“Eating Green” Challenge
February 1 – 7, 2012
As to fully understand and appreciate the topics in Chapter 14, regarding food and soil resources, we are beginning a one week “Eating Green” Challenge. The purpose of this challenge to engage you in an educational experience, which will bring awareness to the environmental issues that arise from the foods you consume. Some parts of the challenge will be graded and some parts will be based solely on your participation.
Grading Requirements: (50 points total: Labwork/Projects)
1. Maintain a food journal of ALL the food’s you eat for one week. This journal will be collected and reviewed on February 7th, 2012. (15 points)
-We are encouraging you to follow a vegetarian or vegan diet. A vegetarian will eat vegetables, fruits, grains, and nuts—with or without the addition of milk products and eggs. All forms of flesh (meat, fowl, and seafood) are excluded from all vegetarian diets, but many vegetarians use milk and milk products. Vegans will exclude all animal related products from their lifestyle including butter, dairy, eggs and the use of leather. The minimum requirement would be to eat 3 days of meat less meals within the week.
2. Respond and comment on the “Eating Green” blog on the class website, at least 3 times. I will post articles and videos and it will also serve as an open forum to ask questions. (15 points)
3. Reflection essay – At the end of the challenge, you will write an essay reflecting on your experience and address specific questions provided to you. All essays will be due by Friday, February 10th to turnitin.com. All essays must be submitted no later than 2:30 pm.
(20 points)
This is meant to be a challenge. I understand that there may be times when “Eating Green” is difficult, but remember we are only asking you for one week. You can do anything for one week!
Lastly, some other issues arise when following a vegetarian and vegan diet. Some of these issues include political and social viewpoints, such as animal cruelty and health benefits, involved with not eating meat products. Our focus for this class is on the environmental impacts of animal production, not animal cruelty or health concerns. Those issues will come up in our discussion, however, they are NOT the goal of this “Eating Green” challenge. This challenge is purely a fun, educational opportunity to raise awareness about how what we eat impacts the environment around us.