Year 9 Unit 1: Biomes and Food Security
I have included suggestions here on how to incorporate land issues into one of the content descriptors for the Year 9 Unit: Biomes and Food Security.
Content Descriptor: “The challenges to food production, including land and water degradation, shortage of fresh water, competing land uses, and climate change, for Australia and other areas of the world (ACHGK063)”
ACARA has provided two elaboration points for this descriptor. Only one is addressed here and is listed in the table below, with lesson and activity suggestions. To see how the suggestions covered here fit into the curriculum, please click the ‘Year 9′ tab above. You will see the full table for the unit from the ACARA document with the content descriptors addressed in these pages coloured in red.
| Content Elaborations | Case Study/Theme |
| Identifying the impacts on food production from competing land uses, for example, urban and industrial uses, mining, production of food crops for biofuels, production of food crops for livestock, and recreation (such as, golf courses) | This suggestion provides resources for a case study on ‘Palm Oil Production’. This case study shows the impacts of palm oil production by large agribusiness on local people’s food security. Large scale palm oil plantations can affect food security through economic exploitation of workers, leading to hunger (e.g. Honduras) or through destruction of pre-existing food sources either from the native forests (such as in Malaysia, used by the Penan) or from smaller scale sustainable production (e.g. in Cameroon). |
Palm Oil Production
Background Resources for Teachers:
‘The guilty secrets of palm oil: Are you unwittingly contributing to the devastation of the rain forests?’ (The Independent). A comprehensive article covering the palm oil issue including what it is found in and who it affects, with a focus on Indonesia and Malaysia: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/the-guilty-secrets-of-palm-oil-are-you-unwittingly-contributing-to-the-devastation-of-the-rain-forests-1676218.html
‘Are foreign investors colonising Africa’ (streamed by La Via Campesina TV). This video shows the purchase of land by foreign investors in Africa and the effects on Indigenous communities and food security for local people. It can provide a good framework for teachers wanting to learn about the differences between food security and food sovereignty (20m01s). http://tv.viacampesina.org/Are-foreign-investors-colonising?lang=en
Resources for Students:
“Bajo Aguán River Valley: the clamor for land” (streamed by La Via Campesina TV). This is a short documentary from the perspective of palm oil plantation workers in Honduras. It covers their working and living conditions and how these improve because of agrarian reform, resulting in the end of economic exploitation by big landowners and improving their access to food and food security. It shows the political struggles associated with agrarian reform. Warning – contains some police violence (30m10s). http://tv.viacampesina.org/Bajo-Aguan-river-valley-the-clamor?lang=en
‘Saving Sumatra’ (Greenpeace). Slideshow with aerial photos of rainforest destruction for palm oil plantations in Sumatra, Indonesia, with commentary (4m20s): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJt3LbccdC0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJt3LbccdC0
‘Malaysia’s Penan Tribe Resist Logging Firms’ (Al Jazeera, 2009). This news clip shows the effects of logging for palm oil plantations in Malaysia on the rainforest-dependent Penan tribe, and the reisistance they have put up since it began (3m28s): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w2otctyynE
‘Africa: Palm Oil’s Last Frontier’ (Greenpeace). A visually engaging interactive web resource with information about the expansion of foreign-owned palm oil plantations into Africa, with a focus on Cameroon. While palm oil is native to Africa, the way in which large agribusiness manages its production makes a big difference to the wellbeing of local people and their food security. Includes maps e.g. global climate zones suitable for palm oil: http://www.greenpeace.org/africa/en/campaigns/Forests-hub/Palm-Oil-Deforestation/
‘Africa’s False Dilemma’ (Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace). This article talks about the problem of land-grabbing in Africa for foreign-owned production of palm oil. It looks at how palm oil that is produced through large agribusiness has been encouraged as an avenue for development but that it affects the people who already make their livelihoods from smaller-scale production: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/africas-false-dilemma/blog/42789/
Landed Cadastrophe 