A Taste of Change:
Shaping Sustainable Food Systems
Everyone eats, and while food may nourish our bodies, a sustainable food system can also nourish communities, the environmental, and a strong economy. This program explores how we structure our food system, with a focus on the food "footprint," global trade, economics, and more.
Take a program tour.
Topics: food and culture; the food “footprint”, history of food systems, agricultural technologies, food chains/webs, energy and food systems, price vs. cost, subsidies and food policy, globalization, local economies
Disciplines: biology, earth science, geography/global studies, health, civics, language arts, math, economics, history, environmental science.
Career Connections: agriculture, nutrition, hospitality, public health, marketing, business, entrepreneurship, economics, environmental policy, international law
Audience: grades 3-5, 6-8, 9-12, higher ed, adult ed
News. We've added a new unit on food systems and energy to the Curriculum and Resource Center, as well as dozens of links to external research and scholarly articles. If you're not a subscriber, get a Guest Pass and download samples.
Bring A Taste of Change to Your Classroom or Organization
Get instructional materials in our Curriculum and Resource Center, or combine that with a professional development package to support the revision of units, courses or programs.
Interested in getting a quote? Complete the Interest Form for K12 Institutions or Higher Education
- Intergrate your curriculum through topics relevant to all students: food and health.
- Teach geography, economics, life science and more through food systems.
- Use food systems as a context for making instruction rigorous, relevant, and linked to students’ community.
- Infuse after school programs with hands-on academics and real world projects.
- Connect life science with economics and history.
- Develop a new course for credit recovery or drop-out prevention efforts.
- Reframe science or social studies methods courses to emphasize interdisciplinary content, literacy across the curriculum, place-based learning, and inquiry-based instruction.
- Infuse hands-on instruction and real-world projects into courses in geography, environmental science, nutrition, agriculture.
- Support the growing community interest in sustainable food systems with resources for adult learners in our multimedia curriculum library.
- See also "Food, Farming and Community," a program we developed in partnership with Michigan State University's Voices Project.