For teachers and youth who want to change the world Menu for Change — WHY RESPONSIBLE FOOD CONSUMPTION MATTERS — Resource scarcity, increased population, decreasing land availability and accessibility, emerging water scarcity, and soil degradation require us to re- Table of Contents: think how best to use our resources for future generations. Hilal Elver UN‘s Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Why responsible food consumption matters .............................................................. 4 - 5 Is it the right time to eat strawberries? .......................................................................... 6 - 11 Everywhere people ask: ‘What can I actually do?’ The answer is as simple as it is disconcerting: we can, each of us, work to put our own inner house in order. What is the link between chicken wings and the Amazon Forest? ........................... 12 - 17 E. F. Schumacher Taking another look at biscuits ...................................................................................... 18 - 25 Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered Who are the people behind my food? .......................................................................... 26 - 31 Preserving diversity in my food garden ...................................................................... 32 - 37 If our starting point is a respect for nature and people, diversity is an inevitable Wasting our future? ..................................................................................................... consequence. 38 - 43 References .................................................................................................................... 44 - 45 Helena Norberg-Hodge Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make. Jane Goodall Living democracy grows like a tree, from the bottom up. Vandana Shiva Why responsible We Eat Responsibly: Project participants: food consumption • is supporting teachers in incorporating • 1,800 teachers and tutors are developing responsible food consumption topics their knowledge and skills in understanding into their lessons; the links between food production, changes matters in society and the environment and the • is developing critical thinking of pupils quality of our life; and students and supporting their activi- ties towards responsible change at schools • 550 European Eco-Schools are running a and in their neighbourhood; yearlong educational program on responsi- ble food consumption topics; • is increasing awareness among parents Food is a need, food is a pleasure, food is a matter of Three times a day, each one of us has the possibility to and society of the global impacts of our • 90,000 students are looking for oppor- personal taste or cultural preference. What perhaps choose food that better respects life in us and around everyday choices. tunities for responsible changes in their comes less quickly to mind is that food is first and us. In a world of over 7 billion people, our personal menu as well as in their neighbourhood. foremost a human right that is still not fully realized for positive actions may seem to be a drop in the ocean, one person out of nine in the world. And looking at the but they are not. As is the case with North Americans, future, food is a great global concern. By 2050, with our European diets have the greatest environmental the same planet, we will have to feed three times more footprint and are the drivers of several negative people than a century before. From that perspective, impacts. But within Europe, and especially within food is much more than a private story. The choices the nine countries that are part of this project, there we make regarding food production and consumption are also many positive examples of responsible food already have direct or indirect consequences on the consumption. climate, on the use of resources like water and land and on people’s ability to feed themselves and live decent In this publication, we offer you a chance to discover lives here and abroad. more about how food shapes the world. The publication is structured in six parts, each illustrating and explaining one global food trend that is problematic and should For more information about the We Eat be brought to the attention of all of us, from policy Responsibly project, go to our website: makers to the general public. These six trends are: www.eatresponsibly.eu Today, food production: • the accelerating loss of varieties; • contributes more to global warming • the increasing consumption of meat and dairy pro- than all cars, trucks, airplanes and trains ducts; combined; • the growing distance between farmers and consumers; • uses 70% of fresh water, but seriously degrades water quality due to pesticide • the loss of seasonality; and fertilizer runoff; • the runaway consumption of highly processed food and the presence of palm oil in half of proce- • accelerates the loss of biodiversity; ssed food; • is a major cause of deforestation and • the dramatic increase in food waste. desertification. This brief guide to responsible food consumption is designed for teachers and youth who wish to become active global citizens. It combines basic information with stories, key facts and suggestions for activities But not every diet has an equal footprint. How and resources to go further. positively or negatively our food choices impact people and the planet depend mainly on the five following We Eat Responsibly is a global education project aspects: what we eat, how much we eat (of what), how involving 550 Eco-Schools in nine European countries much food we waste, how our food was produced and (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Latvia, Malta, who benefited from it. Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia). 4 EATING 1 LOCAL AND SEASONAL Is it the right time to eat strawberries? — PROBLEMATIC TREND NO. 1 — ANY FOOD AT ANY TIME, FROM ANYWHERE. Food is a reflection of local natural specificities. Because As an example, for those of us living in Central Europe, natural conditions are different in each region of the apples should always be favoured over bananas; but if world, the food that grows in each region is different, too. it’s June, let’s choose more delicious seasonal foods Temperatures as well as humidity and sunshine vary from such as strawberries, for instance. However, in January region to region and change in each season. Bananas grow it will be more sustainable to eat stored apples rather best in tropical climates in regions close to the equator, in than strawberries. countries such as Ecuador, for instance. They don’t have a specific harvesting season– they can grow all year round. Seasonal local food can often be cheaper than non- On the other hand, apple trees would not survive tropical seasonal food, more tasty, and supportive of the local temperatures but grow well in the temperate climate of economy. Europe and have a specific harvesting season: summer and autumn. In every country, week after week, we move into another season that will bring different local food. Eating seasonal food is a guarantee of eating fresh food, which is richer in nutrients. Eating local food is also a guarantee that it has not travelled long distances to reach us and therefore did not cause unnecessary emissions of CO . Definition corner 2 For people who live in cities and buy food in supermarkets, Fungicides: chemical products used to kill it may seem as if there were no more seasons or distances. or inhibit fungi. The supermarket shelves look pretty much the same almost all year round. Tomatoes, cucumbers, apples and Ozone layer: a layer in the stratosphere, grapes are available throughout the whole year. This means about 15 km above the earth’s surface, that these foods travelled long distances and/or were that acts like a giant umbrella protecting produced in heated greenhouses, both of which involve the earth from ultra-violet rays (which a great deal of energy. Or it may mean that these foods are detrimental to plant and human are several months old and have received some treatment health). to slow their aging (for instance fungicides and waxing on Network capturing world food trade interactions. Where to and from where does food flow? Are all countries participating apples). In that case they may have lost a large part of their equally? (Photo: B.S. Halpern (T. Hengl; D. Groll) / Wikimedia precious nutrients and hold residues of pesticides. Commons, via Wikimedia Commons) 7 Agnieszka: “Well, that may be seasonal, but not very local! Pineapples are grown in the Philippines — THE STORY — or Costa Rica and travel thousands of kilometres to reach us. Let’s make a cake with apples and nuts instead. I filled up boxes and boxes of apples from the old trees at my grandmother’s in September. Of course they are smaller and not as pretty as those you find in stores, but they are nicely sweet and A (low-carbon) surprise dinner a bit tart”. Michaela: “It’s almost 4:30 in the afternoon! I hear someone ringing at the door!” said Cynthia, who was helping “And they don’t come from the other side of the planet, like New Zealand, which is 12,000 km Agniezska find extra cushions for sitting on the floor. away! That’s more than I travel in one year! And it is not only all the fuel needed for such a long distance that is problematic. Do you know that many fruits and vegetables coming from abroad are harvested Josip, arms loaded with bottles of apple juice, enters with five other boys. Michaela, who was hosting the before they are ripe and receive post-harvest chemical treatment such as fungicides to increase their meeting, was frenetically running to open the door again to a new bunch of people. All her seventeen shelf-life?” friends from the international study program were there, except Gregor. Josip: “And methyl bromide, a toxic pesticide is also widely used as a fumigant on the apples before Razvan opened the discussion: “So guys, what do we prepare for Gregor? Today is November 18th, so transport, to kill insects that could be amongst the apples.