A resource for teaching and learning about consuming planet earth

CONTINUED
C
The real cost of food
1. Sustainable Day
Organise a sustainable food day. Make a commitment to bring the most sustainable lunch
possible. Rate everyone’s lunch based on the energy inputs and waste outputs across the whole
life cycle of their lunch. Start by designing a rating system that every class member can agree on.
2. Bottled water – is it worth it?
As a continuation of Worksheet C3, design a survey to find out how popular bottled water is with
local consumers (including students and teachers). First, research the cost of local and imported
bottled water by visiting a supermarket website. Also explore the cost of other options including
water filters.
Design your questions to find out how many people:
– buy bottled water on a regular basis
– own some sort of water filter
– prefer to drink ordinary tap water, and
– the reasons why consumers have made these choices.
Make contact with students in other states or overseas and compare the quality of water and the
extent to which they rely on bottled or tap water for their daily needs. Compare the cost of water
to what Victorian consumers pay.
3. What’s for lunch?
Compare the life cycle of a low-packaged school lunch to a highly packaged one.
Consider the complete life cycle of each one, including the amount of packaging.
Low packaged lunch High packaged lunch
Homemade muffin Supermarket muffin
Cheese sandwich Sliced cheese sandwich
Apple Diced apple (in sealed plastic tub)
Freshly squeezed orange juice Fruit box.
in a reusable container.
Show the journey of one of the food items above in a flowchart and identify the costs to the
environment. First, complete the example given below of the environmental costs of bread
for the sandwich.
Farm Flour mill Transport Consumption
Water Electricity
4. Create a sustainable meal
Plan and cook a family meal using only local ingredients eg. food grown within a 30 or 50km
radius. Consult local maps first and then decide what would be a feasible radius.
consumer affairs victoria
57
Need consumer help? 1300 55 81 81 www.consumer.vic.gov.au