INGLES 1. Infografía niños-as 24/25

When people grow plants to have food and other products we need, we are talking about agriculture, did you know that?Well, there is a way of farming called MONOCULTURE. It seems like a difficult word, right? But, don't worry! We will explain it to you in an easy-to-understand way.

Activities

As we said, this practice has consequences for people and the planet.Do you want to know more about them? Here we tell you!

The Common Good is about justice. And its principles are aligned with those of Fair Trade, Responsible Consumption and the Social and Solidarity Economy.

In Guatemala, we have Social and Solidarity Economy projects.

4 to 11 years old

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Resources

Lasallian NGOs

Guatemala Project

How much to you know about Guatemala?

Let's imagine an ideal world

The price of chocolate

How much have you learned?

Próximamente (vídeo publicado en septiembre 2024)

Landing on the cocoa case

The price of cocoa

The common good and its proposals

What is intensive monoculture?

Food production

Cocoa is a plant that is grown in hot and rainy places, especially in some African countries. These countries produce most of the cocoa used to make chocolate. However, the small farmers who grow cocoa earn very little money and work under very unfair conditions.

Cocoa monoculture

Where is cocoa mainly consumed?

Are there any abuses in cocoa cultivation?

Where does cocoa come from?

In which countries is cocoa produced?

Poverty and inequality

Deforestation and environmental damage

Child labor

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The price of chocolate

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Instructions for teachers

Insight: The price of cocoa

Reflection - What options do we have in the face of this unsustainable situation?

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Laudato Si', Pope Francis' encyclical on care for the common home, focuses on the interconnectedness between people, nature and the economy. One of the central themes is the common good, which is understood as the set of social conditions that enable people to reach their fullness more fully and easily.

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Solidarity

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Environmental Sustainability

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Social Justice

By choosing fair trade products, such as coffee, chocolate or clothing, we support local producers and contribute to a fairer and more sustainable system. Look for products with the fair trade seal when shopping. This seal guarantees that the producers have been treated fairly and that the product has been produced in a sustainable manner.

Our choices promote the Common Good

Our consumption choices have a direct impact on the world. By choosing fair trade products, practicing responsible consumption and supporting the social and solidarity economy, we contribute to the common good and to a more equitable and sustainable future for all people.

Practice responsible consumption, buy only what is necessary and avoid waste, or choose local and seasonal products, or opt for products with less packaging or recyclable products.

The social and solidarity economy promotes equality, respect for the environment and democratic participation in decision-making. For example, cooperatives are enterprises where workers are the owners and make decisions together. This ensures that profits are distributed fairly and that work is done for the benefit of the community.

“Laudato Si', mi Signore”, - sang Saint Francis of Assisi. In this beautiful phrase, he reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share life and like a beautiful mother who welcomes us in her arms.

In this activity we will test what we have learned in this educational resource. Before we begin the quiz The Genius Fall! we will need to have read the information in the first sections of the infographic What is intensive monoculture?; the case of cocoa; the price of cocoa; and the section on the common good, social economy... Have fun studying them and then show what you have learned!

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The Genius Fall!

The price of chocolate

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Class discussion

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Draw your dream

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Letter to a hero/heroine

Talk to your classmates about the importance of education and children's rights.

Draw how you imagine a world without child exploitation.

Write a letter to someone you admire for their work in defense of human rights.

After having worked on the section on the price of chocolate, we propose the following activity.

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Instructions

Food production

Choose the activity that best suits the classroom

PROPOSAL FROM 9-10 YEARS OLD

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PROPOSAL UP TO 9-10 YEARS

Teacher instructions

Food production

For this activity we are going to work in teams. First, watch the videos and then get together with your group to discuss the different questions posed. Have fun!

Moment 1. What do we have here?

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Moment 2. Sugar Cane Differences

Resource utilization

Community impact

Land care

Care of natural resources

Food production

Below are photographs of different foods that are very typical in Fair Trade. The proposal of the activity is to properly order each of them, while talking about their characteristics. After this, reflect all together about the reason why it is important that these foods are grown in a fair and sustainable way.

Cocoa

Coffee

Quinoa

Cane sugar

Rice

The

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Context

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3%

5%

12%

20%

10%

43%

7%

Cocoa farmers receive about 3-6% of the final price of a chocolate bar. This percentage reflects the very low income that cocoa farmers get for their product. Most of the value added in the chocolate production chain is obtained after the cocoa leaves their hands.

Local fees include taxes, licenses and other regulatory costs paid in the producing countries.

Transportation is a crucial part of the cost, as cocoa must be moved from the rural areas where it is grown to export ports, and then to processing facilities in other countries. This percentage includes land and sea transportation costs, as well as costs associated with logistics and product handling.

Production costs range from the purchase of cocoa beans to their transformation into semi-finished products such as cocoa paste, cocoa butter and cocoa powder. This process includes fermentation, drying, transportation, roasting and grinding of the cocoa beans.

Marketing includes advertising, promotions, packaging design, public relations and other efforts aimed at attracting consumers and increasing sales.

Processing includes all stages of transformation of cocoa into finished products such as chocolate bars.

The supermarket margin represents the difference between the product's acquisition cost and its retail price. .

By zooming in on the different ounces of this bar you can see how the cost of a chocolate bar is distributed, highlighting the disparities in the value chain where most of the profit stays in the final links of the chain, far from the cocoa producers.

Source: Oxfam

What is happening with cocoa?

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Complementary activity to video of the monkey and his friends

• The idea of the activity is to create a natural environment the students consider to be ideal.
• The image shows a meadow with blue sky and the elements available at the top that can be dragged.
• It will be up to the students themselves to decide which elements to include in the final design. They can meet in small groups to deliberate, and then discuss the options as a large group.
• They will be encouraged to justify why each element should be included.

Supporting questions:

• How do you think factories and cars would affect the environment?
• What impact do trees and flowers have on the natural environment?
• How can we contribute to the care and conservation of nature?

Suggestions for Discussion:

• Talk about biodiversity and how different elements interact in an ecosystem.
• Discuss the importance of reducing waste and pollution to protect the environment.

Most cocoa farming families live in great poverty. In some African countries, a family growing cocoa earns less than a dollar a day, which is too little to make a good living. On the other hand, people who make and sell chocolate earn much more money.

To plant cocoa, trees are often cut down in the forests, which damages nature and affects the animals and plants that live there. In addition, the chemicals used to grow cocoa can pollute the soil and water, and this can be bad for the health of people and animals.

Download the project information in the following link

Indigenous women promoting food sustainability in Guatemala

Link

"Laudato Si, mi Signore."

- sang St. Francis of Assisi. In this beautiful phrase, he reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share life and like a beautiful mother who welcomes us in her arms.

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• Invests in community projects that improve local infrastructure and quality of life.
• Promotes the participation and empowerment of farmers and their families.

Fair Trade

Community impact

• Low investment in the local community, which can limit infrastructure development and improvement.
• Reduced participation of farmers in important decisions that affect their lives and work.

Conventional production

Community impact

https://latierraesclava.eldiario.es/cacao/

Resources

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• Water Management: Efficient irrigation systems that reduce water consumption and prevent contamination of local water sources.

• Biodiversity Protection: Conservation of natural areas around the fields to maintain the local flora and fauna.

Fair Trade

Care of natural resources

• Water Waste: Inefficient irrigation methods that consume large amounts of water and can lead to contamination of water sources.

• Biodiversity loss: Destruction of natural habitats due to the expansion of monocultures.

Conventional production

Care of natural resources

Extreme poverty forces many families to depend on the labor of their children. In 2015, some 2 million children were working on cocoa plantations in hazardous conditions. These children had to use chemicals and do very hard work with dangerous tools.

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• Organic waste: Cane residues and other organic materials are composted and used as natural fertilizers.

• Renewable Energy: Some producers use sugarcane by-products, such as bagasse, to generate renewable energy.

Fair Trade

Resource utilization

• Unutilized waste: Sugarcane residues and other by-products are often discarded without being utilized.

• Lack of Renewable Energy: Little or no investment in renewable energy generation from sugarcane by-products.

Conventional production

Resource utilization

• Sustainable Agricultural Practices: Cultivation techniques that conserve the soil are used, such as crop rotation and the use of organic fertilizers.

• Soil Maintenance: Prevents soil erosion by planting ground cover and terraces.

• Avoidance of Harmful Chemicals: Minimal or no use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, opting for natural and biological alternatives.

Fair Trade

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Land care

• Intensive methods: Use of monocultures and practices that deplete the soil without allowing it to recover adequately.

• Soil Erosion: Mayor riesgo de erosión debido a la falta de prácticas de conservación.
• Use of Chemicals: Dependence on chemical pesticides and fertilizers that can be harmful to the soil and the environment.

Conventional production

Land care

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Lasallian NGOs

We are reference organizations, especially in the Lasallian sphere, in the promotion of equality, Human Rights and Universal Education through projects of Cooperation for Development, Awareness Campaigns and Political Advocacy, promotion of Volunteering and Fair Trade, responding to social problems related to poverty, inequality and social exclusion.

We work in a network through the Lasallian NGos Coordinating Committee, where we collaborate in various activities and projects. In the area of international cooperation, we share efforts in many countries and maintain contact with various partners. An outstanding example of our work is our long-standing collaboration with Prodessa in Guatemala.This year, our project is linked to this entity. You can find more information about this project in the following path icon.

Cocoa is a vital crop in tropical regions, particularly in West Africa, where countries such as Ivory Coast and Ghana produce most of the world's cocoa. Despite its economic importance, smallholder farmers in these regions earn very little, perpetuating poverty and inequality. Farmers often live on less than a dollar a day, well below the poverty line, while the bulk of chocolate profits are concentrated in the hands of manufacturers and retailers. This disparity not only reflects economic injustice, but also has profound social implications, such as child labor, which remains widespread due to the extreme poverty of cocoa farming families.In addition to the social implications, conventional cocoa production has a significant environmental impact. Deforestation is a common practice to make room for new cocoa plantations, leading to biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation.The intensive use of pesticides and fertilizers on these plantations contaminates the soil and water, negatively affecting the health of local communities and the quality of the environment.Consuming fair trade cocoa offers a tangible solution to these problems. By choosing fair trade products, consumers support farmers by providing them with fairer prices for their work, which contributes to improving their livelihoods and reducing poverty. In addition, fair trade practices promote more sustainable farming methods, reducing deforestation and the use of harmful chemicals, which helps to protect the environment and preserve local biodiversity.

Sometimes large companies grow many crops of the same type, such as cocoa, soybeans, oil palm or pineapple, in large fields to sell to other countries. This way of farming is called "monoculture" and uses a lot of machines and chemicals.

Intensive monoculture

Monoculture Problems

Displacement of communities: Large companies may buy land previously owned by small farmers, forcing them to leave their homes.

Dependence on food from other places:When large companies grow many plants of the same type to sell to other countries, the people who live near these plantations sometimes do not have enough to eat. This is because they are not growing food that they themselves can eat, but they are growing products to sell. So, they have to buy their food from other places, and this can make food more expensive and harder to get.

Contamination:When big companies use a lot of chemicals to help plants grow, those chemicals can make the soil and water dirty. This is bad because it can make sick the people, animals and plants that need that soil and water to live.

https://97irratia.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/palma-1.png

Intensive monoculture of African Palm

• Read the story to the end
• Have a group reflection and ask questions about what you have read.

Proposal for 4 to 7 years old

Koffi and Awa Story

Proposal for 8 to 12 years old

• Read the story up to page 3, where Fatima Traoré is introduced.
• Students will then be asked to imagine and write their own ending to the story.

• On the left and right of the slide are two more resources.
• In the one on the left you will find a quick primer on what we can do to change the current situation
• In the one on the right, you will find information on the real costs of cocoa.
• You can use these resources by adapting them to your age group.

For both groups

Ask students to guess what the "stick" in the video is. Group reflection on their answers.Suggested questions:

• What do you think that stick is?
• What do you think it is used for?
• What work is involved in processing/working that "stick"?

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Step 2

At this point, we will see what differences may exist between Fair Trade sugar and conventionally produced sugar.To do so, he asks the student to inevstigate/reflect on these differences, starting from 4 aspects in particular:- Care of the land - Impact on the community - Care of natural resources - Use of natural resources.