Dear APES Parents and Students

“EATING GREEN” Challenge 2016

Dear APES Parents and Students,

Over the next 2 weeks, the A.P. Environmental Science students will be studying how human food production affects our environment. (Chapter 14: Food and Soil Resources, Miller 14th Ed.) In order to fully understand and appreciate the topics we discuss, I am asking your APES student, you, and our teaching staff to participate in a ONE week “Eating Green” Challenge, beginning February 22- 29, 2016. The purpose of this challenge is to engage your student in an educational experience that brings awareness to the environmental issues arising from the foods we consume. We are asking your support, and if willing, your participation, in this endeavor.

The “Eating Green” Challenge will require your student to maintain a food journal, recording the foods they eat for one week. We are encouraging the students to follow a vegetarian or vegan diet. However, the minimum requirement would be to eat 3 days of meatless meals within the week. The goal of this challenge is to understand the detrimental effects animal livestock production has on our environment. Therefore, removing meat from your diet, or reducing its consumption, is an effort to improve our environment. Your student will read excerpts from a Worldwatch Institute paper, Taking Stock: Animal Farming and the Environment (Durning and Brough, 1991), watch the documentary, Food, Inc. (2008), and install our school’s Tower Garden to grow various vegetable for the class. I hope that your student will discuss the environmental impacts we learn about with you.

To promote this exciting challenge, I am attaching the personal contract for you to sign, as a commitment of participation. I will display all participant contracts, including my own, on our “Eating Green” Challenge bulletin board at school to bring awareness to this issue. In addition, I will provide you with resources throughout the week such as the sample grocery shopping list, recipes, and other tools to help make this challenge a little easier! For my APES classes, I will use a blog on my website, with articles and information to comment on. This will also serve as an open forum to discuss issues students may face and ask questions. You are welcome to participate in the online discussion as well. In addition, I will bring in sample vegetarian and vegan dishes for your students to try and hopefully, make for you at home! As I told the students in class, this is meant to be a challenge! I understand that there may be times when “Eating Green” is difficult, but I told them to remember we are only asking you for one week. I believe you can take on anything for one week!

Lastly, we understand that other issues arise around following a vegetarian and vegan diet. Some of these issues include political and social viewpoints, such as animal cruelty and health benefits, surrounding the consumption of meat products. Our focus for this class is on the environmental impacts of animal production, not animal cruelty or health concerns. Those issues will come up in our discussion, however, they are NOT the goal of this “Eating Green” challenge. This challenge is purely a fun, educational opportunity to raise awareness about how what we eat impacts the environment around us. We hope you participate with us and continue this conversation at home, around your dinner table, eating “Green” foods!

Thank you for your support. Please feel free to email me with your questions.

Sincerely,

Wendy Rago

PPCHS A.P. Environmental Science Teacher

www.msrago.com

“EATING GREEN” Challenge 2016

Sample grocery list:

1. Steel cut oats or oatmeal
2. Flax seeds or flax meal
3. Dried fruit like cranberries, raisins, cherries, blueberries
4. Pears
5. Chickpeas
6. Vegetable Stock
7. Onions
8. Carrots
9. Lettuce
10. Olive oil
11. Garlic
12. Whole Wheat Bread
13. Balsamic Vinegar
14. Dijon Mustard
15. Tomatoes
16. Banana pepper
17. Fresh Basil
18. Pinto Beans
19. Bananas
20. High-fiber cereal (like Nature's Path and Kashi brands)
21. Black Beans
22. Green Pepper
21. Onions
22. Soy milk
23. Fresh spinach
24. Almonds
25. Mango
26. Crackers
27. Nut-butter--just nuts crushed, not the kind with added ingredients

(peanut or almond)
28. Whole Grain pasta
29. Tempeh or tofu
30. Kale
31. Lasagna Pasta
32. Firm or Extra-Firm Tofu
33. Broccoli
34. Berries
35. Whole wheat pita bread
36. Bulgur
37. Quinoa
38. Cannellini Beans
39. Cantaloupe
40. Fresh parsley
41. Fresh mint
42. Whole wheat spaghetti
43. Green lentils
44. Brown Rice
45. Butternut squash
46. Apples
47. Oranges
48. Sweet or white potatoes
49. Canned Tomatoes

50. Vegetarian or Soy frozen burgers (i.e. Morningstar or Boca burgers)

*If doing a vegetarian diet, you can add in eggs and dairy products such as yogurts and cheeses.