Image credit: www.groupon.co.in
Credit to Jonathan Watts at the Guardian for the article.
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This is a reading and speaking lesson plan based around an article about the WHO’s recent revelation linking consumption of red meat to cancer for B2+. Download the student’s and teacher’s copy of the article below:
Argentines meat cancer article TEACHERS COPY
Argentines meat cancer article STUDENT’S COPY
Influenced by my wonderful DELTA tutors I’ve split the text up into sections. Before reading each section students make a prediction about what they’re about to read and then read to confirm their predictions. They then read again and complete comprehension questions that go into more detail.
Lesson structure:
- Predict/speculate about section 1
- Read to confirm
- Read section 1 again and answer comprehension questions
- Predict/speculate about section 2
- Read to confirm
- Read again, answer comprehension questions
- Repeat
Give students ample time between sections and after finishing the article to respond and interact with the text.
- Who do they agree with?
- What’s their reaction to the text?
- How important is meat in their culture?
The article:
Argentinians react to report linking meat to cancer.
- How do you think Argentinians reacted to the news?
As he prepared to order lunch in one of Buenos Aires’ many steak restaurants, Jorge Bacaloni declared himself unlikely to change his beef-centred diet despite the World Health Organisation’s conclusion that red meats are more carcinogenic than previously thought.
In a report published on Monday, the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer concluded that red meat is “probably carcinogenic to humans”.
But in Argentina, which has one of the highest levels of meat consumption in the world, the study was met with scepticism.
“I’m aware of the health risks, but it’s part of our culture,” said Bacaloni, who estimates that he eats between a kilogram and 1.5kgs of meat each week.
- Do you think Jorge will change his ways because of the news?
Most of that is from cattle, putting Bacaloni around the average in Argentina, where consumption per capita was 59.4kg of beef in 2014.
As well as the pure pleasure of home grills and estraña dishes in beef houses, the lawyer said that it was a custom. “This is part of our history. Part of our life,” he says. “And at least cows in Argentina are raised on pastures rather than in sheds. It’s more natural.”
But he was more concerned for his family that the World Health Organisation had classified processed meat in the same cancer-risk category as cigarettes, alcohol and asbestos.
“I have a three-year-old son. We’ve been giving him sausage, but I’ll stop that,” he said. He too is adjusting his diet, though for different reasons. “I’ll have chicken today, but only because I’m on a diet.”
- What changes will he make?
- What reasons does he give for his scepticism?
- Why does he think Argentine beef is better than in other countries?
- Why do you think Argentines eat so much meat?
Fashion designer Marcela Duhalde laughs when she explains how often she eats steak. “l hate cooking so when I have to make food I always choose a T-bone steak and tomatoes because it’s easy and delicious. I have it maybe four or five times a week,” she says. “I ought to be huge.”
Raised on a farm, she says eating meat is a custom. “My family was very carnivorous. If we didn’t have meat, we didn’t consider it a meal.”
This is a common refrain. The first cattle were introduced by the Spanish conquistadores in the 16th century and they soon became a feature on the pampas – the vast grasslands that stretch across much of the country – while their meat was an integral part of the gaucho “cowboy” culture.
- Why does Marcela eat meat so often?
- How often does she eat steak?
- Is this too often?
- Why do some people say that they could never be vegetarian?
- What effect do you think the WHO’s decision will have on people’s habits?
Duhalde says she is concerned about the agrochemicals, antibiotics, tainted cattle feed and the generally poor conditions that many cattle are kept in, but vegetarianism is not option. Nor it seems is cutting back.
“Everything I like is unhealthy – steak, alcohol, drugs and other things. I’d rather die than give it all up. I don’t have the energy to be happy without them.”
She didn’t expect the WHO decision to make much of an impact on Argentina’s love of steaks in the short term, but she thought it could make a difference in the distant future if the evidence mounted up and led to the same sort of health campaigns that are now common with tobacco.
“This makes us start thinking about the risks, but there is a big distance between thinking about things and actually changing our habits.”
- What things worry Marcela about meat production?
- Why could she never be a vegetarian?
- What’s her conclusion?
- What’s your opinion?
Follow up
Students write an essay examining the importance of meat in their culture and the effect they think the announcement will have.
