Activity 1: Food Miles Cafe

1. Provide each student with a Food Miles Cafe Menu, and ask them to choose their favorite meal from the menu choices. Point out that the menu indicates where each meal's ingredients come from.
2. Ask the students to predict how many miles their meal traveled.
3. Distribute the Food Miles activity sheet. Allow the students to use a website such as Google Maps or MapQuest to find the distance from their hometown to the farm where each of the main ingredients were grown or raised. Have them record the miles on the activity sheet. Then, have the students calculate the total miles the ingredients for their meal traveled.
4. Ask the students to compare the total miles with their predictions.

The locations listed on the Food Miles Cafe Menu represent actual farms in a high-production state for each commodity. In some cases, the food could be produced closer to your location.

Activity 2: Eating Local Pros and Cons

1. Distribute a Pros and Cons graphic organizer to each student. Throughout this activity, as the students are discussing the topic, they should make notes concerning the advantages and disadvantages of eating local on their graphic organizer.
2. Organize the students into small groups. Ask the groups to discuss the question, "Why does food travel long distances?"
3. Have the groups share the ideas they discussed with the class. Guide the students to consider the following points:
   • Population Density: Some areas do not have enough local farmland to support their local populations. 
   • Out-of-season Preferences: In some areas, food production stops during the winter. Local food options are limited unless food is preserved. Transporting foods from other locations provide people with a year-round variety of food options and nutritional diversity.
   • Climate and Soil Conditions: Some climates are better suited than others for growing certain crops. It costs less for farmers to focus on products their climates are best suited to grow. Extra food can be exported to other areas.
4. Introduce the students to the term "locavore." Explain that a locavore is a person whose diet consists only or principally of locally grown or produced food. Ask the students to consider their meal choices from the Food Miles Cafe Menu. Ask, "Could any of the ingredients be grown or raised locally?"
5. Have the students return to their small groups, and ask them to discuss some of the reasons someone might be motivated to be a locavore.
6. Have the groups share the ideas they discussed with the class. Guide the students to consider the following points:
   • Economic: When you buy local products, more money stays in your community.
   • Environmental: The less miles a product travels, the less fossil fuels are needed to transport it. Reducing food miles cuts down on fuel consumption, air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions.
   • Fresher Food: The farther food is transported, the amount of food lost to spoilage increases. Local food is typically fresher than food that has travelled long distances.
7. Ask the students, "How feasible would it be to eat only locally produced foods? If you decided to be a locavore, what foods would you have to give up?"

   This lesson investigates the benefits of buying locally grown food. If you teach in the following states, refer to your local agricultural literacy resources about locally grown food. Maine