Food Production and Distribution

By Michael Rust •

Grade Level	11th
Subject Area	Environmental Science
Duration	6-7 days
Setting	Standard Classroom
Background Knowledge	Familiarity with environmental science concepts such as carrying capacity and sustainable development. The lesson will go into more detail about each of these, but some basic understanding of what each means would be helpful.
Author	Michael Rust

Summary
This lesson engages students in a group activity to learn about the food production/distribution system. To begin, the teacher guides a discussion about carrying capacity to show how our current cities exceed the carrying capacity of the region. Once it has been established that a complex system is needed to meet our food needs, the teacher gives a brief introduction to food production/distribution system by showing block diagram on overhead. Students will then be divided up into groups of three or four. Each group is assigned a part of the food production/distribution cycle to research (crop production, livestock/fish production, processing, packaging, or distribution). Each group will use Internet and/or library resources to find information about the energy, materials, wastes, and environmental impact that is associated with their part of the process. The groups will then present their information to the class. The key part of the activity is for each group to determine, based on the facts they researched, whether their component is a sustainable process. The teaching philosophy for this lesson is cooperative learning and team-based design. The students work in groups of 4 for this lesson and turn in one set of materials for the group. Since many engineering applications involve teams of engineers working together, it is important to give students experience with this work style.

Objectives
1. Students will be able to describe the impact of population and population growth on food production/distribution patterns 2. Students will be able to identify and describe the various components of the production/distribution cycle currently used in the United Sates 3. Students will be able use the context of sustainable development to construct statements to support or oppose the current food production/distribution system.

Materials Required
Worksheets, access to internet or other sources of information on food production/distribution, computers with presentation software (optional), presentation equipment (optional).

Ohio Standards

Science

Grades 11-12

Science & Technology

A.1 Identify that science and technology are essential social enterprises but alone they can only indicate what can happen, not what should happen. Realize the latter involves human decisions about the use of knowledge.
A.2 Predict how decisions regarding the implementation of technologies involve the weighing of trade-offs between predicted positive and negative effects on the environment and/or humans.

Life Sciences

F.11 Investigate issues of environmental quality at local, regional, national, and global levels such as population growth, resource use, population distribution, over-consumption, the capacity of technology to solve problems, poverty, the role of economics, politics and different ways humans view the earth.
B.5 Investigate the impact on the structure and stability of ecosystems due to changes in their biotic and abiotic components as a result of human activity.

Technology

Grade 11

Technology & Society

A.1 Explain how making decisions about the use of technology involves weighing the trade-offs between the positive and negative effects.
A.3 Understand that ethical considerations are important in the development, selection, and use of technologies.
B.2 Investigate the use and development of appropriate technologies to meet the needs of persons living in developing countries.

Technology & Information Literacy

B.4 Identify relevant facts, check facts for accuracy and record appropriate information.

Design

A.8 Brainstorm solutions to problems using common brainstorming techniques