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Locally Grown, Community Owned. Did you know…. That the average American meal travels at least 1,000 miles from farm to plate? Who grows the food we eat? Where has it been since then? How fresh is it by the time we dine?. Yes! Michigan. Michigan’s unique micro-climates allow
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Did you know… That the average American meal travels at least 1,000 miles from farm to plate? Who grows the food we eat? Where has it been since then? How fresh is it by the time we dine?
Yes! Michigan Michigan’s unique micro-climates allow farmers to produce over 125 different food and fiber products. Agriculture is Michigan’s second largest industry and contributes $37 billion annually to the states economy. Greenhouse and nursery products (flowers and shrubbery) generate 14% of Michigan's total agricultural revenues. Michigan is the nation's second largest grower of Christmas trees. Corn for grain produces about 11% of the state's agricultural revenue. Other Michigan field crops are soybeans, sugar beets, wheat, and hay.
In 2008, Govenor Granholm signed a 3-bill package that puts Michigan among 16 other states who have already passed bills that help support farm-to-school programs take off.
Did you know… According to the Michigan Farm to School website, Michigan currently has 6 Farm to School projects which include 17 schools. www.mifarmtoschool.msu.edu
True or False? In the past three decades, obesity in 2-5 year olds has more than doubled.
True! Over the past three decades the childhood obesity rate has more than doubled for preschool children aged 2-5 years and adolescents aged 12-19 years, and it has more than tripled for children aged 6-11 years. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 percent of children (over 9 million) 6-19 years old are overweight or obese -- a number that has tripled since 1980. In addition to the 16 percent of children and teens ages 6 to 19 who were overweight in 1999-2002, another 15 percent were considered at risk of becoming overweight.
Slide from Michiganhealthtools.org Hungry or Undernourished Children = Irritable, Apathetic, Lack Energy, Difficulty Concentrating Hungry Children = Increased Risk for Infection and Absenteeism Dietary Behaviors: Impact on Learning Overweight Learners =Low self-esteem, psychological and social Consequences School-Based Breakfast & Lunch Programs = • Increased School Attendance • Greater Class Participation • Improved Emotional Behaviors • Increased Academic Achievement
“I believe public education must help restore the daily ritual of the table in all our childrens' lives. Public education has the required democratic reach. And it desperately needs a curriculum that offers alternatives to the fast-food messages that saturate our contemporary culture. These messages tell us that food is cheap and abundant. That abundance is permanent; that resources are infinite; that it's okay to waste; that standardization is more important than quality; and that speed is a virtue above all others.” Alice Waters with a group of children in the Slow Foods, Slow Schools Program Excerpted from Slow Foods, Slow Schools; Transforming Education through a School Lunch Program. By Alice Waters.
What do we want our children to learn and know about their food system? “A discussion of the interrelations between food, health, and the environment is extremely topical today. Rising food prices together with the price of oil and a series of so-called "natural" catastrophes dominate the news every day. At the same time, there is a lot of confusion. Why are world food prices increasing so quickly and dramatically? Why is world hunger rising again after a long steady decline? What do food prices have to do with the price of oil? Why is it so important to grow food locally and organically?” - Fritjof Capra From The New Facts of Life Connecting the Dots on Food, Health, and the Environment
Did you know… The Wildlife Society defines biodiversity as "the richness, abundance, and variability of plant and animal species and communities, and the ecological processes that link them with one another and with soil, air, and water." Many of our industrialized farming operations have emphasized monoculture approaches for intensive, high-yield production, and have not taken full advantage of enhancing or incorporating more biodiversity on the farm. And although approximately 7,000 plant species have been cultivated and collected for food by humans since agriculture began more than 12,000 years ago, 90% of our food today comes from only about 15 plant and 8 animal species.
Click the link below for a little inspiration and to see what we think it will take to make a community garden project happen!!! • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR34PJOl3K8
Great Resources! These are available in a printout tonight or you can access this information from tonight’s slides on the GreenTree website after February 9. • http://localdifference.org/farmtoschool/ • http://www.farmtoschool.org • http://www.blm.gov/nstc/soil/Kids/index.html • http://www.mifarmtoschool.msu.edu • http://www.greenschools.net • http://www.projectwild.org