TEACHING ACTIVITY

Experimenting with Alternative Food Practice

Students experiment with different food-related practices to learn experientially about the multiple impacts of their food choices.

Activity Outline

‘This activity is based on the work of Diana Garduño Jiménez, described in pgs 77-88 of my book and at Fork to Farm dialogues.

1. Map Current Food Practices

For a week, students keep a food diary in which they document the origins of all their food items. They also conduct research on the social, environmental and ethical impact of their food practices.

2. Experiment with alternative food practices

These experiments are based around different challenges students set for themselves, for example to reduce their food-related emissions, food miles or food waste to zero for a certain number of days. Students document their experiential learning and bring them into conversation with critical academic literature.

3. Forward-looking speculations

Students work collectively to develop future food scenarios, which focus on manifesting alternative food practices as simultaneously personal and collective politics.

4. Share-out

Student groups create final pieces to show the findings from their experiments and forward-looking explorations.