Food Systems Thinker
Lesson 2.2 The Influencing Forces
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to identify key variables in the food systems and analyze how the change in these variables affect the system.
Variables? What are those?
Variables are anything that can go up or down over time. We are interested in a variable because it can influence or affect another variable or the system.
For example, number of pizza slices you could eat in one sitting; how hungry you are; how much food products that the U.S. exports annually, or amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
Basically, variables can change. You might not eat vegetables when you were a kid, but now you might eat a bowl of salad twice a week.
In the past, people were scared to eat tomatoes until some "variables" were changed. You will learn more about variables in this lesson.
Do you like to try new food?
Have you tried anything new this year?
Before moving forward with this lesson, download and review the worksheet.
Activity 1: Find out why tomatoes were feared for over 200 years.
To learn more, check out Smithsonian.com
Provide an example for the following variables that made people in Europe stop fearing tomatoes and eating them instead?
Belief:____________________________________________________________
Value:____________________________________________________________
Culture:___________________________________________________________
Knowledge:_______________________________________________________
After those variables changed, people have been consuming a lot of tomatoes around the world. See this as an example of how variables can influence the food systems. In 2016, the United States produced 3.1 billion pounds of tomatoes for fresh market consumption. Every American consumes more than 37 pounds of fresh tomatoes annually.
Activity 2: Read the article and respond to questions. Look for variables that can influence the food systems.
A food guide (the Food Pyramid, MyPlate, the Healthy Eating Plate, and the Plant Food Pyramid) is a variable that influences what people choose to eat.
The article criticized the food industry to have an influence on what foods were included in the food pyramid and MyPlate because the food industry makes a lot of money from people consuming a larger quantity of food by following the food guide.
Knowledge is one of the variables influencing a food guide. For example, food scientists learned that whole grains are more healthful than refined grains. Eating colorful fruits and vegetables has health benefits. We should avoid eating sugar and trans fat.
Some people now use systems thinking to consider the health of the environment. Because we cannot produce good and safe food without the healthy and clean environment.
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What are three major differences between MyPlate and Harvard’s Healthy Eating Plate?
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Draw and label a food guide for yourself with suggestions for healthy eating and healthy environment.
Additional Reading
Canada has recently revised the national food guide and released it in the beginning of 2019. Find out more about Canada's Food Guide and also read the article critiquing the inclusion of culture and sustainability in the food guide.
Activity 3: The slideshows present what families around the world eat in one week, how much they spend, and what their food cultures look like.
HUNGRY PLANET: WHAT THE WORLD EATS
Photo by Peter Menzel, Text by Faith D’Aluisio
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The slideshow presents many variables. For example, ages of family members, locations, types of food available in the area, family’s favorite foods.
List two more.
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Compare a family that pays less than $50/week and a family that pays more than $100/week.
- Location
- Number of family members
- Food expenditure for one week (in U.S. dollars)
- More processed foods or fresh foods in the picture?
- Which one has more variety of foods?
2.1 Why is there a huge difference of how much these two families paid for foods?
2.2 How did the locations influence the food choices each family had?
(Hint: Use the map or search about the country’s food production.)
CONCLUSION
You learned about various variables such as culture, economic status, geographical location, and preferences. When one variable changes, it affects the system. For example, when an individual stopped being afraid to eat tomatoes, they had a variety of food containing tomatoes they could choose to eat. The demand for tomatoes increases and the producers increase their supply to meet this demand.
Experiential Learning
Instruction: Explore edible plants that are not common in groceries store and try them out! Search for the term "wild edibles" or "edible weeds".
I will give you two examples from my previous projects:
Dandelion & Japanese Knotweed.
Share it on instagram.