Unit 8: Our Water Footprints
How to stop eating our rivers activity guide, handout and worksheet
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This project was funded by the Department of Sustainability and Environment.
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Unit 8: Our Water Footprints
How to stop eating rivers activity guide activity guide, handout and worksheet
Estimated duration: 50 minutes Aim: • To summarise the findings from the calculating water footprints activity • To raise awareness about water efficient food choices Outcome By the end of this class, students will be able to: • understanding of the implications of food intake on water consumption • list food choices that promote reduced water consumption • communicate their understanding of embodied water using a pamphlet, poster or e‐communication
Resources •
Worksheet and handout: How to stop eating rivers (included below)
Activity Description Key Message: It is not about giving things up totally but finding smarter ways of meeting our needs. We need to find a means of sustaining food supplies for the maximum number of people into the future. In most cases this just means a reduction in the quantity of consumption of water intensive foods, not the elimination of them altogether. 1. Conduct a class discussion where students discuss the different areas they can reduce their embodied water consumption. The discussion could centre on some of the following ideas: • Large amounts of water are taken out of our rivers for irrigation. This does a lot of damage to our river systems, but also allows us to grow large amounts of food. Are better ways of doing things? • Should we all reduce our intake of beef (which uses lots of water to produce) and substitute it with proteins like poultry, legumes and lentils (which use less water)? How could that happen without people feeling resentful? • Some people are promoting kangaroo meat as a better alternative for Australians because of their reduced impact on the natural environment.
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Kangaroo meat doesn’t have much embodied water in it because kangaroos mostly live off rainwater, instead of needing irrigation water. If kangaroos were farmed, what might be the implications for wild populations? Beef and dairy farmers will suffer if people reduce their demand for these items. Is this fair? Should they be encouraged to farm other products or offered government subsidies to do so? What guarantees would they have that their industry would not be replaced by an equally water hungry industry? The meat and dairy industry are huge export industries for the Australian economy. Without them, we might all suffer economic hardship. Is that a fair thing to do to the Australian people? Are there other things we could export instead?
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Rice is another huge water guzzling crop. Should we be growing rice in Australia or leaving it to other countries that have a naturally higher rainfall?
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Farmers draw so much water out of the Murray River that Adelaide has an extremely poor supply of fresh drinking water. Is it fair for farmers in other states to be able to take so much without considering the people downstream?
2. Have students design a poster, pamphlet or e‐communication message that informs their community about the quantity of embodied water in some of the food they eat. Teacher answers to worksheet: 1. Most water used in Victoria is used in the home. FALSE. We use roughly nine times as much water indirectly through embodied water in food as we use from taps and showers in the home. 2. Vegetables account for the largest quantity of embodied water in foods. FALSE. Meat, and especially beef, is one of the foods with the highest embodied water. 3. The dairy industry is one of the major export industries in Victoria. TRUE. 4. Some research shows that producing a litre of milk can use more that 1000L. TRUE. 5. Studies show that Australians throw out 2.2 million tons of food each year. TRUE. This means that all of that embodied water has been consumed for nothing. 6. Milk produced in regions of higher rainfall has less impact on our river systems.
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TRUE. Milk produced in higher rainfall areas needs less irrigation. Water is diverted from rivers for irrigation, often not leaving enough behind for healthy river ecosystems. 7. Eating soybeans and lentils instead of cheese could save 2000L of water per kilogram. TRUE. Dairy products have a high embodied water content, because pasture for dairy cattle tends to need a lot of irrigation. 8. Substituting poultry for beef would double the embodied water consumption of an individual. FALSE. Substituting poultry for beef would significantly reduce embodied water consumption. 9. Rice is one of the most water‐intensive food crops produced in Australia. TRUE. Rice is less intensive per kilo than some livestock, but is more intensive than most other crops.
Student Roles and Responsibilities Participate in agreed tasks Contribute to class discussions Complete activities and worksheets Work cooperatively with others Create a poster, pamphlet or e‐communication Seek teacher assistance and support when needed
Level of Teacher Support Facilitate discussion Organise materials and equipment Provide encouragement and assistance when requested Introduce tasks and activities Advise on how to design a poster, pamphlet or e‐communication device
Assessment To use this learning activity as an assessment task, collect evidence such as: Teacher checklist and observation Copies of student materials and worksheets Teacher checklist for class discussions Poster, pamphlet or e‐communication device
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Unit 8: Our Water Footprints
How to stop eating rivers handout and worksheet Answer the following questions as true or false: 1. Most water used in Victoria is used in the home. 2. Vegetables account for the largest quantity of embodied water in foods. 3. The dairy industry is one of the major export industries in Victoria. 4. Some research shows that producing a litre of milk can use more that 1000L. 5. Studies show that Australians throw out 2.2 million tons of food each year. 6. Milk produced in regions of higher rainfall has less impact on our river systems. 7. Eating soybeans and lentils instead of cheese could save 2000L of water per kilogram. 8. Substituting poultry for beef would double the embodied water consumption of an individual. 9. Rice is one of the most water‐intensive food crops produced in Australia. Food Choices and the Environment Some research is now showing that Australia needs to think long and hard about some of the products that we produce here, given that we live on the driest continent in the world. Traditionally Victoria has been one of the wettest states and has been blessed with good water flows from the Murray‐Darling River system. The grim news is that our climate is changing and many of our hard‐working farmers are struggling to survive on the land doing what they have done successfully for generations. We may be farming the wrong kinds of agricultural products and using the land in an unsustainable way. The current water crisis is certainly causing us to ask some important questions. Food Choices and Health Food is one of the great pleasures in life. Meat and dairy products rank among our favourites. Imagine having to do without cheese burgers, for example. Would life be worth living? Yet there is growing research that high beef and dairy content in a person’s diet may not be good for our health. Both of them have high fat contents and high red meat consumption has been linked to bowel cancer. While our life usually begins with us enjoying the pleasures of our mother’s milk, some nutritionists have been linking milk proteins with increased allergies in our community. We may be getting too much of a good thing and damaging our health in the process. Food choices and the Economy Holy cow! There is no doubt that meat and dairy industries the basis for a large section of the Australia’s economy and form the backbone of many Australian rural communities. Page 5 of 5