This week students watched a stop-motion animation film from the NPR series Skunk Bear called The Carbon Footprint of a Sandwich. Many of us were surprised to learn that the fertilizer used to grow wheat, the bacon, and the lettuce are all resource-intensive components of a BLT sandwich. We got to thinking about everything from the tractor that plants seeds in the ground to the microbes in the soil that burp out CO2 to the factory that produces the plastic bags the bakery uses to ship loaves of bread to consumers.
One way we could approach this information is to make changes to the way we eat, but we also discussed what we could do if we were the president of the United States to effect change on the systems level. The fourth and fifth graders had many great ideas, like incentivizing farmers to use compost instead of industrial fertilizers, serving less meat for school lunches, and eating a coconut bacon sandwich on TV for everyone to see how good a plant-based diet can be.
In the kitchen students sliced multigrain sourdough from Berkeley-based Starter Bakery, Haas avocados, and Purple Cherokee heirloom tomatoes; washed and dried Little Gem lettuce; and seasoned unsweetened coconut flakes with a variety of ingredients meant to evoke bacon’s complex fatty, smoky, sweet, and salty flavor profile. Each class prepared the coconut bacon for the next class, as we’ve only got access to one electrical outlet in the outdoor kitchen and had to bake the trays slowly two at a time in a toaster oven. It worked! The final sandwiches showcased the fourth and fifth graders’ knife skills and teamwork, and hopefully minted a few lifelong coconut bacon lovers.
