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The Disinformation Games

Your safe space for games and challenges related to misinformation and disinformation!

Case study: All Things Food

As any biological species, we humans need food to survive. Food delivers nutrients such as carbs, amino acids, fibers, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. Througout the human history food was hunted, collected, cooked in a variety of ways, preserved, selected and grown to improve certain qualities and properties. At the same time taste, personal preferences, access to food and cost of food are all factors which influence what we eat and how we eat it. This case study revolves around issues related to the production and consumption of food such as: healthy eating and healing foods, superfoods, organic food, junk food and GMO-based foods. We adopt different perspectives - from individual choice of food to global implications of food growing.

All Things Food

Recommended for: high school students, university students, adults

Available building blocks: 7

Tags: food production, economics, environment, sustainable development, health, personal choices, diets

Here are a few helpful tips and advice from the people on the De Facto team who developed and worked on the case studies:

Difficulty level
All case studies were designed for learners in upper-secondary education, higher education and adult education.

Resources
As each building block of any case study comes with a different mix of resources, the difficulty level can be adjusted by:

  • controlling the mix of resources and taking out more difficult texts (e.g. scientific papers) and replacing them with more easily accessible language in videos or popular blogs;
  • controlling the number of resources to work with in a given training session;
  • allowing learners to search and come up with a selection of resources themselves.

Group size
Feel free to adjust the group size and/or the learning methods to make a case study more relevant to the specific needs of your learners.

Language versions
De Facto’s case studies are a product of multinational cooperation. You will notice that resources vary, sometimes significantly, across the different language versions. Being the common working language of the team, it is the English version of the case studies which is most complete, actual and elaborate. See this for yourself when you are choosing a topic to work on, and compare your own language version with the lead version in English. Feel free to combine resources and methods!

Tools
Check the De Facto’s page dedicated to digital tools which can help an educator to work with the case studies more effectively. Use of ICT tools can make a training session on disinformation more practical and engaging for learners.

Tips for educators

Building block 3. Truths and myths about food production (environmental aspects)

There is increasing agreement that overall emissions from food systems could be reduced by targeting the demand for meat and other livestock products, particularly where consumption is higher than suggested by human health guidelines.

Suggested resources

1. Scientific paper: Strengthening and Implementing the Global Response
https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/05/SR15_Chapter4_Low_Res.pdf [Open from webarchive if link broken/inactive]

"Livestock are responsible for more GHG emissions than all other food sources. Emissions are caused by feed production, enteric fermentation, animal waste, land-use change and livestock transport and processing."

2. Plant based food is better for the environment
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding-meat-and-dairy-is-single-biggest-way-to-reduce-your-impact-on-earth [Open from webarchive if link broken/inactive]

3. Writer`s opinion about food production impact on environment that is based on researches paid by food producers
https://www.futurity.org/dont-blame-cows-for-climate-change/ [Open from webarchive if link broken/inactive]

4. Production of superfoods has harmful impact on our planet
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3755617/The-superfoods-destroying-planet-trendy-treats-doing-far-harm-good.html [Open from webarchive if link broken/inactive]

5. Article about growing guacamole in Mexico
https://www.dw.com/en/mexico-facing-a-guacamole-crisis/a-49703429 [Open from webarchive if link broken/inactive]

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Learning outcomes

The learning outcomes represent the competences which learners are expected to develop as a result of the training intervention:

1. The learner will begin to understand and be able to describe the complexity of the pollution generated by food production.
2. The learner will be able to list some of the effects of food production.
3. The learner will be able to develop/sustain improved media literacy skills.

Suggested teaching methods

> Work in group
> Data searching
> Discussion
> Data comparisson

Suggested learning activities

> Teacher explains systemic causality

> Each group presents their work, discussion among groups, teacher wraps up - Learners list possible effects of food production on environment (mindmapping)

> Comparing 2 opposing articles: resources #3 and #2

> Date comparison, discussion conducted by teacher

> Outline types of disinformation and their harmful potential (environmental aspect)

De Facto pillars

Systemic Causality: Constructing Ishikawa diagram in groups of 4 or 5 - what are causes of the environmental polution (Systemic causality - learning about complexity of polution)

Additional online tools

Mindmapping software online (free): http://mindmapfree.com/, https://app.wisemapping.com/.

Warning

You have selected a topic from the Disinformation Games area. Please be advised that this area hosts, or links to, resources that contain misinformation or disinformation. The presence of such materials is to assist in developing and sustaining skills for navigating and detecting disinformation. To achieve this goal – and with clear intent – none of the materials are explicitly marked as true or not true.