Something as small as a seed can have a worldwide impact. Did you know there are top-secret seed vaults hidden throughout the world? And once a seed disappears, that’s it—it’s gone forever? With the growth of genetically modified foods, the use of many seeds is dwindling—of 80,000 edible plants, only about 150 are being cultivated. With a global cast of men and women, scientists and laypeople, and photographic documentation, Nancy Castaldo chronicles where our food comes from, and more importantly, where it is going as she digs deeper into the importance of seeds in our world. This empowering book also calls young adult readers to action with suggestions as to how they can preserve the variety of one of our most valuable food sources through simple everyday actions. This book must be returned. 

Many students think products simply come from factories or stores. This hands-on activity helps students understand that before an item ever leaves a factory or enters a store, it begins as a resource or product in the natural world. More specifically, these products can all be traced back to one unassuming animal, the cow! In the Beef By-Product Source Relay, students will work in teams and run a relay race where they will quickly decide the source of a product and then race to place it into one of the buckets marked Factory, Farm, Store, Earth, or Cow.

Science in Your Shopping Cart shows us just how much science is behind the everyday items we use, eat, and wear. In the United States, we pay less for food than almost any other country. Every year, researchers introduce dozens of new and improved varieties of fruits, vegetables, and other products. But as we walk through the grocery store, do we ever stop to think about where this incredible abundance and variety comes from? This book helps us understand the science that makes it all possible.

Told in lively and powerful verse by debut author Kevin Noble Maillard, Fry Bread is an evocative depiction of a modern Native American family, vibrantly illustrated by Pura Belpre Award winner and Caldecott Honoree Juana Martinez-Neal.Fry bread is food. It is warm and delicious, piled high on a plate.Fry bread is time. It brings families together for meals and new memories.Fry bread is nation. It is shared by many, from coast to coast and beyond.Fry bread is us. It is a celebration of old and new, traditional and modern, similarity and difference. This book must be returned.

When we think of farmers in Oregon producing popular crops such as beets, blueberries, hazelnuts, onions, and grapes, we might not first think of art supplies. However, these food crops, along with many other plant materials, often find their way into the art studio! Many paints, drawing tools, and fabric dyes contain pigments and tannins, which come from agricultural commodities, even rock and soil! This lesson allows students to utilize foods and other plant materials to discover exciting, naturally occurring colors growing in their gardens or school yards.

Download Lesson Plan here: The Art of Food Plant Pigments and Tannins