Introduction:
An often overlooked and unknown cause that contributes significantly to numerous environmental issues is animal agriculture. Livestock accounts for 65% of human-related emissions of nitrous oxide and over 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide every day. It takes 2,500 gallons to produce just 1 pound of beef and livestock and livestock feed takes up ⅓ of earth’s ice-free land, contributing to dead zones and water pollution. Oceans are also drastically affected by the 90-100 million tons of fish pulled out, contributing to dead zones and water pollution. In comparison to meat, plant-based foods require a significantly smaller amount of water and resources per kilogram. However, with the more widespread access to meat, meat consumption is increasing and becoming a more alarming issue.
Given this information at a younger age, children will be more aware of their impact on their environment and may become more willing to live in a more sustainable way when they grow up. GIN will be holding a simulation game that will allow students to actively participate and learn the facts of animal agriculture. To promote a more plant-based and environmentally friendly diet, there will also be a dessert workshop where the children will bake without any animal products to show them that delicious food can be made from plant-based foods. We hope to help children begin to understand the connection between their food and the environment and motivate them to look into a new way of helping the Earth.
Plan:
We will be playing an agriculture simulation game:
- Each player will have a lock of empty land at the beginning of the game
- Four stations will be set up: trees, meat, grains, and dairy. In each of these stations, participants will perform tasks like running across the field, or kicking a ball into a goal to gain each of these aspects -- in other words, they are “farming” and adding to their land
- Performing each task, participants will receive a card that details the consequences of their actions.
- The cards will feature several measures: environment (AQI), economics (money), food value, and animal well-being. For example, starting a beef farm will give -10 points environmental, +5 money, etc.
- By the end of the game, we will tally up the points and determine a winner
Debrief trivia game:
Explain their points to them and how they may improve their diets to help in the real world
Detail environmental reasons
Explain animal suffering briefly (won’t show graphic images)
Hands-on:
After the simulation and workshop, we’ll move to making simple vegan desserts with the students in the kitchen. There will be an adult supervisor. No nuts will be used.