Blue Planet Prize Story

Believing that environmental problems must be addressed in a way that everyone would be happy to follow, ecologist David Tilman found that having people eat delicious, healthy foods would help solve environmental issues.
It is an eye-opening experience for children to know that daily dietary habits could lead to solving global environmental problems. Instructors can provide students with opportunities to think about how the food they eat daily, influences the environment and health. This will help students become aware of the relationship between diet and the environment.

Let's think about the impact of food on the environment and health.

1. Ask students to make a list of foods they would like to eat.

• Then, ask them to write down the ingredients needed for the menu, including spices.
• Students can think about what they like to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on one day, or one of these over several days.

2. Ask students to think about how the ingredients they have listed impact the environment and health.

• (1) Students are asked to write down one ingredient per sticky note.
• (2) Below is a graph showing the impact of different food groups on the environment and mortality rates. Ask students to download the pdf file of this graph and print it onto a large sheet of paper. Prepare one copy for each meal.

• (3) Students affix the sticky notes with the names of ingredients to the same or similar food on the graph.

3. Ask students to compare with each other the copies of the graph with sticky notes affixed, and exchange opinions.

• How good/bad are the meals for the environment and health?
• What should we change to make the meals better for the environment and health?

Examples

• - Why don't you reduce one dish containing red meat?
• - If you think there's not enough nutrition, how about adding fruit or vegetables while keeping a good nutritional balance?