Do you know where the last thing you ate came from? Do you know how many ingredients it had? And where each of those ingredients came from?
Most of us can’t answer any of these questions. Food is food. You buy it at the store, then you eat it. And that is that. But in reality there is so much more that goes into every little mouthful you take.
And knowing these things can make a big difference in food choices.
This is true for kids too. Sometimes even more so than adults. So next time your kid asks for a snack, here is a little challenge that can teach them a whole lot about where food comes from, and might just leave a lasting impression!
The "Where Does Your Food Come From Challenge"
The challenge is simple:
Take a minute to track down at least the top 3 ingredients of your next snack with your child.
This will be extremely enlightening about where that snack really came from. And how far it had to travel to get to your plate.
You and your child will probably be surprised by what you find.
For Example
Lets take a fictitious example. Your next snack is a granola bar, and its top three ingredients are “Whole wheat flour, cane sugar, and oats”.
Most of the time you won’t be able to track the exact source of ingredients on a list because the supply chain can get rather convoluted. So instead, look for the primary growing locations for each ingredient.
Try searches such as “Where are the worlds top growers of oats?” or “What country grows the most soybeans”, etc…
Let’s start with the whole wheat flour. A quick google search will tell you that the USA is a main grower of whole wheat flour, with Kansas being the biggest producer. So ingredient number one probably comes from Kansas.
Another search will reveal that Brazil is the worlds largest producer of cane sugar. So ingredient number two most likely comes from Brazil.
And the worlds greatest producer of oats is Russia.
Put all of this together and one little granola bar has ingredients that have traveled all the way from Kansas, Brazil, and Russia.
And the more ingredients you look up, the more places you will find.
Like the cinnamon flavor comes from Indonesia. And the nutmeg is from India.
Why Does This Matter?
So now that we know that is one little granola bar has ingredients that have traveled from Kansas, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, and India (plus more that we didn’t look up) what does that mean?
First off, most food is shipped via the ocean, plus rail and by truck. (These are all “and” not “or”. Most ingredients actually use all of these shipping methods to reach their destination).
Cargo ships produce around 40 grams of CO2 per mile. The distance between Indonesia and New York City via the ocean is about 13,000 miles. That is 520,000 grams of CO2. Which converts to about 1146 pounds of CO2.
To put that into perspective: A mature rainforest tree sequesters about 50 pounds of CO2 per year. So it would take about 23 adults trees a whole year to offset this one barge that supplied one ingredient to this granola bar… This is not including the rail and truck emissions. And there are a lot more ingredients with similar stories as well.
Take Away Message
Needless to say, this exercise will probably make you and your kids a little more aware of what you are eating. And a little more inclined to shop local, or find foods with ingredients that were grown locally.
Food truly doesn’t just appear on the shelves at your local store!
Once you have taken this challenge, tag us on Instagram @An.Eco.Minded.Childhood, or use our hashtag #AnEcoMindedChildhood so we can see what you found!
And check out our new kids series on YouTube all about where food comes from. Our first episode is “Maple Syrup“
Save It For Later
Firstly I want to mention, that you have a wonderful photo here ♥ Secondly, this challenge is genius! It’s so easy and interesting! Great idea!