This resource explores a silvopastoral farm in Colombia that uses sustainable cattle ranching approaches to reduce the negative impacts on the environment.
The video highlights the devastating consequences of animal agriculture, focusing on global greenhouse gas emissions and land use changes.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The video provides footage of the sustainable farm which delivers a clear picture of how this method works.
This resource provides links to 20 additional resources for a thorough look at this topic.
Additional Prerequisites
The video has two ads.
It may help to give a brief overview of conventional farming methods as a point of comparison for students before learning about the approach presented in this resource.
Differentiation
After watching the video in this resource, students could work in groups to create an advertisement advocating for a particular farming method or for reducing meat consumption.
Consider having students also view the video about sustainable cattle ranching paying off for Columbian farmers (provided in the "related links" section) and have students use a venn diagram to compare new learning from this video.
As an extension activity, ask students to choose a topic of interest from the "watch these videos" section about sustainability and agroforestry for further research.
Other resources on this topic include this video which provides more information about reducing methane emissions, this video about the environmental and climate impacts of animal agriculture, and this article about natural gas, methane, and the impacts of media messaging.
Scientist Notes
The resource draws attention to the negative impact of traditional cattle farming on the climate. In the video, different solutions like silvopasture are applied to enable cows to grow healthy, produce more milk and less methane. This practice is eco-friendly and needs to be scaled-up. This resource is recommended for the classroom.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-5 Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
HS-LS2-7 Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.
LS4: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
3-LS4-4 Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Informational Text (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.2 Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.5 Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.7 Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Geography
D2.Geo.10.3-5 Explain why environmental characteristics vary among different world regions.
D2.Geo.3.3-5 Use maps of different scales to describe the locations of cultural and environmental characteristics.
Dimension 4: Taking Informed Action
D4.7.9-12 Assess options for individual and collective action to address local, regional, and global problems by engaging in self-reflection, strategy identification, and complex causal reasoning.
