserts station activity.
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