Slide outline for Lesson 6.2. Thirteen slides, one day. The month-by-month slides are the ones to keep for review. [Sal: if you can get a photo of a real Long Island farm stand in August and the same stand in February, use those two on slides 3 and 4.]
Local, Seasonal, and Global
- Unit 6, Lesson 6.2
- Topic 6.1 Where Food Comes From
- Today: build a January meal that a family here could actually buy
Teacher notes
Image: a farm stand table loaded with corn, tomatoes, and peaches.
Do now
- Name one fruit or vegetable you like
- Write the month you think it grows near here
- "No idea" is an honest answer
Teacher notes
Take five answers. Put a check next to the ones that are right for New York and a question mark next to the rest, and do not say which is which yet.
Two tomatoes
- One picked eleven days ago in Florida, on a truck
- One picked in August, ninety minutes from here
- Same word on the sign
- Not the same food
Teacher notes
Image: two tomatoes side by side, one pale and firm, one deep red and slightly soft, both cut open.
This is the hook. If you are running the optional taste demo, this is when you say it is coming.
What grows here, May to October
- Asparagus and strawberries in May and June
- Blueberries, cucumbers, broccoli, lettuce in summer
- Corn, tomatoes, peaches in July and August
- Apples, squash, pumpkins in the fall
Teacher notes
Image: a four-panel grid of the same field in spring, summer, early fall, late fall.
What grows here in February
- Greenhouse greens
- Mushrooms
- Eggs, milk, and cheese, all year
- And that is about it, fresh
Teacher notes
Image: an empty field with snow on it, and next to it a greenhouse with lettuce inside.
Hold on this slide. The point lands in the silence.
Storage crops: the part people forget
- Apples keep until spring
- Potatoes, onions, carrots, cabbage, winter squash keep for months
- Still New York grown, just not picked this week
Teacher notes
Image: crates of apples in a cool storage building.
Students mark three storage crops with an S on the chart. This is the answer to "what did people here eat all winter before trucks."
What has to travel
- Bananas, oranges, coffee, cocoa, rice, olive oil, black pepper
- None of these can grow here at any time of year
Teacher notes
Image: a world map with five arrows converging on the northeastern United States.
Food miles
- Food miles: how far a food traveled to reach you
- It stands in for the fuel, the trucks, and the days
- A banana: about 2,000 miles
- A New York apple in March: about 250 miles
Teacher notes
Image: a simple bar chart, five foods, distance on the bar.
The honest part
- Local is not automatically better
- A greenhouse heated all winter can burn more fuel per tomato than a truck from Florida
- How it was grown often matters more than how far it moved
Teacher notes
Say this out loud and do not soften it. This is the slide that teaches students to check instead of repeating a slogan.
Three ways to buy local
- Farmers market: you can ask who grew it
- CSA: you pay a farm up front and get a box every week in season
- School or community garden: you grow some of it
Teacher notes
Image: three photos, a market stall, a CSA box on a porch, a raised bed at a school.
The four trade-offs
- Cost
- Taste
- Availability
- Jobs
Teacher notes
Post these and leave them up for the rest of the period. Every claim a student makes has to land in one of these four rows.
Build two meals
- January and July
- Protein, grain, vegetable, fruit
- Label every item: local, state, national, or global
- Rule: the January meal has to be real
Teacher notes
Twelve minutes, pairs. Circulate with the checklist. The realistic January answer is usually eggs, bread, a storage vegetable, and a stored apple.
Your decision, and the exit card
- Pick one food. Would you pay a dollar more for the local one?
- Use all four trade-offs
- Exit card: 3 New York foods, 2 empty months, 1 question
Teacher notes
Take four answers, two yes and two no, and hold both as reasonable. Tape the four source notes onto the wall paths before the bell.