The project is based on our overall impression that - over the past decades - the global food market has become so complex in many ways that it is becoming increasingly difficult for consumers to make the right choices when purchasing their daily food. On the one hand, the food industry is daily providing consumers with a huge and partly exotic range of products from all over the world. This is due not only to the growing competition on the globalized food market but also due to the necessity of retailers to meet the growing demands of their customers for food variety as well as for products at the lowest price possible. Thus, competition and the consumer's demands have lead to an overdimensional resource intensity, resulting from exports and imports of goods to and from countries worldwide. The complexities of the global food market have not only lead to a growing lack of transparency and awareness in regard to the origins of our food but also to its quality. Again, also in accord with the demands of the modern and time-pressured consumer, the food industry is developing methods of producing and growing food in ever more refined ways in order to provide him with food that is spotless, keeps well, has already been processed and as such easy to prepare - besides fulfilling the desire that food should still be tasty, colourful. All in all, the food industry is certainly offering consumers products which comply with their needs and tastes, however, adults and students alike are slowly losing touch with what they are taking in day for day: not only in regard to the origin of their food but also to its quality. Therefore, the project will intend to support consumers to get in touch again with the food they are eating, primarily addressing students between 14 and 16 years old, who will by then have already acquired some basic knowledge in regard to environmental challenges, the globalised economy and nutritional needs in the context of the Social and Natural Sciences subjects. They will also be at the age at which our schools are actively promoting labour market knowledge and experience in order to help students reflect about future careers. (24 students from each participating school will actively be involved, besides around 8 to 14 different teachers from each school.) One of our key objectives for the partnership is to critically evaluate the implications of ill-informed consumer behaviour in a globalized food market by creating awareness for the impact it has on our health and our environment. Some major aspects that students will do research on and present to others will be the effects of an unbalanced diet on our health (obesity, diebetis etc.), the wide use of artificial ingredients in a lot of processed food (additives, food clouring etc.), GMO food, chemicals in farming, the environmentally-damaging resource intensity of many products we buy. It is on the basis of this acquired knowledge that we then intend to encourage students to learn how they can develop a more responsible consumer behaviour in both dimensions by means of out-of-school learning offers: at academic institutions, consumer advice centres, regional farms and businesses which will provide all participants with basic knowledge concerning the vital elements of a healthy and balanced diet (vitamins, carbohydrates etc.), the reliabilty of food labeling, biological farming, low-carbon trade inititiatives, the academic field of Green Logistics. All the students' research and learning experiences will then result in products that they will produce in order to pass on their knowledge and promote further consumer awareness inside and outside our organisations. One of the main products will be large posters which the students will produce in cooperation with a professional marketing photographer, with the purpose to promote resonsible consumer behaviour inside our institutions and in the local community. They will permanantly be exhibited in our schools and will also be presented in our towns. Another main product will be a cooking brochure which will contain recipes for healthy dishes including seasonal products from our regions, interviews with farmers whose products we have included, tables revealing the nutritional composition of the dishes as well as photos made of the food with the support of a professional food photographer. It is through the relevance of the learning offers for their lives, the relevance of the different work stages for the development of meaningful products, the labour market relevance of the basic and transversal skills improved during the project and through the insights given into creative and future-oriented professions that will hopefully lead to encourage high-quality learning, which is needed to change students's attitudes to food - and to help them become healthy resonsible European citizens who can also contribute to meeting European challenges which - at first sight - appear beyond their means of influence.
The project was based on our overall impression that - over the past decades - the global food market has become so complex in many ways that it is becoming increasingly difficult for consumers to make the right choices when purchasing their daily food. On the one hand, the food industry is daily providing consumers with a huge and partly exotic range of products from all over the world. Competition in the food trade and the consumer's demands have lead to an overdimensional resource intensity, resulting from exports and imports of goods to and from countries worldwide. The complexities of the global food market have not only lead to a growing lack of transparency and awareness in regard to the origins of our food but also to its quality. Again, also in accord with the demands of the modern and time-pressured consumer, the food industry is developing methods of producing and growing food in ever more refined ways in order to provide him with food that is spotless, keeps well, has already been processed and as such easy to prepare - besides fulfilling the desire that food should still be tasty, colourful. All in all, the food industry is certainly offering consumers products which comply with their needs and tastes, however, adults and students alike are slowly losing touch with what they are taking in day for day: not only in regard to the origin of their food but also to its quality. Therefore, the project intended to support consumers to get in touch again with the food they are eating, primarily addressing students between 14 and 16 years old, who would by then have already acquired some basic knowledge in regard to environmental challenges, the globalised economy and nutritional needs in the context of the Social and Natural Sciences subjects. Our partnership was carried out with the Julius-Stursberg-Gymnasium in Germany, the Stryn ungdumsskule in Norway and the Viljandi Gümnaasium in Estonia. All in all, 24 students from each particpating school were involved, besides around 6 to 12 teachers from each school. One of our key objectives for the partnership was to critically evaluate the implications of ill-informed consumer behaviour in a globalized food market by creating awareness for the impact it has on our health and our environment, with the intention to promote more responsible consumer behaviour and, thus, encourage active citizenship through which they can also contribute to meeting European challenges which - at first sight - appear beyond their means of influence. Our main activities that contributed to achieving our objectives were, on the one hand, carried through in (extra-) curricular workshops at our respective schools and focused on students gaining in-depth knowledge about the major aspects related to our topic, such as the effects of an unbalanced diet on our health (obesity, diebetis etc.), the wide use of artificial ingredients in a lot of processed food (additives, food clouring etc.), GMO food, chemicals in farming and the environmentally-damaging resource intensity of many products we buy. The results of their research were presented at the short-term exchanges. On the other hand, out-of-school learning activities during the short-term exchanges added to encouraging students to learn how they can develop a more responsible consumer behaviour in both dimensions, e.g. through visits to and lectures at academic institutions, regional farms and businesses which provided all participants with basic knowledge concerning the vital elements of a healthy and balanced diet, the reliabilty of food labeling, biological farming, low-carbon trade inititiatives, the academic field of Green Logistics. Moreover, cooking workshops contributed to making students interested in producing basic food products by themselves, such as bread, butter and chocolate, and to turning to seasonal, regional and biological products from which they created nourishing snacks and dishes. The students' research and learning experiences resulted in a series of posters which was created with the support of professional photographers and graphic designers with the purpose to appeal to consumers to take on a resonsible consumer behaviour. They will permanantly be exhibited in our schools and have also been presented to the farms and businesses that support our initiatives as stakeholders. Another main product was a cooking calendar which contains recipes for healthy dishes that were produced in the cooking workshops by the students, also revealing the nutritional composition of the dishes as well as showing photos of the dishes. The impact of the project revealed itself through the pronounced interest that students showed in all stages of the project, in their results as well as in additional initiatives that have changed the range of food offers at two of our school canteens and that have lead to implementing healthy breakfast breaks in younger classes at one of our schools.