Feeding the World Differently

Teacher Tips

Hook

• Put the four stages of food production on the board and take a show of hands for each one before you say anything. Then ask a few learners to explain their vote. Many people assume the answer is transport or pollution, so it helps to let the vote stand before the reveal.
• The reveal is that scientists believe the biggest cause of biodiversity loss is how we produce our food, and that this impact will only grow as the population does. If learners are still holding out for transport, you could ask “Which has the bigger footprint: a locally made beef burger or bananas shipped across the ocean?” The burger, because producing beef needs enormous amounts of land. Food miles are only one part of the story.
• The bridge line, that farming is both the problem and the solution, frames the whole session, so it’s worth saying clearly. It stops learners leaving the room either despairing or thinking one change to their diet fixes everything.

ITZA Pathways

• Pathway 1 (Use Less Space) covers how farming affects wildlife, how beef, soy and palm oil drive global deforestation, and the ecological cost of clearing forest. Pathway 2 (Feeding the World Differently) covers alternative food systems and solutions for a growing population.
• Circulate with “How has this changed how you view your last meal?” You might push for something specific: which ingredient, and what land or forest might be behind it? Could any of it be linked to beef, soy or palm oil?
• Pathway 1 is heavy going, and some learners will arrive at “we’re doomed” before they’ve seen a single solution. It helps not to argue with it. You could tell them Pathway 2 is the answer to exactly that, and that they can judge for themselves when they get there.
• It’s worth checking learners can explain the beef-soy cycle in their own words, and why it is so hard to stop. Each step funds the next: ranchers sell exhausted pasture to soy farmers and clear new forest for cattle, while soy provides cheap feed. Try asking “Who benefits at each step?”
• You might hear the opposite reaction in Pathway 2: “so everyone just has to go vegan”. The point is a range of realistic options. Cutting food waste and shifting habits need no new technology at all.

Classroom Activity

• Use the supporting speaker notes to elaborate on each quick-fire quiz answer. In most cases, the interesting and surprising facts are not which food has the greatest impact, but why and by how much.
• The meal-design activity has greatest impact if they choose the ingredients based on taste and compatibility, then gradually learn of the environmental impact of those. If you want to introduce other ingredients for your students’ context, search for comparable stats for the other ingredients online.
• It’s worth keeping a couple of minutes at the end for discussion about the activity and how learners reflect on their food habits.

Plenary

• Part 2 is the big question itself: how do we feed 8 billion people without destroying what’s left? You can push for evidence from both pathways, with beef, soy and palm oil on the problem side, and alternative farming systems, diet change and cutting food waste on the solution side, and for answers that go beyond “eat less meat”.
• Close by holding both truths at once: farming is essential, because we can’t stop feeding eight billion people, and the way we farm can change. You may still hear despair, or “going vegan is the only answer”. Both miss what the session shows.
• You could read the lock-in slowly, then ask each learner for one specific change to what’s on their plate, using something they found in today’s game.