Food and Climate Change

Environmental Solutions Initiative, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In this activity, students listen to a podcast and then investigate causes of and solutions to food waste, plant-based recipes to get excited about, and the diversity and variety of heirloom foods.

Click to View

Notes from our reviewers

The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials.

Teachers will need to decide how to have students listen to the podcast (options/ideas are given). Teachers will need to keep students on topic throughout the activity to focus on the learning objectives. The podcast has a different focus than the suggested research topics so teachers may need to help provide supplemental resources. This resource doesn't take into consideration fake meat's carbon footprint. This could be made into an extension activity where students make those calculations or explore further.
The resource is an activity based on a short podcast about food waste. Students analyze food waste data from the USDA by calculating percentages for different types of food and then brainstorm ways to reduce food waste, brainstorm/look for plant-based recipes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and research the origins of a food crop. Students will explain the link between food waste and climate change, why some foods have a higher impact on climate change, and understand the importance of heirloom varieties. The importance of heirloom varieties and their connection to climate change may need to be made stronger by the teacher. Passed initial science review - expert science review pending.
The resource is a flexible guide for activities based on the podcast linked. Students listen to a 13 min podcast on how food waste contributes to climate change, review data and examples of how food waste occurs, and then do research. The resource provides a lot of information, questions, and directives for discussion. The activity requires good listening skills for the podcast and some data interpretation. It is mostly group or individual research-based, but questions are provided for class discussion. The food waste activity is the most science/analysis heavy and the other two activities require internet searching. Differentiation options are given and student worksheets are provided. There are three distinct activities that can stand alone: a food waste analysis and solution brainstorming exercise, a plant-based recipe research activity, and a food origin research exercise to learn about heirloom and heritage food varieties. The three lessons can be done stand-alone, in sequence, or done by 3 groups simultaneously. There's a whole page on how to differentiate for diverse learners.