Hungry Planet

Categories: Secondary Literacy , Literacy , Food Science , Spanish , Agriculture , Animals

Students will explore nutritional habits of families from different countries. In this activity, students will recognize agriculture’s influence on food systems across the globe.

Part I: Gallery Walk
1. Copy photos that picture the family and food from several different countries, distribute them around the room. Make sure to include the weekly food purchases information.

2. Tell students that the availability of food available to people directly relates to agriculture. Today, we are going to look at how agricultural impacts meals around the world.

3. Have students walk around to each photo hung on the wall and analyze the photo and weekly food information.

4. Discuss the food availability in each country and what impacts played a role in determining the meal (i.e. transportation, fertile land, technology, religion, perishability, etc.).

Part II: Research Assignment
1. Assign or allow students to choose one of the countries listed in the book (any country besides the United States).

2. Provide students with a copy of the picture and the information for their country.

3. Distribute the Hungry Planet Worksheet, have students read through the information on the country and analyze the photo to answer the questions on their worksheet.

4. Students will look at nutritional habits, agricultural reasons for their diet, and fulfillment of nutritional needs.

5. After filling in the worksheet students will write a two page paper on their findings and how it relates to diets in the United States.