Introduction to Global Patterns of Food and Health

Objectives: 

• To introduce the topic of food and health from a context of geographical thinking
• To develop an understanding of spatial variation in food and health
• To make connections to the social, economic, political and environmental factors
• To define different types of hunger including malnutrition, short term and long term hunger
• To describe the geographical patterns of hunger through food/nutrition indicators, including the hunger index, calories per person/capita, indicators of malnutrition

Investigate Obesity through maps and images

• Watch how fast the world became obese

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Investigate Hunger and Malnutrition through maps and images

• Article: The Real Hunger Games: Hunger Map shows where the 795 million who didn’t have enough to eat in 2015 live (International Business Times)
  
• Slide Presentation "Hungry Planet" series; images by photographer Peter Wenzel

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Debate: The Future of Food

Use the following videos for taking notes on the pros/cons of various types of agricultural practices.

• Michael Pollan: “In Defense of Food” Trailer (teaser video clip to kick off pros/cons debate on the Future of Farming)

Foraging

• "Lessons from Nature" (pro foraging)

Subsistence Agriculture

• Subsistence Agriculture
• Slash & Burn -- old method & new, more sustainable method

Agribusiness vs. Sustainable Farming

• High tech Agribusiness (pro Agribusiness & GMO bias)
• Large Scale Intensive Farming, BBC ​
• Commercial vs. Sustainable Farming (pro Sustainable Farming bias)
• Extensive Farming, short video 
• Bugs or Burgers? Exploring Edible Protein (pro "bug" bias)
• Food of the Future (pro insect bias, promoted by the Food & Agriculture Association of the UN)

GMOs

• Bt Cotton: Seeds of Suicide (GMO seeds, India)
• Pros & Cons of GMOs, According to Bill Nye (tries to present neutral position discussing both pros & cons of GMOs)

Pastoralism, Ranching & Grazing vs. Intensive livestock feedlots:

• Pastoralism in Africa
• Pastoral Nomadism: "Against All Odds", Oxfam East Africa
• "Living Lightly: The Journey with Pastorilists", India
• Nomads in Modern Society: Reindeer Herding
• Modern Indigenous People: The Sami Today
• Ranchlands: Crossroads, Colorado Bison and Cattle Ranching
• "Why is it necessary to feed cattle in feedlots?", Australia (pro feedlot bias)
• Temple Grandin HBO movie trailer (pro feedlot bias)
• Temple Grandin - Humane Cattle Livestock Feedlot/Slaughterhouse documentary (pro feedlot bias)

​Commercial Fishing & Aquaculture:

• "End of the line" (short version) documentary clip(critical look at commercial fishing & overfishing)
• Singapore Urban Aquaculture short promo video (pro Aquaculture bias)
• “Aquaculture is Changing Lives in Bangladesh”, “The Importance of Sustainable Aquaculture, TEDx (pro Aquaculture bias)
• “Unsafe Shrimp and the question of Seafood Farming”Aljazeera (critical view/bias of aquaculture)
• “Farmed Salmon, Unsafe and Unsustainable”, OceanFuturesSociety (critical view/bias of aquaculture)
• “Should You Avoid Farmed Fish?” (video attempts to remain neutral on issue of aquaculture)

​Case Studies of Food Deserts, Urban Food Shortages:

• U.S.: Millions of Americans Still Live in Food Deserts (ABC)
• U.S.: No Easy Access: Food Deserts in D.C. (NPR)
• U.S.: Building an Oasis in a Philadelphia Food Desert (PBSNewsHour)
• Venezuela: How Long does it take to buy 8 basic food items? (BBC News)
• Venezuela: Shortage of Basic Products in Venezuela (CNN)

Additional Resources:

​Presentations/Slide Decks

• ​Food Deserts

Videos

• Types of Agriculture and Farming Practices (Slideshare review video)
• Different Types of Farming - intro video to Agriculture, GCSE Geography review
• Power of Place: "Chicago: Farming on the Edge" (start at 11:35min.)
• Food, Inc. "Too Broke to Eat Well?"
• Documentary: 2017 Pulitzer Center CUGH Global Health Film Festival

Websites

• Factory Farming Map (Interactive)
• ThirdWorldFarmerSIM (simulation)​​​

Interesting Articles

• Food For Thought: The Higher Environmental Impact of the Eating Habits of White People in the U.S. (Geographical.co.uk)
• Floating Deep Farms to Feed a Growing Population (Geographical.co.uk)
• "Desperate workers on a Mexican mega-farm: 'They treated us like slaves' (LA Times shows the dark side of large-scale commercial farming in Mexico).​​
• Seeds of Suicide: How Monsanto Destroys Farming (GlobalResearch.ca)
• "We are What We Eat: Follow Corn through the industrial food system"
• André Laperrière: Executive Director at Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (Geographical.co.uk)

Interesting for "edutainment" value​​

• "The Meatrix" Relaunched -- Factory Farming Parody
• "Store Wars" - An even cornier farming parody
• Jamie Oliver: Nugget Experiment Epic Failure
• Chipotle Ad - (critical ad of GMOs and agribusiness)
  • ​Chipotle Ad Review - (Positive Review)
  • Chipotle Ad Agribusiness Lashback(Negative Chipotle Parody Ad)