Energy Consumption: Yummy!

Introduction

Using energy more responsibly can range from simple actions like turning out the lights when not in use to more involved activities like researching and purchasing energy efficient appliances. Both not only help save energy and reduce your "carbon footprint"; they also save money.

Did you know you can also put your energy saving actions where you mouth is? Yes, every time you eat something, every meal you cook, all your food shopping decision involve energy.

Energy and food is connected on multiple levels. Food is a fuel source for humans. Also fuel resources (e.g., fossil fuel) are used to make food for humans.

Smart nutrition decisions can help make the food you eat more useful and less wasteful for your body to function. Smart food choices can also help save energy and help protect the environment. The classroom ideas and support materials below provide information on both these angles to "consuming" energy efficiently.
 

Terms to Know

calorie (written with a lower case "c") - A unit of energy often used when measuring the energy content of food. One calorie equals 4.187 joules or 0.003969 Btu. The amount of energy needed to raise one gram of water one degree Celsius.

Community Supported Agriculture - A process where households or individuals purchase shares of a local farmer's crop prior to the growing season. The shareholder receives installments of produce, often weekly, of a variety of harvested crops.

Food calorie (also called Calorie with an upper case "C") - A unit of energy equal to one kilocalorie (1,000 calories, 4,187 joules, or 3,969 Btu). The food calorie is often used when measuring the energy content of food. The amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water one degree Celsius.

Food Chain - The transfer of stored energy through a series of organisms, each eating or decomposing the previous one.

Organic food - Food grown with limited or no human-made fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators, and livestock feed additives.

Vegetarian - A person who consumes a meatless diet. If that person also chooses to omit all animal-based food products (e.g., eggs and cheese) that person is called a vegan.

Embodied energy - The total amount of energy needed to manufacture a finished product from raw materials, including the energy used to transport the product.

Green Products - The term "green" is often used as a descriptor to identify environmentally friendly items.

Classroom Ideas

Guest Speakers

1. Invite a nutritionist to speak to the class about the importance of a good diet. Also discuss the role of various foods for the body and which provide the best energy source.
   Sample Academic Standards Addressed:
        Health G.12.4 Demonstrate the ability to influence and support others in making positive health choices
 

Click here to find contacts for guest speakers in your area.

Field Trips
1. Take the class to a local farm to learn all that is involved in producing a food resource. If possible, compare a large scale farm to a smaller one. If your community has a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) visit this one as well to learn how the farmer incorporates sustainable farming practices.
   Sample Academic Standards Addressed:
         Agriculture A.12.1 Identify how political policies and issues shape and influence food and fiber systems
                -analyze environmental issues that influence the food and fiber system in
Wisconsin, the nation, and the world
                -understand how a country's infrastructure affects food and fiber distribution
                -be aware of the involvement and influence of government agencies on marketing of food and fiber commodities
                -understand the effects of urbanization on a society and its ability to produce food
                -identify and analyze food-fiber production/processing issues that cross state and country boundaries (e.g., water use and water pollution)

Click here to find field trip ideas in your area.

Activities and Lessons

1. Enhance lessons on food chains by emphasizing energy transfers and heat loss (see KEEP's activity Food Chain Game for example).
     Sample Academic Standards Addressed:
              Science F.12.9 Using the science themes, investigate energy systems (related to food chains) to show how energy is stored in food (plants and animals) and how energy is released by digestion and metabolism

2. Have students query their parents for typical grocery shopping lists. Challenge students to re-configure the list to buy sustainably and locally grown foods in season.
Family and Consumer Education A.2. Analyze the personal and social significance of a family-related concern, such as what should be done to examine blocks to creative and critical thinking about parenting, food, health, or work
     Sample Academic Standards Addressed:
             Health E.12.4 Analyze how information from the community influences health

3. Assign students to research traditional diets among world cultures and how they grow their food. How does a diet within a developed versus developing country compare? How do their farming techniques differ? What sources of energy do they use to grow their crops?
        Sample Academic Standards Addressed:
                 Social Studies A.12.11 Describe scientific and technological development in various regions of the world and analyze the ways in which development affects environment and culture

Student Projects

1. Investigate involving you students in establishing a garden on the school grounds or working within a community garden. Work with a curriculum team to use the garden to integrate relevant concepts into subject area lessons. For example, biology classes can use the garden to study organisms that live in soil, Family and Consumer Education students can design the garden for desired food types, and Marketing classes can set up a food stand to sell produce.
     Sample Academic Standards Addressed:
            Environmental Education D.12.5 Develop a plan to maintain or improve some part of the local or regional environment, and enlist support for the implementation of that plan
 

2. Involve students in an Energy Issue Investigation and Action Project.

3. Have students make a Science Fair presentation about their research. 

Support Materials

Web sites

Check out KEEP's online Carbon Cycle Game and examine the transfer of energy that occurs as carbon travels throughout the ecosystem.

A few Web sites on food energy:
www.sciencebuddies.org/mentoring/project_ideas/Chem_p017.shtml

www.calorie-counter.net/energy-in-food.htm

www.kidshealth.org/kid/stay_healthy/food/calorie.html

A number of Web sites include the role of food and diet in promoting sustainable living. Here are just a few:

www.energybulletin.net/24319.html (Fuelling a Food Crisis: The impact of peak oil on food security).
www.goodhealthinfo.net/food_and_energy.htm

www.harpers.org/TheOilWeEat.html

www.worldwatch.org/node/3938

www.sierraclub.org/sustainable_consumption/food_factsheet.asp

Other Resources 

Bhargava, Vinay (ed.). 2006. Global issues for global citizens: an introduction to key development challenges. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.

Imhoff, Daniel and Jo Ann Baumgartner (eds.). 2006. Farming and the Fate of Wild Nature: Essays In Conservation-Based Agriculture, Watershed Media. Berkeley and Los Angles: University of California Press.

Lappé, Frances Moore. 1991. Diet for a small planet. New York: Ballantine Books.

Sapontzis, Steve F. (ed.). 2004. Food for thought: the debate over eating meat. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books.

Schlosser, Eric. 2001. Fast food nation: the dark side of the all-American meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Singer, Peter & Mason, Jim. 2006. The way we eat: why our food choices matter. New York: Holtzbrinck Publishers.