Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to lesson seven of the Globalisation unit.

In this lesson, we're going to be thinking all about where does our food come from? Let's have a look at the agenda together now.

So the first thing that we're going to be looking at is what our food miles.

Secondly, we'll look at why does our food come from so many different countries? And then lastly, we'll be reflecting on what are the effects of increasing food miles.

Now, there are three things you'll need for this lesson.

Firstly, an exercise book or paper.

Secondly, a pencil or a pen, and then lastly, and most importantly, our brains.

So pause the video now to make sure you've got those things and then resume once you're ready to get started with the learning.

So in this first part of the lesson, we are going to find out what are food miles.

And before we do that, have a think, what do you think food miles are? Hmm, food miles.

The distance that food goes running? No, food can't run.

Hmm, what do we think food miles are then? Well, here it is.

Here is the actual definition of food miles: Food miles are the distance that food items travel from where they are grown to where they are eaten because we know a lot of the food that we eat is grown or produced much farther away from where we actually end up eating it.

And so, I've got a very interesting task for you, and a task that's going to help us reflect on food miles and how globalisation relates to that.

So what you're going to do is go through your fridge or cupboard and pick one or two items of food.

With those one or two items of food, check the label to see where it was produced and write that down on your piece of paper.

For example, earlier, I had a look in my cupboards.

Not much in my cupboards at the moment, I do need to go shopping, but I did find this delicious banana.

And when I checked the label, it was on a sticker on the banana.

It said it came all the way from Colombia.

Do you know where Colombia is? South America.

Nice one.

I also checked my cupboards, actually, no, this was in my fridge and I found a delicious broccoli, or not so delicious, I don't really like them but they are very good for you.

And I checked the label of my broccoli and it says it was actually grown in Spain.

Very surprising.

So it's your turn now.

Go through your cupboard or fridge and pick one or two items of food and check the label to see where it was produced and write this down.

Pause the video to complete this task and then resume once you're finished.

Okay.

Interesting task, right? I wonder what items of food that you, that you found and I wonder where they came from, and was it surprising how far away that item of food has come from? How many food miles that would have been totaled up in order to arrive into your house? Well, a little exercise that I have done is calculating how far or how many food miles have been totaled up in order for my broccoli and banana to arrive into my house and eventually into my belly.

So first of all, broccoli, I wonder, which countries do you think are the top producers of broccolis today? where do most broccolis that arrive in Britain come from, do you think? Maybe just pointed at the map.

Tough question really.

Well, here are the world's top broccoli producers, and it was quite surprising to me.

So we have North America, Mexico, Spain, Italy, China, and India.

These countries produce the most broccolis in the world.

And the vast majority of broccolis that are in our shops will likely to have come from one of these countries.

Do you remember where my broccoli came from? Spain? Absolutely right.

So, question for you.

How far do you think the broccoli, this broccoli has travelled to my fridge? Or how many food miles do you think that is? Just have a think.

Tough question, I know.

How many food miles is that? Well, it's the big reveal.

This broccoli has travelled 800 miles to arrive into my fridge.

That is a lot of food miles.

Let's move on to the banana, and again, let's start off, have a think.

Where do you think the top producers of bananas are in the today? Which countries produce most of the bananas that arrive into our country? Have a think.

I know bananas only grow in warmer climates.

Where could those countries be? Do you want to know? Okay, here it is.

Here are the top manana producing countries in the world today.

They are Columbia, Ecuador, Brazil, India, China, and the Philippines.

And what's similar about all those countries? Yes, warmer climates.

Absolutely.

Now do you remember, where did my banana, where does this banana come from? What's that? This banana comes all the way from Columbia.

Can you find Columbia on the map for me? Point at it.

Okay.

And now, tough question for you again.

how far has the banana travelled to my fridge? How far, actually, it was in the cupboard.

Sometimes you put bananas in the fridge, but how far has the banana travelled to my house, do you think? Hmm.

Quite a long way on the map, isn't it? Definitely further than the broccoli.

What's your guess? Okay, the total distance it has travelled, or the food miles for this banana is 5,000 miles.

Can you imagine, this banana that has travelled 5,000 miles into my household as a result of globalisation.

And think, do you remember my flowery shirt, how far that had travelled? That was around 5,965 miles, I believe.

So all those, so I'm not far off from a similar distance to this banana.

So based on that information, I'd like you to have a think about what has surprised you about food miles? And you can think about that in the context of food miles in general, or you can think about it the context of the items of food that you checked or Mr. Broccoli and Mr. Banana, and how far they travelled.

What has surprised you about food miles? For example, this surprised me because I assumed that a product like broccoli would have been produced in the UK and therefore its food miles would have been significantly lower.

It's over to you now.

So what surprised you about food miles? Pause the video to complete your task and then resume once you're finished.

Okay, well done.

We know what food miles are now.

Let's move on to the second part of the lesson.

In this second part of the lesson, we're going to be thinking about why does all food come from so many different countries? And so we know food travels, or lots of food travel, a very long way to arrive into our homes, restaurants, and shops.

Just have a think for yourself for a moment.

Why do you think we have food that comes from so many different countries? Well, there are lots of reasons for this.

We're going to go through three key reasons now.

So one reason why our food comes from so many different countries is because of climate.

So many of the foods that we enjoy, for example the banana, they require a much warmer climate in order to be able to grow.

I don't have banana trees in my neighbourhood in Britain, unfortunately.

So one reason why foods come from so many different countries is because other countries have warmer climates to grow certain foods that we enjoy.

Another reason why our foods come from so many different countries is because of cost of production.

So whenever food is produced, it comes at a certain cost.

A certain amount of money will have to be paid in order to produce that food.

Some countries have a much lower cost of production for certain foods.

And therefore a lot of food production has moved to those countries because the companies are having to spend less money on making the product and therefore will make more money when they sell it.

And one of the reasons why certain countries have lower costs of production is because they don't have to pay their workers as much.

A third reason why much of our food comes from so many different countries is because of space.

Not out of space, the galaxy, but space, as in like having enough room.

Agriculture or farming requires lots and lots of space to produce large volumes of food.

And we in Britain, we're an island, we don't have tonnes of room, and so much of our food comes from other countries that have more space to grow large volumes of food.

So to summarise, climate is one reason food comes from so many different countries because other countries that have warmer climates can produce the fruits and things that need that temperature in order to be able to grow.

Cost of production is another reason because some other countries have to spend less on producing food so production moves to the countries with lower cost of production.

And then lastly, space.

We don't have tonnes of room for producing food, like agriculture, so food comes from other countries that have more space to produce large volumes of food like that.

Based on that information, you're now going to complete the following task.

So you are going to rewrite these sentences by correcting the mistakes that are in them, okay? So each sentence has a little mistake.

You have to correct it, using the information that we've just gone through.

So we'll go through the first one together.

So sentence number one says many fruits such as bananas and oranges require a very cold climate to grow.

Hmm, interesting.

I seem to remember that actually bananas and oranges don't require a cold climate.

They require, what kind of climate? That's right, they require a warm climate to grow.

So I've rewritten this sentence and corrected the mistake by writing many fruits such as bananas and oranges require a very warm climate to grow.

Okay, so you just need to do the same thing now for sentences two and three.

Spot the mistake and rewrite the sentence by correcting that mistake.

And when you're ready, pause the video to complete your task and then resume once you're finished.

Okay, let's go through this together.

I hope you found that an interesting exercise.

Sentence number two: countries with a higher cost of production can produce food more cheaply.

Hmm, interesting.

A higher cost of production suggests that you actually have, it will cost more money.

So the way, that was the mistake, it's not a higher cost of production, it is a what? It's a lower cost of production.

So countries with a lower cost of production can produce food more cheaply.

And then sentence number three: Agriculture requires only a little space to grow large volumes of produce.

Hmm, interesting.

I seem to recall saying that actually agriculture to grow large volumes of produce, you need lots of space.

So the mistake there is you don't need a little space.

You actually need lots of space.

So here's how I corrected it.

Agriculture requires a lots of space to grow large volumes of produce.

Good job.

Let's move on to the final part of the lesson.

In this final part of the lesson, we're going to think about what are the effects of increasing food miles? And by that, I mean the increasing distances that food is travelling as a result of globalisation.

So one effect of increasing food miles is, sadly, carbon emissions.

The further that food is transported, the more likely it is that it is producing increasing carbon emissions from the transport that is being used.

And that is bad because we know that carbon emissions are contributing to global warming.

Another effect of increasing food miles is food shortages in the developing world.

So lots of food in the developing world is being sold to the developed world.

But some countries in the developing world are actually struggling to feed their own populations.

So the developed world is getting lots of that food, but, meanwhile, the countries themselves that are producing it have food shortages and struggle to feed their own people.

Another effect of increasing food miles is poor working conditions.

So you may remember we spoke about the fact that one of the reasons why lots of food is produced in different countries is because of the lower costs of production in other countries.

As in, they ha they spend less money to produce food.

Well, often, sadly, the lower the cost of production it takes to produce food often results in very poor working conditions.

So to summarise, carbon emissions are an effect because of the increased distance that food is travelling.

Food shortages in the developing world are arising because lots of the food that could be used to feed their own population is being sold to the developed world.

And then lastly, poor working conditions come about as a result of looking for lower costs of production.

Based on that information, you're now going to complete the following question.

What do you think is the most significant impact of increasing food miles? Explain your answer.

So to do this, think about the three effects that we just spoke about: carbon emissions, food shortages, and poor working conditions.

Decide which of those you think is having the most significant impact and then explain your reasons why.

And when you're ready to do that, pause the video to complete your task and resume once you're finished.

And if you're wondering how to get started with this question, here are some sentence starters that you can use to help out.

Okay.

Well done on completing that.

Let's have a look at what I wrote for this question.

Your opinion might be different.

That's absolutely fine.

I just thought it'd be good to see a little bit of an example of how I went about answering this.

So what do I think is the most significant impact of increasing food miles? Here's what I wrote: I think the most significant impact of increasing food miles is the increasing levels of carbon emissions caused by the transport of food.

This is because carbon emissions are one of the main causes of global warming and therefore climate change.

Over time, this could have a very negative impact on the environment, which will be difficult to reverse.

Okay, so I've stated what I think is the most important, significant impact.

And then the really important thing is that I have explained my view.

So based on that, if you want to add a bit more to your answer, go for it.

Explanation is the key thing, otherwise well done on completing that task.

That brings us to the end of this lesson.

Well done on all the fantastic learning that you've done.

Before we finish, though, there are just two things that you need to do.

First of all, write down three key things that you'll remember from this lesson.

And then finally, don't forget to complete the exit quiz.

It's a great way of solidifying the knowledge in your mind.

Thanks again, and I look forward to teaching you again soon.