Munchtime Mystery

Positives

• The video's primary focus is food, making it easily relatable to all students.
• The resource also includes a list of questions to be used before and after the video and optional extension activities.

Additional Prerequisites

• Answers to the questions in the teaching guide can be accessed by contacting the Green Ninja team. The email is found at the bottom of the webpage.
• Students should be familiar with the concept of organic food.
• Buying organic, non-GMO foods may not be an accessible solution for every student, so consider bringing up the topic of local community gardens, urban farming, and food desserts to help connect this topic.
  

Differentiation

• Younger students can focus on the health benefits of eating more fruits and vegetables, but connect this video's concept of local and organic to these other resources: Modeling the Local Food System and Healthy Plate, Healthy Planet.
  
• It is important to keep in mind that many emissions from food come from land use changes and the inputs used in production, not just in transportation. In other words, the type of food a person eats may matter more (in terms of reducing emissions) than where it is sourced. For example, have students research emissions from meat (no matter where it was grown) vs. vegetables or grains.  Also, local produce grown in an energy-intense manner or with lots of fertilizers, insecticides, and mechanized equipment may not be lower emission than fruit or vegetables grown organically from farther away.
• As an extension, have students research three locally-grown foods that can be grown in season without the use of synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.
• This can be a hook for high school science students comparing the farming practices for organic foods, GMOs, and conventional foods.  Guiding questions for this topic include: Which foods get the most fossil fuel-based treatments and require the most costly inputs for farmers? What are the side effects on neighboring properties, the watershed, and human health? What are the connections between synthetic fertilizers and nitrous oxide emissions? Which is closest to the principles of regenerative agriculture?
  
• Older students can conduct a study in their school, determining where their cafeteria's food comes from.