Vancouver student Cynthia Zhou’s “Beef Up Sustainable Farming” won an honorable mention award in the World of 7 Billion student video contest. She chose to connect population to the global challenge: “Most of the earth’s suitable farmland is already under cultivation.”

Cynthia decided to focus on one specific aspect of sustainable agriculture that relates to the daily lives of many – our consumption of meat. The video begins with an informational foundation of the current state of agriculture and consumption. She included that “more than one-third of crops grown are used to feed livestock” and “by 2030, an adult in an industrialized country will be eating 4.4 kg more of meat than they are now.” While images of beef cattle munching on feed fill the screen, she explains that if people directly consumed the grains fed to livestock, those grains would go further and feed more people.

Cynthia is a junior at the Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School in Vancouver, British Columbia and had been learning about global issues in her geography course. In addition to global impacts, she’s also interested in what’s going on closer to her home, commenting about Vancouver’s ecological footprint and her interest in decreasing local impact.

Want to see the other top videos on this topic?
First Place – “Our Future Food Demand” by Madison Bernier
Second Place – “Save Land, Save Humanity” by Dylan Kroft
Honorable Mention – “Choices” by Tim Eddy

Want to participate in a future contest?
Interested in staying informed about next year’s contest? Visit the contest website today and download our free lesson plan to guide you.