Food Waste: What’s the Problem? What’s the Solution?
Provided by: Project Look Sharp|Published on: April 27, 2021|Last updated: September 26, 2026
Grades: 6-AP
Type: Lesson Plans
Subjects: Social Studies
Authors: Project Look Sharp, Sox Sperry
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- In this media literacy activity, students will watch and analyze videos on food waste problems and solutions.
- Students will learn that food waste is an environmental and human rights problem.
- This resource includes a student lesson plan and three video clips.
Teaching Materials
Positives
- This lesson plan includes discussion questions for several academic subjects.
- Students will learn that global food production could feed the global population, but the food is not distributed equitably, resulting in food waste and hunger.
Additional Prerequisites
- Teachers must create a free account to access the materials.
- The videos "Food Waste: The World's Dumbest Environmental Problem" and "Earth Day 1970-2019: No Time to Waste" contain no audio narration, so some students may benefit from frequent pauses to read the text.
Differentiation
- Students could respond to questions individually or in small groups before discussing their answers as a class.
- Students could keep a food waste journal to record how much food they throw away each week, then come up with an action plan to waste less food.
- Economics classes could evaluate how food waste affects the profit margin of different groups such as grocery stores, restaurants, and school cafeteria food providers. Students could come up with solutions for how these groups could waste less food to improve their profits.
- Other resources on this topic include this activity on creating solutions for eliminating food waste and this Project Drawdown article on how reducing food waste will decrease carbon emissions.
Food waste is a global problem that increases our carbon footprint by releasing methane and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This resource is good as it provides insights on how to curb food waste and mitigate climate change impact. The resource is recommended for teaching.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
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