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How Far Has Your Food Come?

Do you know where your food comes from? Do research to find out how far your food has travelled and how this contributes to your carbon footprint.

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Plan

  • Where does your food come from?
  • Where can you find information about the origin of your food?
  • How is your food transported?

Do

  • The food we eat often comes from far away. Think of a meal that you have eaten recently or a meal you really like and create a list of the ingredients used in this meal. Try to figure out where all of these ingredients came from. You can often find the origin of your food on produce stickers and packaging.
  • Calculate how far your food has travelled to reach your kitchen. Once you know how far your food has travelled, you can calculate how much greenhouse gas was emitted from the transportation.
  • 1.101 g of greenhouse gases are emitted for every km that 1 kg is transported by plane. If it’s transported by truck, then 0.2699 g are emitted.
  • How does the food you eat contribute to your carbon footprint?

Review

  • Does the food you eat have a big impact on your carbon foot print? How can this effect our climate?
  • What types of food were grown close to where you live? What foods were grown far away?
  • What other activities contribute to your carbon footprint?
  • Remember to submit your activities on our Scouts for Sustainability Take Action Map

Materials

  • Produce Stickers and food packaging
  • Pencils and paper
  • Access to internet

Keep it Simple

  • If you don’t want to calculate distances, you can draw instead! Print out a world map and color in the countries that your food comes from.

Take it Further

  • As an extension, do research to find out what foods are grown locally. Attend a farmers market to buy local produce and talk to farmers!