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
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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
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Below: teaser video clip of Michael Pollan's PBS TV Series In Defense of Food. Mr. Pollan is author of several books related to food including, "Omnivore's Dilemma". This video will help frame our investigation into sustainable agriculture and to kick off pros/cons debate on the Future of Farming)
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Below: National Geographic: "Why Food Matters Now More Than Ever"
Below: National Geographic Panel Discussion on Sustainable Food Systems and why it matters: "What does it take to grow enough food for all of us? How do we create food systems that meet the needs of our changing world—and what role does technology play? A wide-ranging panel discussion explores global issues of food sustainability." - National Geographic
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Use the following videos for taking notes on the pros/cons of various types of agricultural practices.
Foraging
Subsistence Agriculture
Agribusiness vs. Sustainable Farming
GMOs
Pastoralism, Ranching & Grazing vs. Intensive livestock feedlots:
Commercial Fishing & Aquaculture:
Case Studies of Food Deserts, Urban Food Shortages:
Foraging
- "Lessons from Nature" (pro foraging)
Subsistence Agriculture
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)
- What if We're Thinking About Agriculture All Wrong? Two Pioneers Believe We Can Feed The World With Trees (Heated, Medium.com)
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
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)