From WKCD Project Profile: The Food Project

GOAL: Students will design an imaginary sustainable farm. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: To under-stand and develop a working definition for the concept of sustainability. To suggest how the term can apply to many aspects of life and then specifically to agri-culture. TIME NEEDED: One hour to one and a half hours MATERIALS: Flip-chart and markers Paper and pencils for each group Exploring Sustainability in Agriculture Sheet

NOTE The key to brainstorming is to get a general, neutral definition first, and then apply it to agriculture. If “to sustain” means to make something last forever, and the group comes up with a similar definition, ask them to apply it to agriculture. How do we sustain a piece of land? How do we sustain a human body? What are the methods of keeping these things healthy? If part of a healthy agriculture is keeping soil healthy, how do we do this in a sustainable manner? Ask them if it is more sustainable to always buy chemical fertilizer to add to your soil or to create your own compost to add to the soil. Why or why not?

Procedure

1. Brainstorm about the word “sustainable.” What comes to mind when you hear this word? A brainstorm is to get impressions on a word, even if the definition is not yet known. Write down the words on a flip chart under the heading “Sustainability.” Get as exhaustive a list as possible.

2. Discuss the words people suggested. Circle the ones that speak best to the concept of sustainability and have the person who said the word tell the group why he/she wanted it up there. Follow these leads to get closer to the definition of the word. If the group gets stuck, try relating the concept to something in their lives. Ask the young people to tell of sustainable things they have known or seen. What is sustainable in their own lives? Is it sustainable or not sustainable to spend the evenings watching TV instead of doing homework? Why or why not?

3. Once the discussion is over, try to get a working definition of the word sustain-ability. Have different people try to sum up what was discussed, and write it on the brainstorm sheet. When there is enough information for a working definition, end this part of the lesson by repeating the final definition and writing it on the flip chart.

4. Organize the students into teams of eight (or smaller, depending on the size of your group). 5. Their goal is to design an imaginary sustainable farm. First list the things they will need to consider in setting up and running their farm. (For example, how big will it be? Where will it be? What will they grow? What labor sources will they use? What equipment and tech-niques? What markets, if any?) While they work on their farm, circulate and ask questions about things they may not have considered. 6. Halfway through their time, pass out the sheet called Exploring Sustainability in Agriculture. Have them use this sheet to check that they have thought of all the necessary inputs to a farm, and give them time to add to their design.

TIPS This activity works well if more than one person facilitates it. It is helpful if there are knowledgeable people available to sit with the groups as they design their farms. Invite a local farmer to do this lesson with the group. The results of this lesson are different depending on the experience and knowledge level of the participant. It can be used as a brief introduction to the concept of sustainability and as a way for the students to start imagining a farm, or it can be used after your students have had some other lessons on agriculture and they can apply their knowledge to this activity. For instance, this lesson would work well after the lessons on compost, soil, and food systems.

7. When each team is finished with its design, collect everyone back together. Each group presents its farm. Make a list on the flip chart of the issues each team considered in trying to make their farm sustainable. Keep each list separate. Deepen the discussion by asking for clarification and probing the thought process of each group as they present their farm.

8. Once all lists are on the flip chart, compare what the groups came up with against the list of the basic principles of sustainable agriculture on the Exploring Sustainability Sheets. The young people may not have heard about these methods. Each should be explained to the level of detail necessary. How many of the methods did they know intuitively?

9. At the end of the lesson, you may want to revisit the purpose for exploring this term. Why is sustain-ability relevant to us in our lives, on the farm and in the supermarket when we choose what vegetables to buy? The impact of buying non-sustainably produced food includes a drain on our natural resources, health dangers to farm workers because of pesticide exposure, and pollution when we burn fossil fuel.

Extensions

Try this instead of the brainstorm in the beginning: Divide the group in half, and have them brainstorm with each other about examples of things in life that are sustainable. Let them discuss their ideas and then come back and share with each other. Try to come to a working definition from their ideas and finally read a formal definition to the group before they begin designing their farms.

— From French Fries and the Food System by Sara Coblyn, The Food Project, 2000.