How are our melons grown?
Location: The largest melon farm in Brazil run by
Agricola Famosa and is located in the North-East
of Brazil in the state of Rio Grande do Norte.
Background information:
This example from Brazil highlights the
interconnections of the global food system.
Agricola Famosa produces over 400,000 tonnes
of melons each year and almost all are destined
for European shops including the supermarkets
in the UK. These farms are very important for the local economy and provide crucial jobs for migrant
workers and small farmers who find it hard to produce enough in the arid conditions. Even though
the work is hard and the wages often seem low the company does offer opportunities including
English lessons to its employees making it a better option than many other employers. Agricola
Famosa, like most intensive commercial farms, uses large quantities of water to irrigate the melon
plantations as well as chemical fertilisers to increase productivity. With the possibility of increased
drought due to climate change there are question marks over whether using this much water for
irrigation in an increasingly arid region is sustainable.
Main issues and themes:
Through the video students are introduced to a large melon plantation in Brazil. It looks at some of
the environmental and social issues the plantation presents within Brazil and highlights the
interconnection of the global food chain. Key issues include:
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Where our food comes from
The interconnections of the global food chain and how our shopping decisions affect people
and the environment in Brazil
Intensive commercial farming, the use of fertilizers and water scarcity
Working practices and conditions around the world
Possible enquiry questions:
There are many different directions to take a lesson that makes use of this video. Some questions to
get students thinking critically after the video may include:
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Is it better to grow melons in greenhouse in the UK, or import them from Brazil?
What would happen if we stopped importing products like Brazilian melons? Who would it
impact and how?
Would you like to work on the melon farm? How does it compare to jobs in other LEDCs?
Why might the melon farm be running out of water? What impact might the farm using so
much water have on the local area?
How do our shopping choices affect farms and workers like the ones in the film?
Starter activities
The following starters may help get students engaged on a particular issue addressed in the video.
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Bring in a few items of food and ask the students where in the world they think they were
produced.
Ask students for their favourite foods and identify where each one comes from. What
wouldn’t we be able to eat if we just ate food grown in the UK?
Suggestions for main lesson activities:
The video throws up a number of different issues and could be incorporated into a variety of main
lesson activities. Here are just a few examples:
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Ask students to bring in some food packaging from a meal as homework (or bring them in
yourself or use an imaginary basket of food based on images). Plot where they come from
on a map. You could use the food miles calculator (see link below) to obtain distances (see
worksheet activity 2) Get groups to plan a meal based on short distance ingredients only.
Compare the day in a life of different workers around the world, e.g. the melon farmer in
Brazil, the t-shirt factory worker in Bangladesh and a teacher in the UK!
Rearrange the photos to see how a melon ends up on your plate (see worksheet activity 4).
Examine the pros and cons of food produced using fertilisers against organically produced
food. Imagine that you are a farmer in an LEDC, struggling to feed your family, write a short
piece explaining why you use fertilisers.
Relevant additional resources:
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Food miles calculator
Food miles activities
Food stories resources from the British Library
Consumer choice and power
World mapper (maps representing country size in terms of size of particular food
imports/export)
Article in the Ecologist about life in a clothing factory in Bangladesh
Other related Atlantic Rising resources:
Atlantic Rising itself has a number of additional resources from the expedition that are related to
and could support a lesson (or lessons) based on this video. These include:
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Photos: Brazilian melons