G6_food_we_eat_all_student_resources

Let’s make a tuna salad. Step 1.

Get some tuna. Step 2. Chop up
some celery and mix it with the
tuna. Step 3. Mix in a little salad
dressing. Serve on lettuce.

Sounds easy enough, right? But where do you
get the tuna? Lots of people make tuna salad with
canned tuna. Some people cook a piece of tuna fish
and use that in salad. Either way, they start with tuna.

There are lots of kinds of tuna. Skipjack and
blackfin tuna are only about three feet long, while
the northern bluefin tuna often reaches ten feet
and can weigh over one thousand pounds. Tuna are
harvested by fishers using hooks and lines or various
kinds of nets. You may have seen the words dolphin
safe on cans of tuna. One kind of tuna, the yellowfin
tuna, swims with dolphins. When the dolphins would
come up to the surface for air, fishermen would set

© Learning A–Z All rights reserved.
www.readinga-z.com

their nets around both dolphins and tuna. Sometimes
the dolphins would drown. Today, the words dolphin
safe mean that dolphins were not hurt in the
catching of the fish.

Commercial Fishing

Fishing is a very old profession—people have
fished for themselves and others for centuries.
Today, fish are caught in all types of fresh and salt
waters and in all kinds of boats. People catch fish
with baited lines and poles, nets, pots, and other
devices. Commercial ocean fishers troll for fish such
as cod, haddock, hake, and pollock near the ocean
bottom and herring and tuna near the surface of
the water.

Commercial fishing boats usually ice down
the fish once they are caught to keep them fresh.
The largest types of fishing boats are called factory
trawlers. These ships go far away from shore and
are like floating factories. Fish are caught and sorted.

Credits: top left (both): © Tono Balaguer/123RF; center left: © G. Victoria/123RF; right: © iStockphoto.com/DigiClicks

1

Then the fish are cleaned, gutted, and frozen on
board. When the boat returns to shore, the blocks of
frozen fish are rushed to processing plants where they
are packaged for sale or further processed into fish
sticks or other entrees. Some factory trawlers have
machines that extract fish oil and make fishmeal from
the leftover parts of the fish.

Fishing boats that do not have on-board
processing equipment bring the fresh fish back
to shore. There, they are met by buyers for grocery
stores, restaurants, and individual consumers.

Aquaculture

For many years, certain species of fish have been

overfished, which means people have caught too

many of them. Some species have been fished almost

to extinction. Today, you might see wild-caught on

some labels of fish. These fish have been harvested in

sustainable ways. That means

they have been caught in DID YOU
ways that will keep their
population from dying out. KNOW?

But not all fish can be Many consumers
choose fish because
it is a good source of

wild-caught and still meet protein. Other sources
consumer demand for this are meat, poultry, eggs,
protein source. Many kinds milk and other dairy
of fish are now grown on foods, and beans.

© Learning A–Z All rights reserved.
www.readinga-z.com

farms, just like cattle, hogs, and chickens. Fish farming,
also called aquaculture, is now producing about fifty-
percent of the seafood people consume.

In open ocean aquaculture, fish are raised
in pens or cages that float in the ocean but are
anchored to the ocean floor. While this method
raises lots of fish for market, it creates its own set of
problems. First, wild-caught fish are fed to the caged
fish, and this can deplete the wild stock of these fish.
Second, fish waste sometimes pollutes the local water
source. Third, fish sometimes escape, and breed with
wild fish. In some cases, their offspring are not able
to survive in the wild.

Fish are grown on farms Good fish choices
for food and to restock lakes Arctic char
and oceans. The young fish Barramundi
are bred in a controlled Catfish (farmed)
environment and then are Halibut
released when they are Salmon (Alaska wild)
mature. Sardines
Striped bass
You can see a list of Tilapia (farmed)
fish that are good choices Trout (farmed)
for consumers. These fish Tuna (skipjack,
are caught or farmed in
environmentally friendly ways. yellowfin)
Halibut salad, anyone?

2

Whether meat is part of your diet or not, these

days you can hardly escape hearing about how
animals are raised for food. In your grocery store,
you can now find meat and chicken labeled free-
range, grass-fed, pasture-raised, American Humane
Certified. However, there are not always objective
organizations that make sure standards for animal
care are met. So, what do these labels mean?

Factory Farms
Traditionally, cows, hogs, and poultry (chickens,

ducks, geese, and turkeys) were raised on small,
family farms. The animals spent their days in the
pasture or the barnyard. The farmer grew much of
the corn or grain the animals ate and then used the
manure from the animals to fertilize the crops. These
animals were both an important protein source for
the farmer’s family and a vital part of the growing
cycle on the farm.

© Learning A–Z All rights reserved.
www.readinga-z.com

Enter industrialization. Powerful, multi-task
machines replaced farm workers and made it
possible to plant more land and reap ever bigger
harvests. Fertilizers were applied to soils and crops
instead of manure from the farm animals, and
pesticides were used to control pests that ate crops.
Soon, farms either grew crops or they raised animals.

Cattle and pigs today are raised in facilities that
specialize in one breed of animal. The animals are
often confined together in large buildings where the
temperature and lighting are controlled. The animals
stand or lie down on slotted floors that are raised
above a concrete floor. They are fed a grain-based
diet. Most of these animals
spend their entire lives
in these buildings,
beginning in a nursery
building and ending in
a finishing building.

Many chickens are
raised in similar facilities.
Many are kept in cages
so small they cannot
flap their wings. Artificial
lighting is used to control
their growth. Chickens
that are raised for meat

Credits: main: © iStockphoto.com/Barbara Gibbons; background: © iStockphoto.com/Igor Djurovic

1

stay in the buildings for DID YOU
about thirteen weeks.
KNOW?
Animals that are raised
in these industrial farms are To satisfy consumer
kept healthy with antibiotics demand, some growers
to protect them from have given turkeys special
diseases. Some animals are diets that result in birds
given hormones so they will with more breast meat.
produce more meat. These so-called “super
turkeys” cannot mate or
survive on their own.

Are you thinking about all the waste products
these animals produce? Confined animals produce
almost 300 million tons of waste each year. And,
unlike human waste, there are no rules for how to
treat animal waste before it is sprayed onto crops
or returned to the environment.

Returning to Traditional Ways
For a long time, some people have worried about

the safety of our food supply. Do the pesticides and
fertilizers that are used on crops ever go away?
Are consumers who ate meat and poultry that were
fed antibiotics and hormones also eating these
substances? And could this cause harm to people?

The answers to all three questions are no and
yes. In the 1940s, a pesticide called DDT was used to
control pests on farms. Later, biologist Rachel Carson
showed that this pesticide affected other living things

© Learning A–Z All rights reserved.
www.readinga-z.com

in addition to the pests. Spraying DDT killed whole
populations of birds and nearly caused bald eagles to
become extinct. DDT is no longer used now. Hormones
that have been given to animals raised for food have
been shown to cause different kinds of cancers in the
people who eat the meat from these animals.

Today, industrial livestock and chicken producers
are making some changes to produce healthier
animals and safer products. Consumers are also
supporting smaller farms, where cattle can spend
time in a pasture, and chickens can engage in their
natural behaviors, such as roosting and pecking for
insects. Since their food is natural, animal manure can
be used on crops and gardens. Often, these farmers
are using alternative methods for pest control on their
crops. These farmers are growing healthier foods and
they are helping to keep the environment safe.

One way to understand what you are eating is
to read the labels and to look for labels like these:

Animals forage for food outdoors in a
pasture; can also mean they are fed grass
while in a pen.

For bison, chicken, cows, pigs, sheep, and
turkeys. Label certifies the humane treatment
of farm animals—they are not raised in cages,
are allowed to engage in normal behaviors,
and are tended by trained handlers.

2

Consider the foods you have eaten today. Did you

consume an egg, some cereal, bread, milk, peanut
butter, apple, or a few cookies? Do you know where
these foods are from? Whole foods, such as eggs
and apples, may have come directly from farms.
Everything else you ate was probably processed in
some way in a plant or a factory.

Processed Foods

Not all foods are processed in the same way
or to the same degree. Foods such as raw fruits
and vegetables, dried beans, eggs, and milk are
minimally processed. Fruits and vegetables are
washed, and then they are peeled, sliced, juiced,
frozen, or dried. Often this work is done in plants
located near the farms and orchards where the
fruits and vegetables are grown. Eggs are washed
and sorted according to size. Milk is pasteurized
before being bottled.

Suppose you wanted to make pancakes from
scratch. Aside from eggs and milk, the ingredients

© Learning A–Z All rights reserved.
www.readinga-z.com

you need—flour, sugar, and vegetable oil—are
processed foods. These foods are all changed
from their raw state into something that looks very
different. Wheat, sugar cane, and corn are milled,
crushed, and/or refined to make flour, sugar, and oil.

You might be most familiar with highly processed
foods. These are foods that are a combination of
raw foods, minimally processed foods, and processed
foods. Cereals, breads, chips, soups, chicken nuggets,
ice cream, and frozen pizzas are examples of
highly processed foods. To make these products,
ingredients are mixed together and then baked,
boiled, fried, or frozen before they are packaged.

Foods Plus

Special food processors do lots of things to raw
foods to make the products people eat. They also
add substances to the foods they process. Processed

Credits: main: © iStockphoto.com/IP Galanternik D.U., background: © iStockphoto.com/Valeriya Shmidt

1

foods may be fortified, which means nutrients have
been added to them. Milk is fortified with vitamin D.
Breads and cereals are fortified with B vitamins and
folic acid. Fortifying foods can make some foods
healthier, but some processors use fortification as
a way to sell foods that are not that healthy for you.

Most processed foods have additives to improve
color, flavor, or shelf life. Salt and vinegar are natural
additives that have been used to preserve food for
centuries. Today, many more substances are added
to foods. These additives help thicken foods, sweeten
foods, enhance flavors, prevent spoilage, and keep
foods from drying out.

Why Buy Processed Foods?

A long time ago, people processed foods
themselves in order to preserve it. People dried
and smoked fish and meats. They pickled cucumbers,
beets, and some meats. They canned lots of different
kinds of fruits, vegetables, and meats.

These days, people buy processed foods for
many reasons. First, processed foods are convenient.
Even if you live where you can get raw foods, it
can take many hours to prepare meals using only
unprocessed foods. (Just think what it would take to
make a loaf of bread beginning with the wheat as it
is harvested.) Food processing creates products that

© Learning A–Z All rights reserved.
www.readinga-z.com

can be eaten right from the package or with just a
little preparation time.

Processing foods makes many foods safer.
Washing foods removes dirt and pesticides that might
have been used in growing. Cooking or freezing
foods removes pathogens that can make people sick.

Using processed foods lets consumers have
variety in their diet. If fresh blueberries are not
available in the produce section of the grocery store,
consumers have to simply check another aisle where
they can find blueberries that are frozen, dried, or
made into a thick preserve. Consumers can have the
foods they want when they want them.

The Good Side of Processed Foods

Processed foods are frequently thought of as
bad, and there are unhealthy ways to process foods.
There are many high-fat, high-calorie snack foods.
Many prepackaged microwave meals have too much
salt. Yet, it turns out that some processed foods
are not at all bad for your health. Processing has
decreased illnesses from food with pasteurization
that kills bad bacteria. It has added vitamins to foods.
With preservatives, canning, and freezing, processing
foods has made healthy foods be available to eat all
year round.

Credits: background: © iStockphoto.com/Valeriya Shmidt

2

“What we are calling for is a revolution in public
education—the Delicious Revolution. When the
hearts and minds of our children are captured by a
school lunch curriculum, enriched with experience
in the garden, sustainability will become the lens
through which they see the world.”

—Alice Waters

In 1996, an idea began to take shape in the minds

of several people who were concerned about an
empty, unused, ugly piece of land on the grounds of
a middle school in Berkeley, California. The germ of
the idea began with Alice Waters, a chef at a posh
restaurant called Chez Panisse.

Slowly the plans for a garden, which would grow
foods that students would then cook in the school
kitchen, began to become a reality. In two years,
an acre of asphalt had been removed and a cover
crop had been planted. By the third year, parents
and students had cleared away cobwebs, hauled

© Learning A–Z All rights reserved.
www.readinga-z.com

away garbage, and turned the school cafeteria into
a kitchen classroom.

Teachers began planning how to integrate
their teaching into working in the garden and in
the kitchen. “Let’s teach fractions when we cook,”
said the math teacher. “My students want to
plant heirloom seeds to find out what plants early
civilizations grew taste like,” said the social
studies teacher.

Today, students at this first Edible Schoolyard still
grow, harvest, prepare, and eat the foods they grow.
The garden has grown larger and now includes an
irrigation system, constructed by the students. The
main goal has always been to introduce kids to fresh
produce and ways to prepare it. In the hands-on

Credits: main: © iStockphoto.com/Jani Bryson; background: © iStockphoto.com/Valeriya Shmidt

1

growing, kids learn about the importance of soil, how
seeds germinate, and how plants grow and produce
fruit. In the kitchen, scraps are collected and put
in a compost pile, where they break down and are
returned as natural fertilizer to the garden.

In 2013, the Edible Schoolyard at Martin Luther
King, Jr. Middle School will get another addition to the
garden: a beehive complete with bees! Observing the
bees at work in the garden will help kids understand
the important role bees play in pollinating crops
worldwide.

Educating Communities Everywhere

Today the Edible Schoolyard Project has helped
people start gardens and teaching kitchens in schools
across the country. They are part of a movement
that seeks to educate people about their food: what
it takes to grow it and how to eat in healthful ways.
People are buying more foods at farmer’s markets
and are starting backyard and windowsill gardens
of their own. Communities are providing spaces for
people to grow food for themselves or for others in
their communities.

Have you heard the term locavore? This word
refers to people who try to buy as much locally
grown and raised foods as they can. There are

© Learning A–Z All rights reserved.
www.readinga-z.com

several reasons why eating DID YOU
locally might be good for
everyone. KNOW?

Buying local foods means Here’s how far some
fewer resources, primarily fossil foods travel from
fuels, are needed to process, growers to markets
package, and transport foods. in Chicago:
Apples—1,555 miles
Buying locally also can Grapes—2,143 miles
support your local economy. Lettuce—2,055 miles
Beans—766 miles

Some communities have challenged their
residents to eat locally for one meal each week or
for longer periods of time. Could you do this? Find
your town on a map and draw a circle to show one
hundred miles from your town. Could you find the
foods you and your family usually eat? What changes
in your diet would you need to make? Could you
use local honey or maple syrup in place of sugar?
Would eating foods grown or produced within one
hundred miles of your home be easier in one season
than another? What would you substitute for some
of the foods that come from other countries such as
bananas, olives, and pineapples?

From an edible school yard that educates students
to community gardens that educate residents, a
“Delicious Revolution” is taking place. Find out what
your school or community can grow and cook up!

Credits: background: © iStockphoto.com/Valeriya Shmidt

2

Look at the yummy hamburger

on its sesame-seed bun with
cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion,
pickles, and ketchup. Now look at
the delicious salad with lettuce,
carrots, cucumbers, and peppers.
What is the common denominator of almost
every food you eat? If you said soil, you are right.

Fertile Soil

The food we eat is grown or raised on farms
around the world. We call this production of food
and goods agriculture. No matter where food is
grown, certain factors determine how well plants
and animals grow. One of the most important is the
condition of the soil. Healthy soil is an important part
of our food supply.

Soil provides plants with water and nutrients. Soil
anchors plant roots in the ground. Fertile soil also has
lots of living organisms—some you see and some you

© Learning A–Z All rights reserved. Connectin
www.readinga-z.com

don’t. A teaspoon of soil might have as many as one
billion bacteria, or tiny, one-celled organisms. Some
bacteria are decomposers, breaking down organic
matter. Others capture nutrients from the air and
make them available to the plants. Still other bacteria
break down pollutants in air and water.

What else do you find in fertile soil? Earthworms!
As earthworms move through soil, they mix up the
soil and make it less dense. This means water can
drain through soil. Earthworms create channels for
roots to grow in. They also chew up, excrete, and
bury plant materials, which helps improve the soil.

Climate and Healthy Soil

The soil in any particular area is affected by
climate. Farmers depend on their knowledge of
weather conditions over a long period of time to
plan their planting and harvesting. If the climate
changes, the ability to raise crops changes as well.

You may have read
about the Dust Bowl. In
the late 1800s and early
1900s, the area of the
United States known
as the Great Plains
experienced terrible
droughts. Then, in the

ng Passage Credits: center top: © Mara Zemgaliete/123RF; center bottom: © Polacchini/123RF;

1right: © V. J. Matthew/123RF; background: © iStockphoto.com/Valeriya Shmidt

1930s, terrible windstorms picked up this dry soil
and blew it away. Millions of acres of fertile land
were destroyed.

People played a role in the Dust Bowl too. When
settlers came to the Great Plains, they removed the
native grasses to plant crops. The root systems of
many of these crops could not withstand harsh dry
conditions. After each harvest, farmers also plowed
their fields, leaving few plant roots to hold the soil.

Bees, Butterflies, and More

Farmers depend
on many organisms to
produce crops. The variety
of living things in an
ecosystem, such as a farm,
is called biodiversity. Bees,
butterflies, beetles, flies,
and moths are important
to farmers and our food
supply. These insects
pollinate plants by picking
up pollen from one plant
and carrying it to another.
This helps plants grow. Then
animals eat the plants.

© Learning A–Z All rights reserved. Connectin
www.readinga-z.com

Maintaining Healthy Soil

Agriculture has changed over the last fifty years.
Growing crops and raising animals for our food have
become highly mechanized. Along with the successes
of growing lots of food have come problems.
Chemical fertilizers and pesticides run off fields and
pollute nearby streams and lakes. Pesticides harm
living things in the ecosystem, including the pollinators
needed for crops. They also harm the very people
who work on the farms.

Many people today— DID YOU
farmers and consumers
KNOW?

alike—are taking action to The Incas lived at different

protect our food supply. altitudes and grew different
One movement is toward varieties of potatoes at
organic farming. Organic different levels. This diversity
farmers raise crops across a major food source
without harmful fertilizers helped the Incas survive. If
one crop failed, there were

and chemical pesticides. others to rely on.

These farmers rotate

their crops to keep pests from gaining a foothold

in the soil. Rotating crops keeps the soil from being

depleted of nutrients. Organic farmers try to lure

beneficial insects to their farms, those who naturally

prey on the pests. Organic farming is one way to

keep our soil growing the healthy foods we need.

ng Passage Credits: main: © Inspirestock Inc./Alamy; background: © iStockphoto.com/Valeriya Shmidt

2

Student Response Sheet Individual Reading

Name

Key Question
Where does our food come from?

On Your Own

Food is vital to life, but do you know where your food comes from? The
passages in this Close Reading Pack will give you some information you can
use to find out.

1. Read the Key Question. Then read the passage and think about what
aspect of our food supply the passage describes. What main points about
food does the author explain? What details support these ideas? Take notes as
you read, underlining or circling important ideas.

2. Look at the Main Idea/Details chart below. Use it to write the main ideas
and supporting details from the passage.

Where does our food come from?

Main Ideas Supporting Details

3. T hink about the Key Question. You can begin to answer it using the main
ideas and details you found in the passage you read. Write your answer.

My First Answer

© Learning A–Z All rights reserved. 1 www.readinga-z.com

Student Response Sheet Team Discussion

Name

Key Question
Where does our food come from?

Share Your Ideas
1. M eet with your team. Talk about each passage your team read.

2. Look at the Main Idea/Details chart each person made. Summarize the
important ideas in each passage. Ask each other questions to broaden
your discussion. Be sure team members can point to words and phrases in
the passages they read to support their answers.

• W hat are the advantages and disadvantages of the ways different
foods are grown, raised, or processed?

• What choices do consumers have in choosing foods?

3. C omplete the Main Idea/Details chart below for all the passages you and
your team read about. Try to write one main idea for each passage.

Where does our food come from?

Main Ideas Supporting Details

Answer the Key Question
As a team, write an answer to the Key Question. Use the details from the
passages to support your answer.

Where does our food come from?
Our Team’s Answer

© Learning A–Z All rights reserved. 2 www.readinga-z.com