"The world is eating." That was the theme of this seminar at the wannseeFORUM. And it's undeniably true. Everyone in the world needs to eat. But where does food come from, who has access to it, and why are Spanish tomatoes sold in Central African countries? The answers to these questions aren't easy to find. But 50 students from the Louise-Schröder-School set out in their workshop groups to explore these questions and try to understand the global connections involved in food production.
It all started with a presentation by Claudia Fix. The speaker from Engagement Global introduced the participants to various staple foods and explained their original origins. She illustrated how migrations and colonization led to foodstuffs traveling around the world.
This was followed by a role-playing game about the journey of the banana from the Caribbean to Europe. The roles played by the various workers along this route highlighted the injustice of global trade: While supermarkets in Germany receive almost half the purchase price of a banana, the people on the plantations receive only a fraction of that, even though they have to stand in the sun all day, are exposed to toxic pesticides, and perform heavy physical labor.
The rap workshop immediately addressed this issue in their song. "Banana Split" tells the story of the suffering of the people involved in banana production and distribution from different perspectives.
The theater workshop also focused on southern fruits. After a visit to "Ritter Sport," the group explored the conditions of cocoa farming in Ivory Coast. This led to the development of the play "Maria's Ivory Dream," which tells the story of a chance encounter during a vacation in Ivory Coast that would later have a profound impact on the protagonist's life. There, she met a girl who was forced by her mother to work on cocoa plantations and therefore couldn't attend school.
explored the technical realities in countries of the Global South stove-building group. In their workshop, the instructor presented various cooking methods and compared them with the students in terms of efficiency and environmental impact. Finally, the participants built their own micro-gasifier stoves from tin cans.
The comics group provided an overview of the interconnectedness of global food production. In their booklet "Different Worlds," they explained how food is produced and drew attention to injustices. They focused primarily on meat production and factory farming, but also addressed working conditions in other countries.
The collage group created several audiovisual presentations using the presentation software "Prezi," showcasing their self-designed labels for food labeling. For example, they designed an "unfair trade" label, which could be used to identify products manufactured under inhumane working conditions. This should make consumers aware of the product's questionable origin when they make a purchase.
All presentations can be viewed below the article.
In addition to working on their respective final projects, the working groups also attended various guided tours of the Dahlem estate. There, in the Culinarium, they can view various exhibitions on the topics of nutrition, the origin of food, and many others, as well as visit the farm.
In addition to the many finished products from the workshops, some students also took the time to edit together a short film from the seminar. You can find it here.
With the final presentations and many new insights in tow, the seminar came to an end after an eventful week, and the students headed home. Back at school, the seminar results will also be presented to the other classes in their year group.