Nature-Inspired Solutions to Disease Problems

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 23.05.05

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. One Health. People, Plants, Planet
  3. How Did We Start Farming with Fossils?
  4. The Modern Omnivore Has Choices
  5. Urban Farming: Modern Practices, Cultural Connections
  6. Fat Food Nation.
  7. Heritage Diets & Cultural Foodways
  8. Teaching Strategies
  9. Right Plant/Right Place.
  10. Unit Activities
  11. Endnotes
  12. Bibliography
  13. Appendix on Implementing District Standards

Growing a Sustainable Future

Anna Herman

Published September 2023

Tools for this Unit:

Guide Entry to 23.05.05

This unit explores how food and agriculture systems impact the health of people, animals and overall environmental health using the One-Health paradigm.  Our current industrial food system is at the nexus of dietary disease, water and air pollution and climate crisis impacts.  Seen through the view of One-Health, where health outcomes are measured as positive if all aspects of the interconnecting systems are healthy, industrial food production and processing is not sustainable, nor desirable.  There is much to learn from nature as well as indigenous and traditional human cultures around sustainable food growing and health supportive eating practices. Students will be asked to evaluate various practices and policies around food growing, purchasing, marketing, distribution and preparation and diets with an eye towards maximizing One-Health, and identifying barriers to achieving this in the context of their own lives and our community.  Students will have opportunities to visit local farms, purchase and share locally produced food, and meet with public health professionals and to examine to connect this learning to careers and community engagement.  Students will review case studies, complete inquiry driven research, food preparation and sharing, while managing a sustainable garden and fresh food box program in our school.

(Developed for Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources CTE, grade 12; recommended for Environmental Science, Health, and General Science, grades 9-12)

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