Pupils praised for highlighting links between food supply and deforestation

Nicholas Thomas Local Democracy Reporter

Learners at a Welsh primary school have been praised as a “shining example” to others through their work highlighting links between food production and deforestation.

Pupils at Waunfawr Primary School in Crosskeys welcomed a Masterchef winner for a recent workshop, exploring how common ingredients such as beef, cocoa, coffee, palm oil and soy could be connected to the destruction of tropical rainforests.

Caerphilly County Borough Council officers and elected members joined the Year 6 pupils as they learned how school meals could be more ethical while remaining affordable and nutritious.

On Tuesday June 30, councillors voted unanimously to make the local authority a ‘Deforestation Free Champion’, becoming the second council in Wales to do so.

In a presentation to the council, three Waunfawr Primary pupils – Margot East, Bella Pearce and Evan Godwin – said they had tackled a question “most people never think to ask – how are the choices we make here in Wales connected to the future of tropical rainforests thousands of miles away?”

“We discovered that ingredients found in everyday food products, including some served in schools and public buildings, can be linked to deforestation in some of the world’s most important forests,” the pupils said.

“Deforestation is not an impossible problem – it is a challenge that can be tackled through better choices, better policies, better leadership and better collaboration.”

Led by environmental charity Size of Wales, the project invited Masterchef’s 2008 winner James Nathan to help develop recipes for meals that avoid ingredients with links to deforestation.

In taking on the new ‘champion’ status, Caerphilly Council will sign a new charter “formalising the council’s commitment to taking proportionate and practical steps to reduce its contribution to consumption-driven deforestation”, explained Cllr Carol Andrews, the cabinet member for education.

Cllr Jamie Pritchard, who leads the local authority, congratulated Waunfawr Primary on their “great” work in the project, and said the pupils involved were “a shining example of the young people we’ve got in Caerphilly County Borough”.

The recent recipe workshop had prompted opposition leader Cllr Charlotte Bishop to recreate the meals at home and “purge” her kitchen of problematic ingredients, she said.

She told pupils their work had already had “a massive impact”, adding: “I’m sure you’ve all got a very bright future impacting the environment in Wales and the world.”

Cllr Sean Morgan, who represents the Green Party, said: “The argument constantly for deforestation is that it allows companies to deliver food to our tables in a much cheaper manner.

“It’s very clear when you see the cost of food on our tables it is not to make our food any cheaper… it’s for their profits they are destroying the planet.”

He told the pupils their project “shows there is hope”.