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PHILIPPE COUSTEAU’S EARTHECHO INTERNATIONAL LAUNCHES FOOD-FOCUSED RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS AND EDUCATORS WITH NEW WHAT’S ON YOUR FORK?  ACTION GUIDE

--Resources to Feature Content Inspired by Participant Media’s Critically Acclaimed Food, Inc. and the Meatless Monday Campaign--

-- Content Contributions from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future --

Washington, D.C., November 15, 2011 - EarthEcho International, a leading environmental education nonprofit organization (http://www.earthecho.org), today unveiled What’s On Your Fork? -- a selection of free educational tools designed to help educators and students explore the environmental and community impact of daily food choices.  The new resources are part of EarthEcho’s Water Planet Challenge (www.waterplanetchallenge.org), a web-based interactive program that engages and empowers middle and high school-aged youth to design, create and implement service-learning projects in their communities.  Water Planet Challenge is available to U.S. middle and high schools through a partnership with Discovery Education, the leading provider of high quality, curriculum-based digital content and professional development resources.
“Food and water are connected and what and how we eat has a huge impact on our critical water resources,” said EarthEcho Co-founder and President Philippe Cousteau. “In collaboration with Participant Media and with contributions from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, we’ve created new tools and resources that will help students understand how making smart choices at the table can have a big impact on their communities and the planet.”
The new Water Planet Challenge What’s On Your Fork? action guide and resources are provided at no cost to students, educators and community leaders. What’s On Your Fork? includes the following:  

• Step-by-step action guide that walks students through the process of creating a Meatless Monday campaign at home, school and throughout the community.  Meatless Monday is a non-profit initiative of The Monday Campaigns, in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The project provides the information and recipes to start each week with healthy, environmentally friendly meat-free alternatives;
• Discussion guides developed in collaboration with Participant Media inspired by Food, Inc., the critically acclaimed documentary film by Robert Kenner;
• Downloadable resources from contributing organizations; and
• Video segments on a variety of environmental topics featured throughout the materials for educators to integrate into existing curriculum.

Primary funding for the Water Planet Challenge is provided by the Toyota U.S.A. Foundation, a $100 million charitable endowment created to support education programs serving kindergarten through 12th grade students and their teachers in the United States, with an emphasis on mathematics, science and environmental science.  For additional information about the Toyota U.S.A. Foundation, visit www.toyota.com/foundation.

About Participant Media

Participant Media is an entertainment company that focuses on documentary and narrative feature films, television, publishing, music and digital content about the real issues that shape our lives. For each of its projects, Participant creates social action and advocacy programs to transform the impact of the media experience into individual and community action. Participant’s online Social Action Network is TakePart (takepart.com). Founded by Chairman Jeff Skoll in 2004, Jim Berk serves as CEO and Ricky Strauss as President. Participant's films include The Kite Runner, Charlie Wilson's War,  An Inconvenient Truth, Good Night, and Good Luck, , The Visitor, Food, Inc., The Cove, The Crazies, Countdown to Zero, Waiting for "Superman,” Fair Game, PAGE ONE: Inside The New York Times, The Help, and Contagion.
About the John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future
Based within the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (www.jhsph.edu/clf) is an academic center that promotes research and communicates information about the complex interrelationships among diet, food production, the natural environment and human health. In 2011, the Center launched Teaching the Food System (www.jhsph.edu/teachingfood), a resource for high school and college educators that offers free, downloadable classroom-ready curriculum. The Center also provides scientific guidance for Meatless Monday.

About Meatless Monday

Meatless Monday (www.meatlessmonday.com) is a non-profit public health initiative in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The campaign encourages cutting meat consumption in order to reduce the risk of chronic disease, decrease our carbon footprint and save precious resources like fresh water and fossil fuel. Since its launch in 2003, Meatless Monday has become a global movement through viral dissemination by committed advocates and the participation of key influencers and organizations like Oprah, Mario Batali and Sodexo.

About Discovery Education

Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK) revolutionized television with Discovery Channel and is now transforming classrooms through Discovery Education.  Powered by the number one nonfiction media company in the world, Discovery Education combines scientifically proven, standards-based digital media and a dynamic user community in order to empower teachers to improve student achievement.  Already, more than half of all U.S. schools access Discovery Education digital services.  Explore the future of education at www.discoveryeducation.com.

About EarthEcho International
EarthEcho International is a leading environmental nonprofit committed to youth engagement, action, and leadership through education.  EarthEcho helps young people everywhere understand the critical role we play in the future of the planet through the one thing that connects us all – water. EarthEcho International is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded by siblings Philippe and Alexandra Cousteau in honor of their father Philippe Cousteau Sr., son of the legendary explorer Jacques Yves Cousteau.  For more information about EarthEcho International, visit http://www.earthecho.org.  

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