PROJECT BRIEF

How connected are you with what you eat?

YOUR RESEARCH

  • Choose a meal that holds a special significance to you.
  • Find the ingredients for this meal.
  • Catalog the ingredients in your dish. What are they? Where did they originate?
  • Examine the packaging and trace everything used in the box to its origination. (This will require research).
  • For example, if maltodextrin is in one of your purchased ingredients, how is it made? Who makes it? Where? Use all this information to create a thought-provoking visual diagram portraying the “web” that is your favorite meal (it could be a very tangled web).
  • In addition to showing the connected geography of your meal, this visual diagram must also display its approximate carbon footprint through forms that vary in size or color.
![Carbon Footprint](https://image-control-storage.s3.amazonaws.com/2023/11/15144721/image-97-767x1024.png)
Clark Fan – “The Carbon Footprint of Claypot Rice”

SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER

It would be best to utilize each ingredient’s packaging to help dictate the form and color of the symbols, icons, maps, overlays, size, and spatial relationships to portray the story of your favorite meal best. This project’s final format and medium is up to your interests and discretion (e.g., poster, website, booklet, etc.).

READINGS/RESOURCES

“The gifts of the earth are all in one bowl, all to be shared from a single spoon. This is the vision of the economy of the commons, wherein resources fundamental to our well-being, like water & land & forests, are commonly held rather than commodified.”

– Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. 1. ed., Milkweed Editions, 2013, p. 376.

![Carbon Emissions](https://image-control-storage.s3.amazonaws.com/2023/11/15144818/image-98-687x1024.png)
David del Toro, Jr. – “Arroz co2n Gandules”

DATA SAMPLE

  • 22.38 pounds of CO2 are produced by burning a gallon of diesel fuel
  • The average 18-wheeler gets 5.9 mpg

START HERE

Write a reflection essay as a deliverable about what you learned about the carbon footprint of the food they eat and how. This project will allow you to explore the connection between agriculture and climate change.

CONTINUE…..

Your project can be an infographic on posters to, pizza boxes, recipe cards to life-size cereal packaging. It would be best if you chose a subject you have some connection to. The end goal is the depiction of the message and content.

RESOURCES

Sources

https://teachingresource.aiga.org/project/visualizing-your-impact/