A food system is an interconnected network of food production, health, nutrition, land use, agricultural practices, and community needs activities and how they interact to feed people. This includes understanding growing, harvesting, and processing practices, food packaging, transporting, and marketing, and consumer habits, distribution of food access points (such as stores and food banks), and food disposal.
In this project, youth will learn the basics of food systems, some of the reasons these systems are sustainable or unsustainable, and they will discover how they participate in the food systems around them and how they can use their voices for greater access to healthy and nutritious food.
Objectives
Youth will:
- Learn about food systems and what practices or policies within them are sustainable or unsustainable
- Understand the impact food systems have on communities
- Discover how they can influence food systems
- Take part in their local food system through gardening, volunteer work, advocacy, or education
4-H Food Systems Curriculum
Food Systems for Thought and Change
Learn how food gets to your table, and the impact modern food production has on communities and the environment.
Where does the food you eat come from? How does it get to you, and where does it go when you’re done with it? How has food production changed over the years, and how can we make big changes in the world by choosing carefully what we eat? In this series of at-home activities, youth will learn the answers to all of these questions as they explore modern food systems. Along the way, they’ll learn how they fit into the food system and how they can engage in addressing social and environmental issues related to food consumption. Requires a free Clover account to access lesson plans.
Washington 4-H Records, Forms, and Guides
For youth members
Coming soon!
For adult helpers and club leaders
Coming soon!
Helpful Resources
Activity Ideas
Discover your community’s food system strengths and weaknesses with a walking tour scavenger hunt. The PDF links to online interactive activities as well as containing printable materials.
Food Systems Feed the World – National Agriculture in the Classroom
Students will explore the steps and processes that create a food system and gain an understanding of hunger as it relates to the physical well-being, culture, and geographic location of all people. Students will learn what a food system encompasses, create a “food system chain,” and discuss why hunger still exists despite modern advances that have made the US food system highly efficient.
Tracing the Agricultural Supply Chain Lesson Plan – National Agriculture in the Classroom
Explore the complexity of global commodity chains that link the production and consumption of agricultural products. Discover how economics, politics, infrastructure, and other conditions affect the distribution of food throughout the world.
Filling the Global Grocery Bag – National Agriculture in the Classroom
Students learn what factors affect a country’s ability to produce their own food and how food expenses differ throughout the world.
Global Food Security – National Agriculture in the Classroom
Students will explore the causes of hunger, both domestically and globally; evaluate potential solutions for solving world hunger; and forecast the impact of a growing world population on current food supplies.
Global Trade and Interdependence – National Agriculture in the Classroom
Students will examine the impacts of the Columbian Exchange and identify the economic and cultural impacts of contemporary global agricultural trade. They will also explore how food choices influence patterns of food production and consumption.
Washington Specific Reference Material
Coming soon!
Other Reference Material
From 4-H Programs
From Higher Education Institutions
Discovering Our Food System Curriculum (PDF download) is an interdisciplinary, community-based exploration of the people and processes that shape our food system. Rooted in the places we live, eat, work, learn, and play, Discovering our Food System will help youth better understand what the food system means to them, how it affects their community and their health, and ways in which they can influence the food system.
Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future
Foodspan – Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future
FoodSpan is a free, downloadable high school curriculum that highlights critical issues in the food system and empowers students to be food citizens. It is aligned to national education standards in science, social studies, health, and family and consumer sciences.
This curriculum stimulates debate about crucial food system topics related to human health, the environment, equity, and animal welfare. The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future developed FoodSpan as a natural outgrowth of the work it does to help build a healthier, more equitable, and more resilient food system.
Project S.O.W: Food Gardening with Justice in Mind – Cornell University
Youth work together to investigate how to grow food, explore their relationship with the land and food system, and practice leadership in their communities.
From Related Organizations, Journals, and Professionals
Global Food Systems Maps – National Agriculture in the Classroom (PDF)
Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development
The Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development (JAFSCD) is published by the Thomas A. Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems, a project of the Center for Transformative Action, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization affiliated with Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, USA.
Teach children the importance of nutrition and physical activity using interactive websites and games.
- Kits, Projects, and Activities from National 4-H