Extension activities

Things for students to think about and/or discuss

• Does Freedom Food mean free-range? Is Freedom Food organic? Use this link to find out.

• Follow this link and look at the statements about the needs of farm animals and our responsibility towards them. Decide which ones you agree with, disagree with or are not sure about:

• Imagine you live in one of 50 empty telephone boxes stacked five high and 10 wide.
  • Can you sleep properly?
  • Do you have anything to do to stop you from getting bored?
  • Can you behave normally and exercise properly?
  • Are you happy and healthy?

You’re beginning to feel what it’s like to be an egg-laying hen in a cage system.

  

Food labelling – the facts

Ask the students to create a newsletter or an educational campaign for the local community, setting out the truth about food labelling. They could design a web page or make a podcast using ICT. Good starting points are looking at poultry products such as eggs and meat, and then looking at pig products using the RSPCA Rooting for pigs campaign for information.

 

Pain-free meat?

Ask the students to look at the New Scientist article at this link. What is their view about the ethics of genetically altering farm animals so that they don't feel pain when reared in intensive farming systems? What do they think this line of research says about our attitude to animal welfare? Do they think more people would buy meat if it was labelled pain-free?

 

Make your school animal-friendly

Ask the students to come up with some criteria to determine if their school is animal-friendly or not.
For example does the kitchen use free-range eggs, do the cleaners use non-toxic products and are there bird boxes? Quantify the school’s animal-friendliness, for example by designing and conducting a questionnaire. Highlight areas of improvement and choose a project to make your school more animal-friendly.

See information about the RSPCA’s animal-friendly schools at this link. 

 

Animal-friendly shopping

Design a survey to assess how animal-friendly local shoppers are. Then collect the data, present and analyse it, draw conclusions and develop a campaign to encourage people to buy Freedom Food or higher-welfare animal food products.

 

The 2012 ban on conventional battery cages

Ask the students to find out why and how the law relating to battery cages has changed. Do they think the changes are enough? Ask them to present their ideas in a report, PowerPoint presentation or debate model with different viewpoints represented. What could they do to influence the debate?

Ask them to check out this link.