Farming in the UK & world food production

A grow your own topic - A topic has been written for parents who home school and teachers who would like a fun topic that offers opportunities for children and pupils to choose what fruit and vegetables they would like to grow in their home garden or school garden. Through research choose the vegetables they would like to eat later in the year.

Parents and teachers can use the websites listed to help in their ’ grow your own ’ topic and through this, offers many opportunities to spend time outdoors preparing an area of the garden for growing crops. My two and half year old enjoyed placing the pea seeds in the seed trays indoors ready in a few weeks to plant the seedlings outdoors. All children will enjoy being involved in the sewing of the seeds, to eventually harvesting the crops to enjoy and eat.
Additional activities for older children allows further research to be carried out online: To transfer the data collected onto maps
produce posters on what is needed to be successful at growing vegetables or fruits, thinking about what tools are needed and the time of year the seeds will be planted.
A storyboard/ time board activity to draw the process of preparing the veg patch, planting the seeds indoors, watering, planting out the seedlings outside to how long it takes the vegetables to grow. (Those children who love drawing can draw further detailed drawings of the vegetables)

Enjoy and have fun spending time outdoors in this topic.

L 1 Geography - Seasons - Understand and gain knowledge on impact of seasonality on food production around the world.

By the end of the lesson children would be able to: summarise and give an explanation why foods are grown in seasons.
Identify the climates and locations where food is grown, reared, caught and produced.
To locate where food is exported in the world.

L 1 & L 2 Farm to Fork lessons Include: lesson plans, PPP , resources and weblinks including an opportunity for Children to interview a local farmer as well as watch the BBC programme – Jimmy’s Farm Heroes 2008 (1 hour in length), making notes about what is affecting today’s farmers the most.
Children in Lesson 1 will compose questions to ask a farmer and interpret his/her answers
In Lesson 2 children will understand the link between land use and economic activity.

By the end of lesson 1 children will be able to ask open ended questions.
Interpret information from different sources and evaluate, from interviewing, that there are physical and human characteristics that affect farming.
By the end of lesson 2 children will successfully identify land use; Identify the effect of land use on economic activity. As well as identify the distribution of food from its origin.

Included is a photo of some notes the class teacher took when interviewing a local Cornish Farmer.
L 3 Farm to Fork This Geography lesson follows on from \farm to Fork L1 & L2 and gives opportunities for researching different types of farming, expressing views and opinions on farming and how food ends up on our plates. Answering questions: do you know where our food comes from? As a nation should we be supporting our local farmers?

There are links to a number of numeracy lessons on how far food travels from farms to end up on the supermarket shelves. Websites provide information on locations of locally sourced food products, and who these farmers sell their produce to. It is not just dairy, rearing animals, crop growing; fishermen are also farmers, catching fish to sell at markets and restaurants.

This lesson provides opportunities for discussion on farming life and the produce that is sold to supermarkets and other sources for profit.

L 4 Geography/History – Changes in our landscapes
Topic day- Methods of farming and changing land use.
This lesson entails using search technologies effectively, appreciate how results are selected and ranked and be discerning in evaluating digital content.
To use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly.
Q. How has methods of farming and land use changed over time?
To gain an understanding of how land use and life has changed over time and recognise key topographical features using and reading OS maps identifying land use symbols and scales as well as locations and distances on all scales of maps, including national and world maps.

This lesson is for upper KS2 and is an ideal lesson for a topic day where pupils would be looking into farming and land use seeing how much has changed over time.
Pupils would use local maps of a county, regional and nationally from a local library - to see how land use has changed over a period of time in the history aspect of this lesson.
With a focus on the different farming ways –studying beef, sheep, dairy, arable, mixed, pastoral and renewable energy using Google Earth as a source of information.
The aim of the geography lesson is for pupils to consider the changes that can happen in an area and about the impact that these changes can have on both the environment and the people who live there.

L 5 Opportunities to research where farms are locally; also finding out what produce is farmed and do these farms supply supermarkets?
Pupils can also use the links provided to help them research crop and animal production from the different farms in the UK-
Using the map pupils can work out the scale – distances in miles/km, then work out the time it would take to transport/deliver the produce to its destination, including counties/countries travelled through.
The lesson gives pupils opportunities to research using the world wide web and ways of how they will present their findings from their research.

L 6 This lesson has a scientific aspect, giving pupils a chance to understand and research what foods are consumed in the world and how they are consumed.
What foods are produced for the fast food industry and how does overconsumption of certain foods increase obesity in the world?
Pupils will have opportunities to research areas of the world where there is an obesity crisis; also by watching a bbc clip/you tube clip –‘The men who made us fat’. Will allow pupils to think about the foods we eat, seeing fast food restaurants everywhere, and advertisements.
By researching the crops that are grown and farmed in the world have a huge impact on world population and world obesity.

L 8 Food distribution is a current issue as is food production; this lesson is about both these issues. Children will consider both and investigate what foods are grown, produced and distributed in the UK; the impact farmers are facing with costs and profits when supplying their produce to supermarkets. Children will have opportunities in mapping food production and distribution in the Great Britain and around the world, and write a report on why there is so much food waste from vegetables grown as they don’t match the supermarkets criteria in size and shape.

L 10 This lesson will give pupils an understanding of the concept of varying food prices across the supermarkets. As well as opportunities for research and give an explanation of varying food prices across the UK and world.

When we do our food shopping, do you look at the prices between supermarkets on certain produce?
Today’s lesson involves thinking about
Q. Why does the cost of fruit and vegetables vary so much between the supermarkets?
Many food produce, especially fruit and vegetables are imported from around the world.
Q. How does this impact and influence the shopper on food prices?

As a nation are we set in our ways in only buying from one supermarket, or only buying brand name produce?
A research lesson where children will evaluate their findings, putting the data collected into a graph and writing an explanation of what has been found out.