Club members Kian Robinson and Ben Ring discuss the schedule to bring in their guest speaker.

This semester, Environmental Action Club will focus on food waste and related topics. Within the vast subject, club members have decided to put their attention specifically on smaller aspects that many students may not think about.

Ben Ring, club officer and sophomore, said, “This semester focuses on food waste, eating choices, factory farming and where our food comes from. ”

Kian Robinson, club member and sophomore, said, “Factory farming is just the mass production of meat, by raising animals in extremely dense environments without care for their well-being or the transmission of diseases amongst them. ”

Robinson added that in beef production specifically, because cows are mass produced they have become the largest producer of methane above the automobile industry.

To bring awareness of factory farming to club members, the officers have planned to bring in a guest speaker in a future meeting.

“We found a speaker on factory farming, and the way the food industry works,” Ring said. ”That presentation would talk about factory farming and its effect on climate change because it’s a huge issue and it’s more specific than what most people are used to and I think it’s something people will find interesting and provocative.”

Club sponsor Kara House said, “I think in the past we have always stuck to the basics like recycling and such, but this semester we have a new idea that will open a lot of student’s eyes to different ways the environment can be affected. ”

Robinson said, “This year we are trying to do more activism within the school and we are trying to get more involved overall. Last year we had big plans for projects, but they never came to fruition, and they never really had too much to do with the school itself. This year, we are planning on conducting more surveys and on gathering information to get an idea of where the school’s mind is at, and on what the situation here at Carmel High School really is, such as figuring out how much of our cafeteria food is organic instead of factory farmed, and learning how much food we waste here at CHS. ”