EU-mind report- V3B 2020/2021 

by Frederique, Romée, Stijn and Florian 

(Disclaimer: For our interview we used an google questionnaire, so the answers are quite limited) 
 
Welcome to our report about green meals. In this 
report we have interviews with our family 
members, we have the food habits of ourselves on a 
regular day, this report also contains an interview 
with an expert on the effect on greener meals and 
we also had to devise some green meals. 
 
 
Interviews with our family members 

Lisa Koole Stijns sister 

She is 11 years of age and is in her last year of primary school. 
We asked her how environmentally friendly her meal is on a scale 
from 1 to 10. Her reply was: I would say it is a 6,5 because we eat a 
lot of vegan burgers and other vegan meat but we still eat fruit from 
South America. The next question was: Do you eat meat and if so 
how many times per week? Her answer to this question was: Yes I 
eat meat about 3 times per week but that is because at dinner the 
meat is mostly vegan. 
Then we asked if she grew her own fruits and/or veggies. The 
answer we received to this question was: No we are really bad at 
keeping plants alive. The next question was: Do you eat a lot of food from countries that 
are far away from your home country. 
The answer was: Yes we eat pineapples and bananas that are from South America 
Then we asked if she considered going vegan: Her reply was that she was considering going 
vegan but that she thought it would be hard because she liked to eat meat. 
The following question was if she ate fish. The answer to this question was that she ate it 
like once a month and that she didn't like any sorts of fish. And we also asked if she thought 
about how good/bad something is for the environment when she buys food. She answered 
that she sometimes did but mostly she forgets to do it. Our second to last question was how 
many people she knew that are vegan. She told us that this was between 3-5 people 
And our last question was what she thought about the farming industry. 
Her reply was that she really hates it that they don’t give the animals enough space and that 
it’s bad they used poison against bugs. 
 

Janneke, mum of Florian 

She is 49 years old and her answer to our first question, 
How environmentally friendly are your meals? (on a 
scale from 1-10) was a 7 she said: My meals are quite 
environmentally friendly because I am trying to eat less 
meat, I still eat meat just not a lot. The next question 
was: Do you eat meat, if so how many times per week? 
Her answer was: about 2 times a week. Another 
question was: Do you grow your own fruits and/or 
veggies? Her answer was yes. The next question was: Do you eat a lot of food from 
countries that are far away from your country, she answered yes. The next question was: If 
you aren't already, would you consider going vegan/vegetarian, her answer was: Yes i am 
already trying to eat less meat and I am thinking about going vegetarian. The next question 
we asked was: Do you eat fish, if so how many times per week? Her answer to this question 
was: yes about every 2 weeks. The next question we asked was: When you buy food, do you 
think about how bad/good it is for the environment? Her answer to our question was yes i 
try to buy as much biological food as possible but it's not always possible. The second last 
question is: How many people do you know that don't eat meat? She answered 3-5 people. 
And finally, the last question was: What are your thoughts on the farming industry? Her 
answer was: I think it's great that the farmers make food for us but they are responsible for 
a lot of air pollution. 

Tamara, Romée’s mom 

As with the other interviews the first question answered was: How 
environmentally friendly are your meals? (on a scale from 1-10)? She 
gave it an 7 as she is really trying to limit the amount of meat she is 
eating. She eats meat around 1-2 times per week, she also grows her 
own fruits and veggies. When asked if she ate a lot of food from 
outside the EU, she responded with yes, she likes to make Indonesian food and that means 
that she sometimes needs non-supermarket foods. When she’s at the supermarket she does 
keep an eye on it though. She is trying to go vegetarian, so that answer was pretty easy. Just 
like the question about meat, she eats fish about 1-2 times per week, however if she eats 
fish, she won’t eat meat the next day/the same day. When she’s at the supermarket Tamara 
does keep an eye on what products are better for the environment and which are worse. She 
knows 1-3 people that are vegan/vegetarian, and doesn’t really like the way that animals are 
treated in big farms. 

Michiel, father of Frederique 

He is 46 years old. The first question was, how environmentally friendly are your meals? 
To which he answered a 7, because he does try to eat less meat but he does still eat food 
from other countries. He does eat meat and about 5 days a 
week and he grows his own veggies. Another question was do 
you eat a lot of food from countries far away and his answer 
was yes. Would you consider going vegan/vegetarian? To this 
he answered: ​I would not consider going vegan, but I may 
consider going vegetarian. But I would rather just eat less 
meat, than no meat at all. He does eat fish and he eats this 
about once or twice​ a week. To the question: When​ you buy 
food, do you think about how bad/good it is for the 
environment? He answered: I try to think about it, but he 
also sometimes just forgets it. He knows about 3-5 people who don't eat meat. And the last 
question we asked was: ´What are your thoughts on the farming industry?´ And he 
answered: I think the chemicals that the farming industry uses are bad.  

Conclusion interviews 
Our conclusion after finishing up the interviews is that: we now know how green their 
meals are at the moment and from there on we would be able to give advice on how they 
can make their meals greener. For 
example Lisa (Stijns sister) can make her 
meals greener by growing their own 
vegetables and fruit to not have to import 
them from South America. Another 
example would be the mother of Florian, 
Janneke, she could eat more environmentally friendly by eating more fruit from the 
Netherlands. And then Tamara, the mother of Romée, could try to make more Indonesian 
food from products that are made in Europe. And 
our last interviewed person was Michiel, the father 
of Frederique, our advice to him would be that he 
could try to eat less meat and maybe he could try 
to eat vegan meat.  
 
 
 

Interview with an expert 

 
We had an interview with Marjolein Lampert. She is a 
nutrition expert and she has an arable farm. Question 1 
was: How do you think our nutrition will look like in 200 
years? And to that she answered: The base of our nutrition 
will stay like it is now. Only the way it will be produced 
and prepared will change. Like agriculture will be more 
environmentally friendly and the meat industry will be 
more animal friendly. Question 2 was: Where do you 
think we will get our food from in 200 years? Her answer 
was: From abroad, because in the Netherlands we can't grow food because of 
underpopulation, urbanization and less nature. Because of this the prices of food will 
increase. Another question: Which advice would you give someone who wants to become 
vegan? Try to get as many proteins out of vegetables. And swallow supplements and 
vitamins, like vitamin b12. She doesn't recommend becoming vegan. And if being vegan is 
good for your body, she said: No, the chance of shortages is too big. The protein content of 
vegan nutrition is low. There can occur shortages in the supply of calcium, iron, zinc, 
vitamin b2 and vitamin b12. To get all your nutrients as a vegan you need to get proteins, 
iron and zinc out of vegetable sources. To make your meals more environmentally friendly, 
she said: Mostly go back to the source. Less processed foods and less food that is processed 
in a factory, mostly this kind of food is bad for our body. Getting products from a farmer is 
way better and then you know it is produced in an environmentally friendly way. The last 
question was: What is the effect of greener meals? A lot of health complaints in the long 
run. Other agricultural plans and cattle breeding and dairy cattle disappear. 
 
 

Food habits on a regular day 

Frederique 
My breakfast consisted of 2 apples and a glass of water. As a snack I had another apple and I drank 
another glass of water. My lunch was 2 sandwiches with cheese and another glass of water. As a 
snack I ate a home-made chocolate muffin. My dinner was yellow rice, red bell pepper and chicken. 
With dinner I drank some milk. After dinner I had a stroopwafel (sort of cookie with sirup) and a 
cup of tea.  
CO2 emissions of Frederique her meals is 4.2kg CO2e 
 
Romée:  
breakfast: a cup o’ coffee, 2 cups o’ tea and cereal 
(chocolate flavour) 
snack: vegetarian sausage roll and a capri sun (a drink) 
lunch: 2 bread slices with jam and a bottle of water 
snack: doritos (¼ bag, cool ranch flavour) 
dinner: cauliflower with cheese sauce, mashed potatoes 
and vegetarian meat. 
CO2 emissions of Romée her meals is 4kg of CO2e 
 
Florian 
In the morning I ate 2 slices of bread and a glass of milk. Between breakfast and lunch I ate an apple 
and drank water. My lunch was 4 sandwiches and water. Sometimes I eat something before dinner 
like crisps. For dinner I ate sauerkraut. 
CO2 emissions of Florians meal is 3.2 kg of CO2e 
 
Stijn 
At breakfast I ate a banana, two slices of bread and I drank some water. In the small break I ate two 
slices of bread and drank some water. In the big break I ate two sandwiches and drank orange juice. 
When I got home I ate some peppernuts (a cookie like snack) and I drank a bit of water and then in 
the evening I ate potatoes with beans and a bit of meat I also drank some water. 
CO2 emissions of Stijns meal is 3.5kg of CO2e 
 
 
 

How do our meals affect the environment 

Because our food needs to be transported from 
somewhere and that is being done by trucks or 
boats. And they submit CO2 in the air. Also to get 
meat you first have to have an animal and let it 
become big. So you have to feed him and give him 
water which also has to be transported from 
somewhere. Also in their poo there are a lot of bad 
substances. So the meat we eat does really affect the 
environment, but when we eat vegetables and fruits 
it's less bad for the environment. 
 

A few suggestions for green meals: 

Non-vegetarian meals: 
Thai burgers 
● Ingredients (for 4 persons): 3 scallions, 20 grams of 
coriander, 3 cm of ginger, 1 red pepper, 1 lime, 300 
grams of natural chicken, 1 ½ tablespoons of sesame 
seeds and 1 teaspoon of fish sauce. 
● Preparation: Cut the scallions in thin rings. Cut the 
coriander. Peel and grate the ginger. Cut the red pepper 
in thin rings. Wash the lime, grate the peel and squeeze 
the lime. Mix the scallions, coriander, ginger, red pepper 
and the lime rasp through the chicken. Use the fish 
sauce to add some flavour. After doing this, you make 
oval burgers from the meat and add some sesame seeds 
on both sides of the burger.  
● Now you can bake the burgers in about 10 minutes, first do put some oil in the pan. The 
burgers are finished when they are light brown.  
● Now you can eat the burgers, and for an extra little flavour put a lettuce leaf around the 
burger.  
 
 
Potatoes with beans and meat 
● Ingredients: Potatoes, beans and meat of your 
own choice (can be vegan meat) 
● How to make it: Peel the potatoes and the 
beans. Cook two pans of water and put some 
oil in the casserole. Then when the water boils, 
put the potatoes in the pan and put the meat 
in the casserole. Then wait until it is finished 
and you have your meal! 
 
Vegetarian meals: 
Pancakes (the Dutch way) 
● Ingredients: 300 grams of flour, 4 eggs, 500 ml of milk, a tad bit of salt and butter to bake 
the pancakes (enough for 8-10 pancakes) 
● Preparation: Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix 
them. It's better to leave the mix for a few minutes, but 
you can also bake them right away. It’s better to put the 
pan at a medium heat.  
● You first have to put just a little bit of butter into the 
pan and after that you can put the pancake mix into the 
pan. You have to wait till the upper side is dry and then 
you can flip the pancake. Now you have to wait for just about a minute and then your 
pancake is done. 
Salad  
● Ingredients: 150 grams of lettuce, 3 tomatoes, 1 cucumber, 2 pickles, 1 boiled egg, oil and 
vinegar, salt and pepper, 5 radishes, handful of beans.  
A lot of these Ingredients can be grown in your own garden, that makes it very 
environmentally friendly because it’s not with machines, there are no pesticides used and it 
doesn’t have to be transported. 
● Preparation: Wash the tomatoes, lettuce and radishes 
and peel the cucumber. Cut all of them into small 
pieces. Put all of the cut ingredients into a big enough 
bowl and add the salt, pepper, oil and vinegar. Mix 
everything together and you are done. 
 
 
 
 
Mushroom risotto 
 
● Ingredients: 150 grams of risotto, 250 grams of mushroom melange,1 onion,1 garlic piece, 
600 ml vegetable broth, 1 tsp dried thyme, salt and pepper 
● Preparations: chop the onion and garlic and fry 
until caramelized. Add the risotto and fry this for  a 
bit. Now add the broth. Cut the mushrooms. 
After the risotto has been in the broth for 15 
minutes add the mushrooms, thyme, salt and 
pepper. Let it cook until the risotto is done. 
 
 
 
 
This is a video where I (Frederique) make the pancakes myself. Me and my brother both ate them 
and even though I say so myself I thought they were really good. My brother also really liked them. 
I hope you will enjoy it!  
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bfQydsq-O4uj-BOS_ZWe92tDkKjzHmyI/view?usp=drivesdk 
 

 
Our answer to the main research question 
How can you make your meals greener? That was our research question, well we think that that 
really depends per person. Because someone who doesn't eat meat gets another advice than 
someone who does eat meat. But overall our advice is don't eat meat or less and eat enough 
vegetables or fruit. Also rather buy food that comes from a country that is close to your home 
country than a country from another part of the world.  
 
 
 
Our first video conference with India 
Our first video conference with India was actually really interesting. We asked them 2 questions. 
Our first question was: which green meals did you think of? The answer to that was that the 
Indian cuisine is larger than the Dutch cuisine and that they used a lot of vegetables for their green 
meals. This makes a meal healthier of course. The communication was sometimes a bit rocky 
because of connection issues, but overall it was a very interesting The second question we asked 
was: do your parents motivate you to eat green meals? The answer to this question was: that their 
parents do motivate them to eat green meals and in general use a lot of vegetables in their meals. 
The experience was great and we would like to communicate with them again.