1. Shifting Diets and Sustainability
Andrew Bonsignore Doral Academy Charter High School

2. College Board APES Standards
4. Humans alter natural systems
Humans have had an impact on the environment for millions of years
Technology and population growth have enabled humans to increase both the rate and scale of their impact on the environment
5. Environmental problems have a cultural and social context
Understanding the role of cultural, social, and economic factors is vital to the developments of solutions 
6. Human survival depends on developing practices that will achieve sustainable systems
A suitable combination of conservation and development is required
Management of common resources is essential

3. Objectives
Students will be able to accurately describe the relationship between land use practices and production of various food products
Students will be able to create a concept map based on the production processes of known food items and then revise/update them after viewing King Corn.
Students will be able to properly calculate how much energy goes into producing a given type of food and present their findings

4. Pre-work (homework) Student Food journals (Friday-Sunday)
Incorporating Adolescent Health and Safety

6. Calorimetry Virtual Activity
Classzone Virtual Lab: Mcdougal Littell ualLabs.html Accessed July 18, 2015

7. Food Journal Data

8. Background Material

9. Background Material

10. Background Material

11. Background Material

12. Livestock production uses ~75% of all agricultural land and 30% of the land surface of earth – making it the largest use of land by mankind.
Livestock comprise 1/5 of all terrestrial biomass & consume 1/3 of global cereal production.
In the Amazon, >70% of deforested land is pasture, and most of the remaining deforested portion is covered by feedcrops.
Steinfeld et. al. 2006
Krausmann et. al. 2008
Nepstad et. al. 2006, 2008

13. The 10% rule

14. Given current trends, ~1 billion additional hectares of natural habitats—an area larger than the United States —will be converted to agriculture by 2050.
Tilman 2001

15. Highest Species Diversity & Endemism
17 Megadiverse Countries
Highest Species Diversity & Endemism
Mittermier et al 1997

16. 11 have increasing rates of consumption
15 Developing Megadiverse Countries
11 have increasing rates of consumption
Mittermier et al 1997

17. ~ Land Area (m2) to Producex
China Meat Production

18. SVV: The Ecological Consequences http://www. vegetarismus
SVV: The Ecological Consequences Accessed June 18, 2015

19. Land Increase Projected by 2050

20. Land Increase Projected as % of Current Agricultural Area
Land Increase Projected by 2050

21. Concept Map
Students work in groups of 3-4 and select one particular meal (includes protein, carb, veggie)
Create concept map of steps required to produce each food items and get them to the plate
Students do their best to trace every possible step (really think about it)
CLEAN: Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network Accessed June 18, 2015

22. King Corn Look for further details that are included on concept maps
Did you forget any steps?
Did you learn more about any steps that you listed?
What surprised you?
CLEAN: Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network Accessed June 18, 2015

24. Energy to Produce Various Foods
Students return to their teams and work as a group to determine how much energy goes into producing a given type of food. Each team will pick a source of protein for their diet. We'll assume that a person needs at least 30 grams of protein per day. Your team's goal is to estimate the amount of energy that is required to produce your 30 grams of protein per day.
Along the way, each team should answer the following three questions:
1) What quantity of your food in grams is required to provide 30 grams of protein?
2) How many food calories of your food is in the amount that provides 30 grams of protein?
3) How much energy is required to produce the amount of your food that will provide 30 grams of protein?
CLEAN: Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network Accessed June 18, 2015
Energy to Produce Various Foods

25. Energy to Produce Various Foods
Go over soy beans as an example:
100 grams of fresh (green, raw) soy beans has about 13 grams of protein and and contains 147 food calories or kcal of energy. (This value was found using the USDA National Nutrient Database)
So we would need to eat about 230 grams (about 1 ½ cups) of soybeans to get 30 grams of protein.
By this estimate it takes 7,800,000 kcal of energy to grow 5,556 kg of soybeans.
So ... to grow 1 kg of soybeans takes about 1400 kcal (1.6 kWh) of energy.
Therefore to grow 230 grams of soybeans would take about 320 kcal (0.4 kWh) of energy.
CLEAN: Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network Accessed June 18, 2015
Energy to Produce Various Foods

26. Energy to Produce Various Foods
To simplify things we will make two BIG assumptions:
We will assume that chickens, cows, and pigs only eat soybeans
We will also assume that the only energy that goes into producing animal based protein is the energy that goes into the food animals eat
These assumptions are unrealistic but will allow us to make meaningful comparisons between protein sources.
Students will select a food item from the following list:
Beef
Cheese
Chicken
Eggs
Milk
Soybeans
Pork
Corn
Apples
CLEAN: Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network Accessed June 18, 2015
Energy to Produce Various Foods

27. CLEAN: Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network http://cleanet
CLEAN: Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network Accessed June 18, 2015

28. Next Steps What are some possible solutions?
Reduce, Replace, Reintegrate, Re-educate
Agroecology, permaculture, polyculture land use, rotational grazing, integrated agriculture-aquaculture, GMOs