ESS IA

-the purpose of the internal assessment investigation is to focus on a particular aspect of an

ESS issue and to apply the results to a broader environmental and/or social context.
-it is an individual investigation

Identifying the context = 6 (20%)

Planning = 6 (20%)
Results, analysis and conclusion = 6 (20%)
Discussion and evaluation = 6 (20%)
Applications = 3 (10%)
Communication = 3 (10%)
Total = 30 (100%)

Practical work of ESS

- Laboratory-based manipulation investigations
- Field manipulation studies
- Observational fieldwork
- Exploration and analysis of secondary data, including databases
- The use of ecosystem models (bottle experiment)
- The use of computer simulations and other technological models
- The use of surveys and opinion polls
- Interviews
- Case studies

Task 1: confirmation 3 ESS ideas of research questions (deadline: 27 jan 2021)

Task 2: prepare a colored factsheet of your IA research topic you are interested in (deadline:
08 feb 2021) – 5% of term 2 grade
Task 3: submission of IA exploration worksheet with questionnaire questions (deadline:15
mar 2021)

IA idea 1: To what extent are people in Japan aware of the environmental impact of meat
consumption?
IA idea 2: To what extent are people in Mexico and Hong Kong aware of the environmental
impact of cigarette production and consumption?
IA idea 3: To what is extent, is the plastic straw ban policy in Perú efficient?

First changes
IA idea 1: to what extend are people in Nicaragua aware of the environmental impact of meat
consumption?
IA idea 2: to what extend are people in Nicaragua and Hong Kong aware of the environment
impact of cigarette production and consumption?
IA idea 3: to what is extended, is the plastic straw ban policy in Nicaragua efficient?
(investigate if there is a plastic straw ban policy in Nic)

First comments
IA idea 1: This is workable. Please highlight the trend and increasing problem of meat
consumption in the factsheet. Think about what solutions you would like to suggest at the end
of the research? e.g. compulsory school curriculum about this? mandatory labelling of meat
products to warn people about the impact?
IA idea 2: No need to compare the cigarette consumption. Why do you need to compare
people in HK and Nicaragua? What is the aim for this?
IA idea 3: This is workable. I just want to ask whether this policy is newly set in Nicaragua?
You may first compare the behaviour of people using plastic straw before and after the
policy, and check whether the awareness of plastic straw impact increase after the policy is
set.

According to Janice, the first and the third idea are more ready to work on.

Include in the factsheets: statistics, problem, plan to solve.

Confirm IA idea: to what extend are people in Nicaragua aware of the environmental impact
of meat consumption?

ESS IA factsheet deadline 08/02 – 5% of term 2 grade

Select one topic you are interested in for IA factsheet design. Please note that you may still
change your IA topic later if you find another topic more interested to work on. This task is
for students to explore the issue more through information searching only.
Please include your research question, statistics of the environmental problem, information
about the local pollution and environmental policies, public awareness and behaviors in your
factsheet.

Research question: to what extend are people in Nicaragua aware of the environmental
impact of meat consumption?
Statistics of the environmental problem
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1005762/beef-veal-meat-consumption-volume-nicaragua/
Nicaragua: beef and veal meat consumption volume 2010-2019
This statistic shows the consumption volume of beef and veal meat in Nicaragua from 2010
to 2018, as well as a forecast thereof for 2019. In 2018, beef and veal meat consumption in
Nicaragua amounted to 16 thousand metric tons CWE, down from 35 thousand metric tons
CWE consumed in 2010.

Consumption of beef and veal meat in Nicaragua from 2010 to 2019 (in 1,000 metric tons
carcass weight equivalent (CWE)7 r

https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/why-meat-is-bad-for-the-environment/ easons
From climate change to forest fires to human rights abuses, the global industrial meat
industry leaves a trail of destruction all over the world. Millions of people's lives depend on a
dramatic reduction in the consumption of meat and dairy. And it’s not just red meat that’s the
problem.
Meat – or more specifically, ‘industrial meat’ – is bad for the planet.
The vast majority of meat bought in the UK is produced in intensive factory farms. These
farms are part of a destructive global system of mass-produced industrial meat and dairy.
Through its meat production, JBS produces around half the carbon emissions of fossil fuel
giants such as Shell or BP, and is driving deforestation in the Amazon.
The industrial meat system requires a huge amount of land to sustain itself. Forests,
particularly in South America, are deliberately slashed and burned every year to graze cattle
and grow enough crops to feed billions of farmed animals.

1. It causes deforestation and forest fires

Industrial meat is the single biggest cause of deforestation globally. In Brazil, farmers are
deliberately setting forest fires – like the Amazon rainforest fires you may have seen in the
news – to clear space for cattle ranching and to grow industrial animal feed, like soya, for
farms back in the UK.

2. It causes climate change

The climate impact of meat is enormous – roughly equivalent to all the driving and flying
of every car, truck and plane in the world.
When forests are destroyed to produce industrial meat, billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide
are released into the atmosphere, accelerating global warming. The fallen trees are often left
to rot on the forest floor or are burned, creating further emissions.

Healthy trees are essential for absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. If we cut them down,
they can no longer help us in the fight against climate change.

3. It’s pushing the Amazon rainforest closer to a tipping point

Trees in the Amazon rainforest produce their own rainfall, which keeps the whole forest alive
and healthy. If deforestation (for things like industrial meat) continues at the current rate, the
Amazon could reach a ‘tipping point’, where it can no longer sustain itself as a rainforest.

This would have a devastating impact on the people and animals who live in, or depend on,
the forest directly. It could also lead to less rainfall, affecting drinking water and irrigation
across large parts of South America; and changes to climate patterns in other parts of the
world too.

4. It’s responsible for human rights abuses and land-grabbing

Indigenous People and traditional communities – like the geraizeira communities in Brazil – 
are at the frontline in the fight to protect forests. An investigation by Greenpeace Brazil
showed that security forces working for soya producer Agronegócio Estrondo harassed,
detained, abducted and shot members of the traditional geraizeira communities.
Meanwhile, President Bolsonaro and his government tacitly encourage illegal loggers, miners
and farmers to occupy Indigenous lands, by rolling back historic regulations and trying to
legalise land-grabbing. Land invasions often become violent and loggers have
killed Indigenous People in these conflicts. Mass meat producer, JBS, has been repeatedly
linked to suppliers who operate illegally on protected Indigenous lands.
Cattle ranches and soya producers in Brazil have a history of profiting from modern day
slavery. That includes suppliers to JBS (the meat processing giant). JBS’ abattoirs have been
linked to terrible working conditions, mass outbreaks of Covid-19 and salmonella-ridden
chicken exports.

5. It’s killing wildlife

By clearing forests, destroying habitats and using toxic pesticides to grow animal food, the
industrial meat industry is contributing to the extinction of thousands of species, many of
which haven’t even been discovered yet.
We depend on a healthy environment for our own survival. The huge abundance and variety
of the natural world (sometimes called biodiversity) is essential for food, clean water and
medicines. The rapid loss of biodiversity, largely driven by industrial farming, could be as
big a threat to our existence as climate change.

6. It’s increasing the risk of future pandemics like coronavirus

Destroying forests and other wild areas for animal agriculture is a major cause of new
infectious diseases. Three quarters of new diseases affecting humans come from animals.
Cutting down and burning forests brings wildlife into closer contact with people, enabling
deadly viruses to pass from animals to humans. The more forest that is destroyed, the greater
the risk of a new pandemic.
But that’s not the only disease risk from industrial meat. Factory farms can also increase the
spread of disease, both between animals and from animals to humans. The risk is higher for
industrial meat farms because huge numbers of animals are crammed into small spaces, and
the animals themselves have weaker immune systems. This means that viruses can develop
more rapidly and have the potential to pass to humans.

7. It’s an inefficient way to eat

Companies sometimes argue that industrial meat is an efficient way to produce food, but this
ignores its true costs. Over a quarter of the world’s entire land area is used to graze or grow
food for farm animals – food that could have been eaten by people in the first place. Just 1kg
of chicken meat takes 3.2kg of crops to produce.
If everyone ate a plant-based diet, we’d need 75% less farmland than we use today. That’s an
area equivalent to the US, China, Europe and Australia combined. That’s because it takes less
land to grow food directly for humans, than to feed animals, which humans then eat.
In countries like the UK, we need to be eating 70% less meat and dairy by 2030 to prevent
climate breakdown. By eating mostly pant-based food, we could feed more people – with all
the calories and nutrition needed for a healthy diet – without destroying forests.
But this isn’t just about people’s individual choices. Supermarkets, like Tesco, play a huge
role in shaping customer demand through advertising, price cuts and special promotions.
Tesco sells more meat and uses more soya for animal feed than any other supermarket in the
UK. And despite committing to stop supporting forest destruction by 2020, they are still
buying meat from suppliers linked to deforestation.

We can’t wait another 10 years for action. That’s why Greenpeace is calling on Tesco and
other companies to start playing their part. They need to halve the amount of meat they sell
by 2025, and ultimately phase out industrial meat entirely. They must replace that meat with
more plant-based food options, and immediately stop buying from companies owned by
forest destroyers, JBS.

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/countries/nicaragua/
The biggest threats to the environment in Nicaragua are deforestation, soil erosion, and
water pollution.

Fast facts

Official name: republic of Nicaragua

Form of government: republic

Capital: Managua

Population: 6,085,213

Official languages: Spanish, English, indigenous languages

Money: gold Cordoba

Area: 49,998 square miles (129,404 square kilometres)

https://www.centralamericadata.com/en/search?q1=content_en_le:%22meat+consumption
%22&q2=mattersInCountry_es_le:%22Nicaragua%22
Nicaragua: Increases in Meat Exports 
The guild has stated that producers are accelerating the shipment of cattle to slaughterhouses
in order to increase production and take advantage of the increase in the international price of
meat.

Central America Consumes More Pork Meat

In the last five years annual per capita consumption of pork in the countries of the region
increased from 4.6 kilos in 2012 to 5.3 kilos in 2016, and growth was driven mainly by
Panama and Costa Rica. 
Between 2012 and 2016 regional pork consumption has maintained an upward trend, growing
from 205 thousand tons in 2012 to 249 thousand tons in 2016, which is an increase of 21%. 
In 2016, 73% of the pork consumed in Central America corresponded to local production,
while 27% was meat imported mostly from the United States and from other countries
outside of the region. 
Last year Costa Rica was the country with the highest annual per capita consumption, with
14.4 kilos, followed by Panama with 12.4 kilos, Honduras with 4 kilos, Guatemala with 3.7
kilos, Nicaragua with 2.7 kilos and El Salvador with 2.1 kilos. 
In 2016, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Panama accounted for approximately 83% of the
regional pork production, while the remaining 17% was produced in Honduras, Nicaragua
and El Salvador.

New Trends in Meat Consumption

Due to the fact that preference for "vegetable" or plant-based meat is growing quickly in
major global markets, food industry business groups have begun to make investments to meet

this novel and growing market niche.

Foods that were once considered the exclusive consumption of vegans or vegetarians are now
becoming popular, and in the case of the United States, in supermarkets it is increasingly
normal to see meat products made from plants.
You may be interested in "What kinds of Foods Do Costa Ricans Prefer?"
Elfinancierocr.com reports that due to the fact that "... hamburgers, sausages and plant-based
chicken are becoming increasingly popular and are available in fast food restaurants and
grocery stores across the United States, a new group of companies has begun manufacturing
'meat without meat'. In recent months large food companies like Tyson, Smithfield, Perdue,
Horme and Nestlé have introduced their own alternatives to meat, so supermarket shelves
have been filled with hamburgers, meatballs and plant-based chicken nuggets."
Bruce Fiedrich, head of the Good Food Institute, explained that "... When companies like
Tyson and Smithfield launch plant-based meat products, that makes the plant-based meat
sector no longer a niche and becomes commercial. They have gigantic distribution channels,
enthusiastic consumer bases, and they know what meat products to offer to satisfy them."
According to reports from CentralAmericaData, exports of fresh, chilled and
frozen beef from Central American companies recorded a 3% year-on-year decline in 2018.
Figures show that during last year regional sales to companies in the United States totaled
$227 million, an amount that is 11% higher than that reported in 2017, a rise that contrasts
with the fall in exports in general.

https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/nicaraguan-beef-grazed-on-deforested-and-stolen-land-
feeds-global-demand/
Nicaragua is one of the world’s most heavily deforested countries, having lost about a fifth of
its forest cover since 2000. Its indigenous regions were particularly badly hit, with
deforestation rates as high as 27% over the same period.
illegal settlement where non-indigenous Nicaraguans have invaded indigenous communal
lands, cleared the forest, and brought in cattle to graze. Traveling through the indigenous
territory, the boat glided past towering mangroves and stretches of forest lining the Kukra
River, where turtles, herons and blue morpho butterflies provided flashes of color against the
walls of green. Here and there the forest gave way to clearings and pasture along the
riverbank.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Nicaragua
Agricultural Policy
In 1979 the new Sandinista administration quickly identified food as a national priority in
order that the country's chronically malnourished rural population could be fed. The
government planned to increase production to attain self-sufficiency in grains by 1990. Self-
sufficiency in other dietary necessities was planned for the year 2000. For a variety of
reasons, however, including the private sector's retention of 60 percent of arable land, the
Sandinista government continued to import food and grow cash crops. In 1993 the goal of
self-sufficiency in food production was still far from being achieved.
To generate essential foreign exchange, the Ortega administration continued to support an
upscale, high-tech agroexport sector, but returns on its investment diminished. By 1990 only
one-quarter of the pre-1979 area planted in cotton, one of the leading foreign exchange
earners in the 1970s, was still under cultivation. Despite an established priority for food
production, food imports to Nicaragua grew enormously from the mid-1970s to the mid-
1980s.

In general, the Sandinistas made little progress in reducing economic dependence on

traditional export crops. To the contrary, faced with the need for food self-sufficiency versus
the need for essential foreign exchange earnings, the Ortega administration, demonstrating
scant economic expertise, continued to prop up the country's traditional agroindustrial export
system. They did so despite expensive foreign imports, diminished export markets, and a
powerful opposing private sector. Revenues from traditional export crops continued their
rapid decline throughout the 1980s. Despite this drop, agriculture accounted for 29 percent of
the GDP in 1989 and an estimated 24 percent in 1991. Agriculture employed about 45% of
the work force in 1991.

https://www.foodexport.org/get-started/country-market-profiles/central-america/nicaragua-
country-profile
This is related to consumer habits. The Nicaraguan diet is high on carbohydrates but low on
proteins, vegetables and fruits.  More than 65% of the local population’s daily calories are
derived from carbohydrates.  

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-018-0877-1
The livestock sector is a major driver of climate change, accounting for 14.5% of
anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.
In addition to the climate impact of livestock rearing, global meat and dairy consumption
patterns drive deforestation and land degradation, accelerate species and habitat loss, and
account for 27% of global depletion and pollution of freshwater (Alexander et al. 2015;
Machovina et al. 2015; Gerbens-Leenes et al. 2013). Excessive consumption of meat,
particularly red and processed meat, has also been linked with the rising global incidence of
obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases such as type-2 diabetes, heart disease
and certain cancers
In addition to increased GHG emissions, rising demand for meat implies a greater land
footprint for the livestock sector. 
The public awareness gap

Despite the climate, environmental and social costs associated with global patterns of meat
consumption, there remains a significant public awareness gap around the climate impact of
meat production compared with other sources of GHG emissions such as deforestation and
energy use in buildings

A multinational online opinion survey undertaken by Bailey et al. (2014) to examine levels of
public awareness and understanding of climate change and its drivers finds that participants
around the world are twice as likely to identify the transport sector as an important
contributor to climate change compared with meat production, despite the two sources
accounting for a roughly equal share of global anthropogenic GHG emissions (see Fig. 2).
The share of participants stating that meat and dairy production contribute little or nothing to
climate change ranged between 18% and 42% across the 12 countries, with Russia’s
participants demonstrating a particularly significant awareness gap around the importance of
the sector as a source of emissions (see Fig. 3).
This awareness gap presents a problem to on-going and future efforts to shift meat-eating
habits: Bailey et al. (2014) find that lack of awareness contributes to indifference and inertia,
and that low awareness of the climate impact of a given behaviour translates into a lack of
willingness to consider changing that behaviour. Bailey et al. (2014) also find that closing the
awareness gap is likely to be a precondition both for voluntary behaviour change and for a
positive response from the public to government-led interventions encouraging dietary shifts.
The vast majority of survey participants identified as meat eaters (see Fig. 4); but those
participants with a greater awareness of the climate impact of meat and dairy consumption
displayed a markedly higher propensity either to be taking action to reduce diet-related
emissions or to consider taking action in the future (see Fig. 5).

https://www.numbeo.com/pollution/country_result.jsp?country=Nicaragua

Index

Pollution Index:  61.03

Pollution Exp
110.93
Scale: 

Pollution012061.03
Pollution in Nicaragua

Air Pollution 37.50 Low

Drinking
Water
52.17 Moderate
Pollution and
Inaccessibility

Dissatisfaction
with Garbage 73.75 High
Disposal

Dirty and
71.59 High
Untidy

Noise and
Light 61.36 High
Pollution

Water
76.14 High
Pollution

Dissatisfaction
to Spend Time 51.14 Moderate
in the City

Dissatisfaction
with Green
56.82 Moderate
and Parks in
the City

Purity and Cleanliness in

Nicaragua

Air quality 62.50 High

Drinking 47.83 Moderate

Water Quality
 and
Accessibility

Garbage
Disposal 26.25 Low
Satisfaction

Clean and
28.41 Low
Tidy

Quiet and No
Problem with 38.64 Low
Night Lights

Water Quality 23.86 Low

Comfortable
to Spend Time 48.86 Moderate
in the City

Quality of
Green and 43.18 Moderate
Parks

https://vegsoc.org/info-hub/why-go-veggie/environment/
https://www.peta.org/about-peta/faq/how-does-eating-meat-harm-the-environment/

What are the solutions for reduction of meat consumption besides educational campaign?
Can there be more promotion of green diet options? What can the government do more
besides education? Can there be some policies? Some incentive to change people’s diet?
More subsidies in promotion of organic vegetables and menus? You may ask all these in the
questionnaire.
https://www.extension.iastate.edu/Documents/ANR/LikertScaleExamplesforSurveys.pdf

https://cases.open.ubc.ca/environmental-impact-of-meat-consumption/

https://land-links.org/country-profile/nicaragua/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Nicaragua#Statistics

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/geography/countries/article/nicaragua

https://www.britannica.com/place/Nicaragua/Education

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/may/07/true-cost-of-eating-meat-environment-
health-animal-welfare