Journey 2050 Lesson 1: Sustainable Agriculture | Self-Guided Experience

Summary

In "Journey 2050 Lesson 1: Sustainable Agriculture", we’re introduced to the daunting challenge of feeding nearly 10 billion people by the year 2050. This self-guided experience allows students to navigate lessons on sustainable agriculture at their own pace, using a farming simulation game. The lesson emphasizes the importance of understanding large numbers like billions when considering global population growth, which is crucial for planning future food production. It highlights the necessity of sustainable practices to meet the anticipated 60-70% increase in food production using limited natural resources, with a focus on economic, social, and environmental factors working in harmony. The lesson concludes with engaging activities and questions to reinforce the concepts of sustainable agriculture.

Highlights

• The Journey 2050 lesson probes the big question: How to sustainably feed 10 billion people by 2050? 🤔
• Students will farm in various countries, deciding between Canada and the U.S. for a personalized experience. 🇰🇪🇮🇳🇨🇦🇺🇸
• Grasping the difference between a million and a billion is vital for understanding global population challenges. 🤯
• By 2050, global food production must increase by 60-70% on the same land resources. Challenge accepted! 🌾
• Sustainability is a blend of economic profit, social wellbeing, and environmental health. They can't thrive in isolation! 🤝
• Farmers can't simply double crop yields each year due to resource limitations, underscoring the need for sustainable practices. 🚜
• The ripple effect shows how one farmer's success can impact the local economy and community welfare positively. 🌟

Key Takeaways

• The Journey 2050 program explores how to sustainably feed nearly 10 billion people by 2050. 🌱
• Students can virtually farm in the Journey 2050 game, simulating real-world conditions in different countries. 🌍
• Understanding large numbers, like billions, is essential to grasp global population impacts on sustainability. 📈
• Sustainable agriculture demands a balance of economic, social, and environmental factors. ⚖️
• Farmers will need to produce 60-70% more food by 2050, using the same or less land, increasing pressure on natural resources. 🚜
• Education, healthcare, and economic investments are crucial to achieving sustainability goals. 🎓
• The ripple effect illustrates how one change in farming can influence an entire community. 🌊

Overview

In Journey 2050 Lesson 1, students dive into the challenge of how we’ll feed a booming population sustainably by 2050. The program comprises seven lessons and a farming simulation game set in different countries, offering a fun and interactive way to grasp these big issues. Students will examine what sustainable agriculture entails and why it is so critical to our future food security.

The lesson walks students through understanding large-scale numbers, such as billions, essential for comprehending world population growth and sustainability challenges. It triggers insights into the resources required, beyond just more food, including water, homes, and jobs. Students explore the pressures this growth places on our natural resources and the essential role agriculture plays in providing not just food, but many necessities of life.

Incorporating economic, social, and environmental perspectives, the lesson emphasizes a balanced and integrated approach to sustainability. It highlights that to meet the looming need for increased food production on existing land resources, farmers and communities must adopt innovative practices and technologies. Activities in this self-guided experience challenge students to consider the sustainability barrel concept and the ripple effects of sustainable practices.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction to Journey 2050 The chapter titled 'Introduction to Journey 2050' introduces the Journey 2050 program which explores how to sustainably feed nearly 10 billion people by 2050. The program consists of seven lessons and various levels of a farming simulation game. Each lesson is paired with a specific level of the game to provide a comprehensive learning experience.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Self-Guided Experience Materials In this chapter, titled 'Self-Guided Experience Materials', students embark on a virtual farming journey across multiple countries including Kenya and India, with a choice to continue their agricultural experience in either Canada or the United States. This self-guided Journey 2050 experience empowers students to navigate independently through the curriculum, provided they have the necessary materials. Key among these is the self-guided experience handout, which aids students in following each lesson digitally or via printed materials.
• 01:30 - 02:30: Understanding Large Numbers Chapter 1: This chapter introduces the concept of large numbers, emphasizing the importance of understanding them in various real-world contexts. The chapter highlights tools such as hyperlinks and QR codes that facilitate learning and accessing associated videos. It stresses the necessity of having internet access and compatible devices to engage with interactive content, like games and videos, to deepen understanding. The lesson specifically focuses on learning about sustainable agriculture, crucial for ensuring a stable food supply in the face of population growth, and encourages readers to actively engage with the materials to truly grasp the concepts presented.
• 02:30 - 03:30: World Population Context The chapter discusses the concept of world population in relation to large numbers like a million and a billion, and their implications on sustainability. It uses the example where spending $1,000 daily would take a thousand days to reach $1 million, illustrating the size and impact of such figures.
• 03:30 - 04:30: Steps 1-4: Video, Questions, and Math The chapter titled 'Steps 1-4: Video, Questions, and Math' discusses the concept of large numbers and spending money over time. It illustrates how if one were to spend $1,000 every day, it would take 1 million days or approximately 2,740 years to spend $1 billion. The chapter emphasizes the vast amount of time and money involved in reaching the sum of $1 billion.
• 04:30 - 05:30: Resource Needs for 2050 The chapter discusses the concept of large numbers, focusing specifically on the magnitude of a billion. It aims to provide context for understanding large-scale population statistics. Currently, the world's population exceeds 8 billion people. The chapter prompts readers to think about the projected population for the year 2050, emphasizing the importance of understanding large demographic figures in planning for future resource needs.
• 05:30 - 06:30: Sustainable Agriculture Challenges The chapter titled 'Sustainable Agriculture Challenges' provides an overview of the steps involved in understanding and addressing the issues surrounding sustainable agriculture. The video transcript signifies the end of the first step in the learning process. It guides the audience to pause and engage in subsequent steps, including watching a video clip and answering questions, before continuing to the next part of the learning sequence. This structured approach aims to facilitate better comprehension and retention of information related to sustainable agriculture challenges.
• 06:30 - 08:00: Sustainability Barrel Concept The chapter titled 'Sustainability Barrel Concept' begins with a reflection on previous educational videos related to population growth and an introduction to sustainable agriculture through the 'Journey 2050' video. The discussion aims to explore the significance of the year 2050 in the context of sustainability. To engage the readers or listeners, it presents two math-related questions focusing on calculating the number of years until 2050.
• 08:00 - 10:00: The Ripple Effect The chapter titled 'The Ripple Effect' begins with a reflective question, asking readers to calculate their age in the year 2050. This serves as a setup to encourage introspection about one's future and the potential impact and changes a significantly larger global population may have by then. The chapter encourages readers to consider broad societal and environmental shifts due to the anticipated increase of nearly two billion people on Earth by 2050. It invites contemplation on possible changes and challenges that such demographic shifts could introduce.
• 10:00 - 11:00: Step 5 Completion and Game Introduction The chapter discusses the resources required to support an additional 2 billion people on the planet. It emphasizes that beyond just food, other necessities such as water, housing, jobs, and medicine will also be in higher demand.
• 11:00 - 12:30: Playing the Journey 2050 Game The chapter titled 'Playing the Journey 2050 Game' discusses the resources required to sustain an additional 2 billion people on Earth. It emphasizes the importance of natural resources, such as water, and highlights the critical role of agriculture in providing food, fiber, fuel, timber, medicines, and everyday byproducts essential for human survival and well-being.
• 12:30 - 14:00: Post-Game Questions and Lesson Conclusion The chapter discusses the challenge of sustainable agriculture as the global population is projected to increase by 2 billion by 2050. It emphasizes that to meet the needs of this population boom, farmers will be required to increase food production by 60-70% using the same or even less land. This leads to questioning the feasibility of achieving the goal of sustainable agriculture.

Journey 2050 Lesson 1: Sustainable Agriculture | Self-Guided Experience Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 PRESENTER: The Journey 2050 program investigates the overarching question, "How will we sustainably feed nearly 10 billion people by the year 2050?" The entire Journey 2050 program includes seven lessons, as well as different levels of the Journey 2050 game. Each lesson has an associated game. The Journey 2050 game is a farming simulation.
• 00:30 - 01:00 You will virtually farm in Kenya, India, and then choose between farming in Canada or the United States. This is the self-guided Journey 2050 experience, which means that you, as the student, can go through it by yourself if you have all of the materials. What you will need is the self-guided experience handout for each lesson. This handout is designed to be used either digitally, um,
• 01:00 - 01:30 where you can click on the hyperlinks, or you can print it and use the QR codes to access the videos. You will also need internet access to play the game online or a device such as a phone, tablet, or iPad. With no further ado, let's get started with lesson one. In this lesson, you're going to be discovering what sustainable agriculture is and how it is critical to securing a stable food supply and future for a growing population. To get started, let's see if you can really grasp
• 01:30 - 02:00 the quantities of a million and a billion. When we use these numbers, we're, uh, talking about the population of the world, which is tied to sustainability. So, let's use this scenario: If I spend $1,000 every day, how many days would it take to spend $1 million? It would take one thousand days. So if I spent $1,000 every day, a thousand days later, I will have spent $1 million.
• 02:00 - 02:30 That's also 2.7 years. How about a billion? If I spend $1,000 every day, how many days would it take for me to spend $1 billion? It would take 1 million days, or 2,740 years. Wow, that is a long time. A lot of days and a lot of dollars to add up to $1 billion.
• 02:30 - 03:00 Hopefully this is kind of helping you see what a large number a billion is. Now that you have some context for what a large number a billion is, I want you to think about what the current world population is. Do you know? The world's current population is over 8 billion. What is the world population projected to be in 2050?
• 03:00 - 03:30 Nearly 10 billion. This brings us to the end of step one on your handout. What you're going to do now is pause this video, and then you're gonna do step two, three, and four. There's a short video clip you're going to watch along with a couple of questions to answer on your handout. When you finished step four, click "play" again and we'll keep going. Okay. This starts the beginning of step five on your handout.
• 03:30 - 04:00 You've just watched some videos about population, population growth, and you've seen an introduction to sustainable agriculture with the Journey 2050 video. So now I want to talk a little bit about why 2050. Why is this a year that's remarkable or memorable, uh, looking forward? So on your handout, there's two questions that I want you to... do a little b-- little bit of math for. So the first one, how many years until the year 2050?
• 04:00 - 04:30 And then the second one, how old will you be in 2050? So take a second and do the math for those. Okay, now that you've done a little bit of math, you'll be able to know how old you will be in 2050, and be able to see where you will be or might be in life when there is nearly two billion more people on the Earth. What kind of changes... could happen with a larger population on the Earth's surface?
• 04:30 - 05:00 What will we need more of in order to feed 2 billion additional people? So you probably thought of food. But did you think of any other items that are part of our existence here on this planet? We would need more water, more homes and all of the resources that build them, more jobs, more medicine, and obviously more food. So there's a lot of things that we need
• 05:00 - 05:30 in order to have 2 billion more people on the Earth. So who provides these resources? Some of these resources come from natural resources from the Earth. Water would be an example of that. But also realize that many of these come from agriculture. Agriculture provides our food, fiber, fuel, timber, medicines, and even byproducts uh, that we use in our everyday life.
• 05:30 - 06:00 So farmers, uh, use the natural resources we have on the Earth to produce the things we use every day. Okay, so in order to feed 2 billion additional people in 2050, it is predicted that farmers will need to produce 60-70% more food than we currently produce today, on the same amount of land, or even less. So will this goal of sustainable agriculture be easy to accomplish?
• 06:00 - 06:30 Will the pressure on farmers increase, decrease, or stay the same? Take a minute to think about that. 60-70% more food, on the same amount of land, or less. Will there be increased or decreased pressure on Earth's natural resources? So there is going to be an increase of pressure on Earth's natural resources. So the whole idea of sustainable agriculture is to use those resources so that they continue to be available
• 06:30 - 07:00 for generations to come. So how are we going to do that, while also producing 60-70% more food? This is the challenge that we're gonna be trying to figure out. Do you remember the sustainability barrel that you were introduced to in the video from step two? Each wooden slat of the barrel represents a factor influencing sustainable agricultural production.
• 07:00 - 07:30 So, for example, in order to be able to grow enough food to feed the world sustainably, we have to make sure that farmers are able to earn a profit, that communities have access to education and healthcare, and that the soil stays healthy so that we can produce those foods. All of these factors work together for our overall sustainability. They aren't--they don't stand alone. So moving forward, as our population grows, we know that we need more food. Can a farmer take their same land, soil, seeds, water, and tractors
• 07:30 - 08:00 and just double their crop from one year to the next? They can't. There's limitations. There's limitations on our water, on available land, on soil nutrients. And many, many, many, many other resources that we can't just automatically make more available. It's important to remember one of the things that the sustainability barrel teaches us, and that is that there's three different categories of factors:
• 08:00 - 08:30 economic, social, and environmental. None of these factors can stand in isolation. They all need each other. And that's what makes up the entire barrel. So when we are looking to be more sustainable, to set a foundation for sustainable practices, we have to look at the big picture. We have to look at the whole barrel. Remember that a community is only as successful as the least developed factor.
• 08:30 - 09:00 So we need to continually try to improve the weakest one. So, try to think to yourself, what are some examples of limiting factors? Here's another important principle from the video you watched in step two, and that is the ripple effect. Can one single drop of water impact an entire body of water? Yes, even a small drop of water creates a ripple, and that ripple can spread very far.
• 09:00 - 09:30 So let's look at an example. If a farmer harvests a successful crop, what ripples could this create? Looking at it from an economic perspective, financial investments are going to improve the local economy and provide more jobs. A social benefit is that there's gonna be more opportunity to send children to school, and to access medicines and other resources that are important. Another ripple effect could be both economic and environmental,
• 09:30 - 10:00 and that would be that the farmer would earn enough money to invest in better farming technology. Farming technology tends to cost more money than, uh-- Higher technology costs more money. And usually, better farming technology al-also is better for the environment. And last but not least is just simply that the farmer is providing our food supply.
• 10:00 - 10:30 This wraps up step five on your handout. And we are ready to move on to step six, which is to play level one of the Journey 2050 sustainable farming game. It's time for level one of the sustainability farming game. If you are playing this online, so using a laptop or a Chromebook, you're just going to click on the link, and you're going to choose either Safari or Firefox as your web browser. And you're going to play, uh, round one of the game.
• 10:30 - 11:00 If you have a tablet, an iPad, or a phone, you can go to either the Google Play Store or the App Store and search for the Journey 2050 sustainability farming game, and you can get the app there. So go ahead and find the way that you're going to play the game. Click "pause" on this video until you finish playing the game and then come back for step seven. You should have just finished playing level one
• 11:00 - 11:30 of the journey 2050 farming game. Now that that is finished we're going to move on to step seven on your handout. There's three questions that I want you to take a few minutes to answer. Pause the video if you need to. The first question is, "After growing your first crop, did you invest some of your money to purchase additional land? Why or why not?" The second question is, "What was your limiting factor in your sustainability barrel, and what did this mean?"
• 11:30 - 12:00 And your last question, "What were some of the ripple effects of your farming choices?" So go ahead and take a few minutes, pause the video if you need, and answer those questions on your handout. This completes lesson one of the Journey 2050 self-guided experience. Up next is lesson two about soil nutrients.