Hello, Mrs. Lomas here, and I am a primary school teacher that is obsessed a little bit, I guess, with teaching geography.

So, I'm super excited to be joining you for your geography lesson today.

So, let's have a look at what we're gonna be learning today, shall we? So, today's lesson is all about food and climate change, and it is part of our farms and factories "Where does our food come from?" unit.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to describe ways in which food systems contributes to climate change and investigate possible actions that can be taken to reduce the carbon footprint of food.

We have some keywords in today's lesson.

They are climate, atmosphere, emission, carbon footprint, and agriculture.

Let's do some my turn your turn.

Ready? Climate, atmosphere, emission, carbon footprint, agriculture.

Well done.

Let's find out what these words mean, shall we? Climate is an average of weather conditions, for example, rain, sun, or wind in a place taken over a long period of time, usually 30 years or more.

The atmosphere is the layer of gases that surrounds Earth.

It includes the oxygen we need to breathe.

So, it is essential for life on Earth.

An emission is something that is released into the world.

An example is the release of carbon dioxide when we breathe out.

A carbon footprint is a measure of the total amount of greenhouse gases that are released as a result of our actions.

Agriculture is the science and practise of cultivating soil and farming.

Today's lesson on food and climate change is split into two parts.

Causes of climate change and reducing the carbon footprint of food.

Let's start with causes of climate change.

In this lesson, we are going to be learning about food and climate change.

What do you about climate change already? How is food connected to the climate? Pause the video, have a class discussion, and come back when you're ready.

How did you get on? Climate change describes a shift in Earth's average weather conditions over a long period of time.

Earth's climate has always changed over time, but in recent years it has been happening much faster due to human activities.

Earth is surrounded by a layer of gases known as greenhouse gases.

These gases include carbon dioxide, water vapour, and methane.

This layer acts a bit like a blanket and trap some of the heat radiating out from the Earth.

And if we have a look at this diagram here, we can see, can't we? The atmosphere around the Earth and the Sun, and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere trap heat that warms the Earth.

The Earth also absorbs energy from the Sun and some heat escapes back to space.

However, if there are more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere then more heat will get trapped and the Earth will warm more.

Greenhouse gases are important.

Without them Earth would be too cold for us to live here.

Different human activities have increased the amounts of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere.

This is causing Earth to get hotter and the climate to change.

Let's do a little check, shall we? True or false? Earth's climate has always changed over time, human activities are not a major cause.

When you've decided if this is true or false, I want you to justify your answer with either A, although Earth's climate has always changed over time, it is now changing much faster due to human activities.

Or B, Earth's climate has always been the same, but recently, it has started changing due to human activities.

So, one more time.

True or false? Earth's climate has always changed over time, human activities are not a major cause.

Once you've decided if this is true or false, justify your answer with either A, although Earth's climate has always changed over time, it is now changing much faster due to human activities.

Or B, Earth's climate has always been the same, but recently, it has started changing due to human activities.

Pause the video, have a go, and come back when you're ready to check your answers.

How did you get on? If you said that Earth's climate has always changed over time, human activities are not a major cause is false, because A, although Earth's climate has always changed over time, it is now changing much faster due to human activities.

You would be correct.

Well done.

Burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas is a major cause of climate change.

When fossil fuels are burned, the carbon dioxide trapped inside them is released into the atmosphere.

What do we burn fossil fuels for? Pause the video, have a class discussion, and come back when you're ready.

How did you get on? Hopefully, you said that we burn fossil fuels mainly to give us energy for many, many different things.

Food production is also a major cause of climate change.

It is thought to be responsible for around 25 to 30% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

How do you think producing food causes climate change? Think about all the steps in the journey of food from farm or factory to our plates.

Pause the video, have a discussion, and come back when you're ready.

How did you get on? Let's have a look, shall we? Food production causes climate change in different ways.

By clearing land to grow crops or graze animals, growing crops for human food or animal feed, farming animals, and processing, packaging, transporting, and selling food.

Let's do a quick check.

Name one way in which food production causes climate change.

Pause the video, have a go, and come back when you're ready.

How did you get on? If you said any of these, you'd be correct.

Well done.

We have clearing land to grow crops or graze animals, growing crops for human food or animal feed, farming animals, and processing, packaging, transporting, and selling food.

We'll now take a closer look at each one of these.

Large parts of the world's forests and grasslands have been cleared for agriculture to create space for crops to be grown or animals to graze.

Trees and plants take in and store carbon.

When they are cut down, this carbon is released back into the atmosphere.

It also means that there are fewer trees to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Growing crops for human food or animal feed is another cause of climate change.

Greenhouse gas emissions come from things like the use of manure, fertiliser, and machinery.

Farming animals for meat, dairy, eggs, or seafood causes climate change.

Cows and some other livestock produce methane, which is a greenhouse gas.

How do you think animals produce a greenhouse gas or how they produce methane? Pause the video, have a class discussion, and come back when you're ready.

How did you get on? If you were saying that it is because they fart methane gas, you would be correct.

How silly is that? But it's actually very, very true.

So, not only are the livestock producing methane, but also looking after the animals and where they live causes emissions as well.

So, let's do a little check, shall we? Which greenhouse gas do cows and some other livestock produce a lot of? And yes, it's by their farting.

Is it A, carbon dioxide, B, hydrogen, C, methane, or D, oxygen? So, one more time.

Which greenhouse gas do cows and some other livestock produce a lot of? A, carbon dioxide, B, hydrogen, C, methane, or D, oxygen.

Pause the video, have a go, and come back when you're ready.

How did you get on? If you'd said that it was C, methane, you'd be correct.

Well done.

Processing, packaging, transporting, and selling food also cause greenhouse gas emissions.

A carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gases released by a product, person, or activity.

There are often many different stages in the journey food makes to reach our plates, and all of these steps have a carbon footprint.

And here we can see a stage in the processing.

Can't we all have some bread rolls by the looks of it.

Food waste is also a cause of climate change.

A quarter of the food produced in the world is wasted.

This can happen along its journey from being grown or made to our plates, or it can happen after the food ends up in people's homes.

Let's have a quick check.

What percentage of the food produced in the world is wasted? A, 5%, B, 15%, C, 25% or D, 35%.

So, one more time.

What percentage of the food produced in the world is wasted? A, 5%, B, 15%, C, 25%, or D, 35%.

Pause the video, have a go, and come back when you're ready to check.

How did you get on? If you'd said that it is C, 25% of food produced in the world that's wasted.

You'd be correct.

Well done.

So, it is time for Task A.

Complete a spider diagram to show different ways farming and food production cause climate change.

Think about all of the steps in the journey of food from farm or factory to our plates.

And there's an example of the layout to the right-hand side of your screens there.

You see you our food in the middle, and then all the different ways farming and food production cause climate change around the outside.

Pause the video, have a go, and when you're ready, come back and we'll have a look at one that I've done.

How did you get on? Here's an example of one that I've made.

So, you could say that clearing land to grow crops or farm animals adds to climate change, using machinery, cows and livestock producing methane, processing food in factories, using pesticides and fertilisers, packaging food, transporting food, and food waste.

You might have come up with some other ideas as well, but if there's any that you've missed out and want to add in, pause the video, and do that now.

So, we've had a look at causes of climate change.

Now, let's have a look at reducing the carbon footprint of food.

Food production is a major source of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change.

However, there are lots of ways we can reduce these emissions.

Can you think of any ways we might reduce emissions? Pause the video, have a class discussion, and come back when you're ready.

How did you get on? Let's have a look at some ways we might reduce emissions.

Scientists and farmers are working hard to improve the yields of the crops they grow.

This means the more crops can be harvested without increasing the resources needed and the greenhouse gases emitted.

There are other ways farmers are reducing greenhouse gas emissions, such as using battery-powered robots or drones instead of tractors.

Planting different crops to help improve the soil.

Using fertilisers more carefully, and planting trees.

And we can see here can't we in this farm.

It looks like there's a lot of trees have been planted around this farm.

Some foods cause more greenhouse gas emissions than others.

Which of these foods do you think has the largest carbon footprint? Why do you think this is? Pause the video, have a class discussion, and come back when you're ready.

How did you get on? Let's have a look at this bar chart.

It shows the greenhouse gas emissions from producing one kilogramme of different types of food.

Which types of food cause the most emissions? Pause the video, have a go, and come back when you're ready.

Welcome back.

How did you get on? Quite obviously, it's beef, isn't it? That causes the most emissions.

Therefore, if you'd said hamburgers for the previous slide, you would be correct.

Animal food products usually cause more greenhouse gas emissions than plant-based foods.

Clearing land for grazing animals, cows produce methane and growing crops for animal feed all contribute greenhouse gases that lead to climate change.

Animal rearing also takes a lot longer than plant growing.

Let's have a quick check.

True or false? Different types of food cause different amounts of greenhouse gas emissions.

Once you've decided if this is true or false, I want you to justify your answer with either A, animal food products usually create more emissions than plant-based foods, or B, plant-based foods usually create more emissions than animal food products.

So once again, true or false.

Different types of food cause different amounts of greenhouse gas emissions.

Once you've decided if this is true or false, I want you to justify your answer with either A, animal food products usually create more emissions than plant-based foods.

Or B, plant-based foods usually create more emissions than animal food products.

Pause the video, have a go, come back when you're ready.

How did you get on? If you said that different types of food caused different amounts of greenhouse gas emissions is true, because A, animal food products usually create more emissions than plant-based foods, you'd be correct? Well done.

Eating food that is in season and growing our own food can also help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Have you ever grown any food at home or school? Pause the video, have a discussion, and come back when you're ready.

How did you get on? Here, we can see in this photo, can't we? A child planting some seeds for some form of food.

I wonder what it is that he's growing.

Food waste causes at least 6% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

This might happen at any stage of food production, but a lot of food is wasted in people's homes.

Can you think of any ways that people can reduce food waste? I want you to have a class discussion about how you think food might be wasted and how we could reduce that food waste.

Pause the video, come back when you're ready.

How did you get on? Hopefully, you came up with lots of ways that we can start to reduce food waste.

It has been calculated the schools in England create about 80,000 tonnes of food waste every year.

Most of this waste ends up in landfills, and when food breaks down, it releases greenhouse gases.

80,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases weighs the same as about 12,000 elephants.

That is a lot of food waste, isn't it? Let's do a quick check, shall we? What percentage of the world's greenhouse gas emissions does food waste cause? A, 3%, B, 6%, C, 9%, or D, 12%.

So, one more time.

What percentage of the world's greenhouse gas emissions does food waste cause? A, 3%, B, 6%, C, 9%, or D, 12%? Pause the video, have a go, come back when you're ready to check your answers.

If you said that it is 6%, you would be correct.

So B, well done.

Okay, time for Task B.

One way we can reduce the carbon footprint of food is by reducing food waste.

I want you to carry out an investigation of one day's food waste, either at home or school.

So, you're gonna have this table and you're going to note down what food or drink is wasted.

How much is wasted each day? That could be packets, how much it weighs, the number of apples, and why is it wasted, okay? So, you're going to carry out an investigation of one day's food waste, either at home or school.

And note down what food or drink is wasted, how much is wasted each day, and why is it wasted? Pause the video, have a go, and when you're finished, come back and have a look at one that I've had to go at.

How did you get on? Here's one I did at my school.

So, for fruits and vegetables, there were 15 kilogrammes wasted each day, and that's because they were leftovers from school dinners and packed lunches.

There was bread and there was 47 bread rolls, which again were leftovers from school dinners and packed lunches.

And water, there were 123 cups and they weren't finished at lunchtime.

That's quite surprising, isn't it? Did you find anything that was surprising in yours, or were you expecting everything? Pause the video, and you can compare your answers with the rest of your classmates.

How did you get on? Any major surprises, or did you all have quite similar answers? So, let's have a summary of today's lesson on food and climate change.

Agriculture and food production releases greenhouse gases emissions.

Increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere traps more heat, which leads to climate change.

All of the stages of the journey of food from where it is grown or made to our plates have a carbon footprint.

Different types of food and stages of a food's journey emit different amounts of greenhouse gases.

There are many different ways to take action to reduce the carbon footprint of food.

Well done today, everybody.

Fascinating lesson, wasn't it? Hopefully, you now have a few ideas for how you could reduce food waste either in home or at school.

Maybe if you have an eco council or even as a class project, you could start a little campaign for reducing food waste in your school.

Maybe produce some posters, maybe even give some assemblies, or some information, and really look into ways that we can help reduce food waste as well as other ways to help reduce the carbon footprint of our food.

Hopefully, you've had a good time and I will see you soon for another geography lesson, bye.