This school year we've making a lot of connections...connections between history and politics...between fields of science like biology and physics...and between science and our lives... We've done a lot of exploring the connection between the food we eat, the environment we live in, the air we breathe, the products we produce, and the money & politics connected to those products. Here's a list of some of the things we've read, movies we've watched, and websites we've used so far:
1) It started with the audiobook version of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp (Kingsolver's husband) and Camille Kingsolver (Barbara Kingsolver's daughter) . I was reading it for book club, and I was reading huge chunks of it our loud to the family. Finally, I just started playing the audiobook for everyone. I became part of the daily conversation to talk about where the food in our fridge originated. We started making a point of checking labels before we bought...not for nutritional information but for location. We took this statement to heart from Kingsolver's book:
“If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country’s oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week” (Steven L. Hopp, p. 5)I wouldn't reach for this book a whole lot sooner than 7th or 8th grade, and I wouldn't expect even an 8th grader to care about every single word of the book...but as background audio while knitting, drawing, or painting, it was perfect. The chapters by Camille Kingsolver were especially helpful in making the book "user friendly" for a younger audience. The audiobook is read by all 3 authors. So, the listener literally hears the change in voice and perspective.
2) We started visiting farmer's markets and discovered the rules for our local markets. Just because a food is at the market does not mean it's local. I've had to jump out of my introverted comfort zone to converse with food vendors about their food. Mane had the experience of learning how a local Hmong family grows peanuts in Minnesota. (Yes, peanuts in Minnesota!!)
3) We used the Minnesota Grown website to learn about what is in season when in Minnesota.
4) We started listening to the Climate Change podcast on public radio.
5) Back in 2009, Mane and I attended a pre-release showing of No Impact Man at the Walker Art Center and heard Colin Beaven speak in person. This year we shared the movie with some friends and watched it again. (A word of caution: The language is not all rated G and pregnancy loss is mentioned in the film.) The movie such a contrast to Barbara Kingsolver's book. Kingsolver and her family carefully planned (for several years, actually) how they would spend a year eating locally. Colin Beaven and his wife, Michelle, jumped into their "no impact" project with very little preparation. It's interesting to see people coming at the challenge of living differently from some extreme ends of the spectrum, and it was a great opportunity to reflect with Mane on how change is a process.
6) Then we watched Food, Inc., a difficult but valuable film. We learned to look away when the scenes got a little too graphic. This movie brought our focus in from local eating to ethical eating. A friend of mine talks about her daughter, who won't eat a chicken unless it's been hugged. This film brought us to that place...where we want to know how our food has been grown, not just where.
7) We started to move out from the food discussion and into a discussion of plastic consumption with the movie Addicted to Plastic. You can see a brief presentation with a few of the relevant facts here: Addicted to Plastic by Jamie Lamourt.
8) Today we watched Plastic Paradise. As I type, Mane is creating a blog post for her own blog of things she learned from the film. (Another word of caution: The film shows scientists cutting open dead birds to see all the plastic inside their bodies. Not for the weak-of-stomach.)
9) AND we freaked out a little bit about plastic in our clothes...
There's been a fair amount of talk in educational circles about how and when to present environmental issues to children. There's some argument about how much is too much and whether too much information too early has the backward effect of depressing children, rather than inspiring them.
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UPDATE in May 2016:
It has certainly been a year of tackling the environmental issues! Mane wrote a blog post for her Go Green Club on the problem of plastics in the world, we followed our local political movement toward getting plastic bags out of Minneapolis stores, and we've converted to bar soap and re-fill-able shampoo bottles! We're currently working on solving the problem of plastic use while camping. (It's really easy to put everything in the cooler in a ziploc!) And we're wondering about hosting the Bible study kids for outdoor summer play without plastic toys. I would say that, far from depressing Mane, she's been so inspired by the current movements toward reducing plastic use and production. And she's still working toward making a difference in our corner of the world.
