Download food research assignment

FOOD RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT
STEP 1 - CHOOSE YOUR FOOD
Within your group, choose 1 representative example from your food journals for each of the four food
groups (Meat/Fish, Dairy, Grains, Veg & Fruit) and put them in the table below.
Food Group
Food Item
Student Name
Meat/Fish
Dairy
Grains
Veg & Fruit
STEP 2 - RESEARCH YOUR FOOD
For each of these foods your group will be responsible for conducting research to determine:
 The geographic origin of your foods (as specific as possible, this may vary depending on the
food)
o A brief description of what types of natural ecosystems are found in and around where
your food comes from (i.e. tropical forest, grassland, temperate forest, desert
etc…). Google Earth or Maps could help a lot with this part.
o Distance between this location and Toronto.
 The resources needed to produce these foods:
o Land Requirements
 Type of land/water body required to produce the food (grassland, forest, farm
field, pond, ocean coastline, etc...,). Include pictures of typical land types.
o Fuel requirements
 Research what types of machines are needed to produce/raise your food and
the type of fuel they consume
 Typical modes of transportation, along with type of fuel if possible, to get your
food from its geographic origin to your supermarket
o Chemical inputs needed to produce your food, these could include:
 Name of typical fertilizers (natural/synthetic) used on the crops and why they
are necessary.
 Pesticides including herbicides (if possible are these broad spectrum or narrow
spectrum) and what they are targeting and why
 Antibiotics given to livestock (names of specific antibiotics and the purposes of
them)
o Water Requirements
 How much water is needed to produce your food?
 Where does the water needed for your food come from (including how far is the
water source from the site of food production)?
 Impacts associated with the production of your food
o List if there are any species at risk whose natural habitat is in close proximity to where
your food is produced. Determine if there is a link between this species’ habitat and the
land used for food production. Include a picture of the species.
o Conduct a Google search in the “News” section to see if there has been any stories
reported about water contamination or disputes about access to water resulting from
your food production (i.e. leaching of nutrients and/or manure that pollutes
groundwater; farmers using water for crops while local residents’ wells are dry;
etc..) Summarize the concerns and provide links to these stories
STEP 3 - MAKE YOUR PROPOSAL
 Proposal for how to sustainably produce your food for future generations
o Research and summarize alternative method(s) of your food’s production and/or
processing. Possible alternatives could be:
 Low Tech - Organic production, specifically small scale tried and true methods
that require little in the way of fuel and chemical inputs
 High Tech - Cutting edge engineering and computing to maximize food output
while minimizing environmental and social impacts (i.e. Tomorrow’s Food)
 A combination of the above two methods.
STEP 4 - PRODUCE YOUR FINAL PRODUCT (Your Project)
 Choose an appropriate format to display what you have learned. For example,

Poster
Video
Booklet
Your Choice (teacher approved)
Website
Create your final project and share it with your teacher and class
Checklist for final project
My final project includes:
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Graphic (Pie chart, bar graph, etc.) representing the percentage of your group’s collective diet
coming from each of dairy, beef, chicken, pork, fish, lentils beans pulses and nuts, grains,
vegetables, fruits.
A quantitative representation of the amount of resources needed to produce each of four
assigned food types
An analysis/evaluation of the impacts of that food production on ecosystems
Your group’s suggestion(s) for how the “Food of tomorrow” can be produced sustainably and
feed the world’s growing population (e.g. How much if any technology should be used in food
production, etc.)