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Student Worksheet: Cookie Food Miles Activity
1. Using the cookie recipe you brought in from home or one provided in the document Cookie Recipe
Cards.doc choose a type of cookie you’d like to study, then add each ingredient required for the cookies
into the provided table.
Cookie Recipe: Click here to enter text.
2. Find where each ingredient comes from. Open the MS PowerPoint document Cookie Ingredients.ppt
and view the document in slideshow mode. Once the presentation is in the full screen slide show you’ll
be able to click on each ingredient you need and it will bring you to a slide with the information you
will need to complete this step. The back link will take you to the first slide where you can choose your
next ingredient.
Ingredient
Option A: Where
ingredient typically
comes from:
Option A: Total
Miles
Option B: Local
food choice (when
possible)
Option B: Total
Miles
Total Miles:
3. Open Google Earth and located each city or country where the ingredients you need originate.
For additional Google Earth help refer to the tutorial Tutorial-Using_Google_Earth.doc
a. For each location place a pushpin and label it. Put one final pushpin in where your home is
located.
b. Use the ‘add a path’ feature to connect each individual pushpin to your home pushpin. Be sure
to label each path to make the process easier. Different colored paths could be used for the two
food source options.
c. Find the distance each ingredient travelled from the path properties. Record the distance in the
table above.
d. Paste an image of your Google Earth File in the box below.
Project module prepared for the Project-Based Global Climate Change Education Project, funded by NASA GCCE
Copyright © 2011, Office of Educational Partnerships, Clarkson University, Potsdam NY
http://www.clarkson.edu/highschool/Climate_Change_Education/index.html
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Figure 1: Image showing food miles travelled for cookie recipe
4. Sum the miles for each
ingredient so that you can find the
total number of food miles
required to make your batch of
cookies. Enter your values in the
table above.
Food miles give a quick and easy
way to compare how far
ingredients have to travel
however; alone they do not
quantify the amount of carbon
dioxide emitted by transporting
goods. Emissions from food miles
are calculated by the weight of
goods used in the cookie recipe
and the miles they travel. To
calculate the CO2 emissions from
your batch of cookies, use the
directions below and the MS
Excel worksheet attached.
5. Open the MS Excel file Calculating CO2 worksheet.xls
6. In the yellow boxes add the amount of each ingredient your cookies require. If the recipe doesn’t call for
one of the listed ingredients enter “0” into the yellow box. Amounts should all be entered in units of
cups, teaspoons or whole unit (for example, 1 egg)
7. In each of the blue boxes insert the amount of miles each ingredient travels to get to your home town.
There are four different columns for the four main forms of freight transport, choose the method of
transport that is most likely for each ingredient.
Once you’ve entered the information for your batch of cookies the amount of carbon dioxide emissions will be
calculated automatically. Repeat steps six and seven for Option B.
What are the greenhouse gas emissions (g) for your cookie recipe?
Option A:
Click here to enter text.
Option B:
Click here to enter text.
Write a short essay below about food miles for cookies and your findings. Include responses to the discussion
questions posed below.
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Summarize your approach and findings.
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Does buying as few as one or two ingredients locally make a significant difference? Explain
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What can you do to reduce the amount of food miles your ingredients have to travel to make the
cookies?

Is there a significant difference in food miles between types of cookies? Explain your answer.
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Are there any other steps in making cookies that would emit greenhouse gases? What are these steps?
What causes greenhouse gases to be emitted?
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Imagine trying to explain this project to your parents or guardian, how would you explain your results?
What recommendations would you make that could affect your everyday food purchases?
Project module prepared for the Project-Based Global Climate Change Education Project, funded by NASA GCCE
Copyright © 2011, Office of Educational Partnerships, Clarkson University, Potsdam NY
http://www.clarkson.edu/highschool/Climate_Change_Education/index.html