Author: DE

In an online survey at their individual schools, students participating in the project answered questions on their eating habits. During the meeting in Germany, students then looked at the results of the survey and deducted recommendations for the future on how to eat better in the future.

The questions included aim at three different topics:

• “Traditional” eating schedules and eating habits in different countries. The reasoning behind this set of questions is that there are different habits. In some countries, breakfast or lunch are the main meal of the day, in others it’s dinner. The answers to these questions, especially when comparing the answers from different countries, help students to become aware of different cultures. Food and the daily rituals connected to its preparation & consumption touch every single person at a very “deep” level of their individuality. When for example looking at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs ), food is listed among the basis of physiological needs. When students travelling to another country, living in another family are confronted with different times for main meals, these differences can (if not explained beforehand) create stressful situations, hampering a “perfect” outcome of the mobility.
• Eating habits of students. What do they eat, consider healthy and what do they know about healthy food.

• What and where do they (or: their parents) buy food. This aims at the environmental aspect of food shopping. Not mentioned is organic food (which might be too obvious). Instead, there’s one question as to where they buy their veggies (for example, if food is bought at a farmers’ market this more likely is regional food which would mean a lower carbon footprint). Another question asked about fruits and vegetables they/their family bought in the two months before taking the survey (i.e. in late winter / early spring). The examples listed can (during the European winter) only be imported from the southern hemisphere (e.g. South Africa, Costa Rica, Brazil, …). So if someone had bought for example grapes this would not be environmentally friendly.

At the Futurium in Berlin, students worked in groups on several topics. In the exhibit, they collected information and pictures on their topic. These findings were than used to incorporate into further work and to create posters on several topics.

Presented here are the tasks and some of the results.

Where will our food come from in the future?

Agriculture: Growing food (vegetables, grain, fruits, …) on traditional fields is so 19th century.

• Where will we plant, grow and harvest our food in the future?
• Can we also modernize fish production in a similar way?

Farming / food production on a farm /
a more natural and social way to produce food

Traditionally, farmers produce their food, bring it to the market (either a small farmers market or a big distribution center) and hope they can sell their produce. They also hope to get enough money / to not go bankrupt. If they can’t sell their food, they have to throw it out. Big farms today rarely come into contact with us, the consumers. We as customers usually don’t have any contact with the farms and farmers. We have become distanced from our food.

How could a farm also be organized (today or in the future). In the future, there might be a more communal concept of agriculture: What is it called, what’s the concept behind it, how is it organised, how do people get involved, …?

Food from the laboratory /
Improving and enhancing our food with the help of science

• Can science, scientific development, research help with the food we eat?
• From the laboratory onto the field? Is that possible? If yes: How? Are there examples?
• Genome editing

Environment and sustainability

• Current environmental problems connected to food / farming / …
• Possible ways to make producing food, shopping for food and eating food better for the environment.
• What can we as individuals do? Can science help?

Current problems in food production

• Monopolies, transport and energy consumption
• “Hidden” costs / ecological costs
• …
• Are there suggestions to solve these problems?

Meat production

Humanity does not only eat vegetables, fruit & grain. We are omnivores.

• Is there a better way to produce meat?
• Where could the meat of the future come from?
• A lot of research is still needed in the area: Which open questions are there?

Artificial, chemical, and virtual food

• What’s that?
• Can you eat it?
• How is it produced, consumed, …?

In the back of food pantries, fridges and kitchen cabinets of (too) many households, one can find food that has gone past its expiration date. Usually, that’s no problem as it is possible to eat food beyond the “Best before” date – after all, most food is still edible a few days (sometimes even weeks) after this date.

But in the same cupboards, there can be almost “historic” finds of food that has been waiting to be used for years and years… Most likely not edible anymore. A lot of food gets wasted without ever being eaten.

In this exercise, students had the choice of either creating food art with “donations” of food that was no longer good for consumption – or to work theoretically on the topic of food waste.

Day 1 of the meeting in Germany, afternoon and evening.

With the help of a dietician and in cooperation with a regional adult education center, students created a buffet style dinner. Later on, host parents and siblings were invited to school to start off the mobility together.

The recipes were chosen and provided by the dietician. A main focus lay on a variety of healthy salads. These accompanied some healthy dishes prepared on the BBQ (consisting of vegetables and lean meat). As we had learned from the food pyramid in the morning, sweet treats are not “forbidden” but should be chosen wisely and sparingly. Consequently, desserts were also included and consisted mostly of fruits, dairy (and some not so healthy ingredients…).

While cutting, grating, mixing, seasoning, …, students got to know each other (always working in teams with mixed nationalities). The results were very delicious and the few remaining left-overs were taken home to be finished and enjoyed later. The local newspaper came by as well and reported on this event (and the project in general).