Home Module I Module II Module III Module IV Module V Module VI
 
Introduction to Sustainable Agriculture
 
 
Module I > Activities for Module I

Activities for Module I: Introduction to Sustainable Agriculture

Activity 1: Understanding Goals and Practices
Activity 2: Thinking positively, thinking critically
Activity 3: Looking at change in agriculture, food systems, and the environment
Activity 4 : Menus and Maps—Where does your food come from?
Activity 5: Connections

Activity 1 : Understanding Goals and Practices

10 minute version : Divide the class into small groups of three or four students. Ask each student individually to write down a goal they have and list the steps they can take to reach it. Next, assign one person to take notes for the group and be the reporter. Then have each person share their answers in the small group. Talk about how everyone's tools and steps are unique to their goal. Have each small group report their findings back to the whole class.

5 minute version: Have each student write down a goal they have and list the steps they can take or tools they can use to reach it. Then have each student turn to their neighbor and discuss how the steps and tools are unique to each person's goal. Invite a few students to share their examples with the whole group.

Back to top

Activity 2: Thinking positively, thinking critically

In order to move towards a broad goal, such as those for sustainable agriculture, a first step is to figure out where we are on the road toward the goal. Have the students brainstorm both successes and problems associated with agriculture, food, and natural resources today. Give each student a pad of post-it notes. Have them list problems and successes on the notes, one per note. Have them place their notes on a large flip chart sheet or chalkboard with the categories ECONOMICS, ENVIRONMENT, AND COMMUNITY written out. As each student adds a note, have them read it aloud to the class and explain which category they are placing it in. Save this chart for Day 2 (see activity 2 on Day 2) .

Examples of successes in today's agriculture include:

  • abundant food supply in the developed world
  • fresh fruits and vegetables available year-round
  • cheap food
  • luxury foods such as coffee, tea, chocolate, and spices easily available around the world
  • effective food preservation technologies (refrigeration, freezing, canning, packaging)
  • convenience foods
  • mechanization produces high labor efficiency
  • improvements in soil conservation
  • availability of agricultural inputs for quick solutions to productions problems

Examples of problems include:

  • continuing soil loss
  • food safety (mad cow disease, food poisoning outbreaks, antibiotic resistance, toxins and pesticides)
  • water pollution
  • habitat loss
  • continuing hunger
  • ugly countryside
  • air pollution; odors
  • failing farms
  • declining communities
  • farm accidents
  • water depletion
  • energy use
  • obesity
  • global warming
  • chronic diseases linked to agricultural chemicals
  • farmland loss to development
  • difficulty of starting in farming  

  Back to top

Activity 3: Looking at change in agriculture, food systems, and the environment

— A short homework activity.

Ask students to interview two people in their family or community. Interview one person who is 70 or older about the years around 1940. Also interview one person who is in their 40s, 50s, or 60s about the years around 1970. Ask each of these people to describe three things: What did farms look like at that time? What did main street look like and where did people get their food? and How was the quality of the environment? Ask students to answer these same three questions themselves about the local community now and record all three answers (see worksheet provided below). Report findings to the rest of the class at the very beginning of Day 2 .

Activity 3 Worksheet: Looking at change in agriculture, food systems, and the environment (MS Word Document)

Back to top

 

Activity 4 : Menus and Maps—Where does your food come from?

Purpose: Students will begin to think about all the steps in the food system between the farm and their plates. Students will begin to realize the global nature of the food system.

Advance preparation: Assemble materials: paper plates and blank maps. (Link to http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html)

Estimated time: 20 minutes

  • “Set the table” by placing a white paper plate and a piece of paper (as a placemat) at each student’s seat.

  • Have the students draw what they had for lunch (or supper) on their plate.

  • Then, on their placemat, have the students “map” where they think the food in their meal came from. To make things easier for the students you may have the “placement” show a blank map of the US or the world (see http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html, http://www.50states.com/maps/usamap.htm, http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/worldout.htm).

  • Students should try to trace each part of their specific lunch as it moved through the food system from the farms where food was grown, through processing and distribution, to where the waste went. (See examples).

  • Discuss what students found out from this exercise

  • Possible discussion points:

    • We get our food from a global market – much of it comes from very far away.
    • We don’t usually know exactly where our food came from, or how it was grown or processed or transported.
    • We rely heavily on government regulation, business responsibility, and the judicial system to ensure the safety of our food, because consumers usually don’t have any knowledge of the specifics.
    • The global food system relies a lot on energy from fossil fuels and produces a lot of waste.

Back to top


Activity 5: Connections

Project the Full Circle Graphic (PDF)
Full Circle Graphic (MS Word Document)

It shows some of the critical components of the agro-ecosystem and food system for a single farm:

Counter-clockwise from the top: The farm, solar energy, row crops, pasture, livestock, farm products, food processing facility, retail facility, consumer home, food ready for consumption, compost (waste being converted to a resource), and inside the circle are the farm family and natural environment.

Now ask students to point out how the elements in the graphic are connected. They can also add ecosystem and food system elements that are missing from the graphic, such as fossil fuel energy, water, transportation, and so on. Add the connections and missing items to the graphic. You should end with a complicated and probably messy picture that demonstrates that these systems are neither simple, linear, nor separable.

 

 

Back to top