As consumers become more and more removed from the food source, it is difficult to tell where our food originates. After all, where do Lunchables come from? This lesson is adaptable in infinite ways depending on your grade level and objectives.

To demonstrate to students where our food comes from today and show how diverse our diet is now compared to cultures 1,000 years ago.

1. Students will use computer technology to research and determine the source of food served in a local restaurant.
2. Students will pinpoint on a world map where the food is grown and/or raised.
3. Using technology and printed material, students will research foods grown locally 1,000 years ago.
4. Students will create a chart to illustrate foods grown locally 1,000 years ago.
5. Create a menu using just the foods of the past.

Grade level: K-12

1. Place
2. Location
3. Movement
4. Human Environment Interaction
5. Region

4.  The physical and human characteristics of places.
5.  That people create regions to interpret Earth’s complexity.
8.  The characteristics and spatial distribution of ecosystems on Earth’s systems.
11. The patterns and networks of economic interdependence on Earth’s surface.
16. The changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resources.

Materials:

1. Menus from local restaurants
2. Computer with Internet access
3. Outline maps of the world
4. Markers
5. Library access

1. Ask students what did they have for lunch today. Then ask them if they know where the foods came from. Discuss the origins of meat and vegetables. Teacher may show labels from food packages.
2. Show level three virtual reality of grain farm in Southern Illinois.
3. Show level three virtual reality of feed mill and hog farm in Southern Illinois
4. Visit Cahokia Mounds web site. www.siue.edu/CAHOKIAMOUNDS
5. Have students look at food labels from that night’s meal.
6. Divide students into groups of three, or any number manageable for your grade level.
7. Give each group menu from a local restaurant, and have them "order" a meal from the menu.
8. After making their decision, students will then research where the main ingredients were grown or raised. A good place to start is www.yahoo.com
9. Use world map and pinpoint those locations.
10. Research available foods of 1,000 years ago.
11. Create a chart illustrating the types of foods.

Groups will present orally their findings. Included in their presentations, must be their "order" from the restaurant and the map. Also included must be the chart showing the foods from 1,000 years ago.

1. Work in map to show movement of food from its source to the table.
2. Create a menu grown or raised only within a certain distance or a certain season. ( Example: within 100 miles in August).
3. Instead of using menus from restaurants, have students create a fantasy menu, encouraging them to be as exotic as possible.
4. Research paper on any aspect of the project.
5. Field trips galore!!
6. Possible culminating event eating local foods.
7. Project could be narrowed in scope by doing just modern day foods or foods of 1,000 years ago.
8. Study economic aspects of food production. (For example compare the price of a green pepper grown locally and one grown in another state).

Go to Where In The World Does Food Come From Presentation (to see full screen slide presentation click on the small screen in the lower right corner)

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