LAWRENCE, N.J. — A freshman from Lawrence High School was a first place winner from among 5,000 students participating in an international video contest called Population Connection’s “World of 7 Billion”.
Arjun Agarwal is among 18 first or second place winners. He competed in a category that addressed sustainable ideas for feeding a growing population, while educating viewers about the topic. Thus, Arjun’s topic: “Feeding 10 Billion People.”
“I didn’t expect to win because I knew it was a big contest that thousands of other students entered,” said Arjun “I just wanted to create a fun video.”
Arjun’s one-minute winning video is titled, “Eating Up By Thinking Up,” where he tries to persuade populations to think about transitioning from eating meat to a more sustainable plant-based diet.
“It’s a very pressing concern that the meat industry has. There simply won’t be enough land, water, and energy for animals,” said Arjun. “We need a slow transition from meat to plants, because plants use less land, water and energy. The statistics are in my video,” he added.
Arjun’s video suggests that designing vertical farms for growing the plants would help to provide more food for a growing population in a sustainable manner. Later he talked about examples of plants such as “fruits, vegetables, lentils, and beans.”
He also said that he is not sure that vertical farms are the same as greenhouses and if they would have an undesirable effect on the ozone.
However, the panel of 61 judges that included college and high school educators, filmmakers and topic experts were impressed by Arjun’s video, and so he won a $1,000 cash prize.
“These aren’t just great young filmmakers,” said John Seager, president of Population Connection. “All of the winners are inspirational voices for a sustainable and compassionate future.”
Arjun found out about the contest through involvement in his school’s STEM club. He felt inspired to tackle the challenge because he saw hunger firsthand while travelling in India with his parents who are in the food industry and teach nutrition. He also said being a vegetarian himself was also an inspiration.
Other winning students hail from the U.S., Canada, Belgium and Slovenia.
The contest was organized and promoted during the 2017-18 school year by Population Education, a program of Population Connection.
“We select themes each year that not only address timely global issues, but also dovetail nicely with the content in many middle and high school social studies and science classes,” said Pam Wasserman, senior vice president for education at Population Connection.
For more information about the “World of 7 Billion” contest, visit www.worldof7billion.org.
To view winning videos and student bios, visit https://www.worldof7billion.org/student-video-contest/2018-winners/