Your Choose: |
Which poultry operation would you choose? Explain why you would run your operation and list the pros and cons of each. Post it on your "Google Classroom" in the Public Comment section.
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Industrial Food Animal Production(IFAP)In IFAP, poultry and swine are confined in densely stocked indoor facilities. A single IFAP facility, for example, typically houses over 5,000 hogs, or over 100,000 laying hens.2 Beef and dairy cattle spend at least part of their lives in similarly large-scale indoor or outdoor feeding operations.3,4 IFAP facilities are designed to maximize the amount of meat, milk, or eggs from a particular breed of animal in the shortest amount of time and at the lowest cost. They are also heavily dependent on specially formulated animal feeds, pharmaceutical drugs, fossil fuels, and other inputs to the production system.
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Alternative Food Animal Production(AFAP)The first priority of raising pastured poultry is providing the chickens with fresh pasture every day or every few days. Therefore, a key feature of a pastured poultry operation is a building and/or pasture design that moves easily and allows the chickens to graze and benefit from frequent fresh pasture (these designs are sometimes called “chicken tractors”).
A “chicken tractor” is simply a term, popularized by author and producer Andy Lee, used to describe any type of mobile poultry housing that allows birds access to pasture or an area of the garden. |
Out to Pasture (35 minute VDO) |
Watch this VDO before you start this unit. It will help compare and contrast the differences between IFAP and AFAP.
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Lesson Overview: |
Students will explore how animals are raised for food in the industrial system, and how it impacts human health and ecosystems. They will also look at ecological alternatives to industrial food animal production (IFAP) –such as pasture-based production–and consider the advantages and disadvantages of each system
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Level 4 Guiding Question: What can be done to raise animals in ways that are more sustainable and humane?
Assignment: |
After watching and reading the slide presentation focus on the Industrial Food Animal Production slide, which contains images of chickens raised for meat, laying hens, hogs, and beef cattle. Construct a “Pros & Cons of IFAP” list on the board, using magazine, newspaper or internet images to create a collage. Make use your collage answers the following questions: What might be some benefits to these production methods? Why do food animal operations like these exist? One you have assembled it make a 1 minute VDO using your smartphone of iPad presenting your thoughts and conviction on IFAP. Please post it on your "Google Classroom" page.
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Level 4 Investigation: "Expert Groups" |
Each student will be placed in an “expert groups” and assign each one of these topics:
◼ Waste Management
◼ Antibiotic Resistance
◼ Community Impacts
◼ Worker Health and Justice
◼ Animal Welfare
Click on the button above this section that is entitled, "Click to Read IFAP Primer" each expert group and ask them to read the section that pertains to their topic. Instruct students to consolidate the information into no more than four main points as a group. Have students record these points on the Impacts of IFAP Handout. See link above. Then rearrange the “expert groups”into “sharing groups.” Each sharing group should have at least one student from each expert group. If the number of students does not allow for even distribution of group members, groups can have more than one “expert” for a topic. Each expert will share their main points and students in sharing groups will record this information on their handouts.
◼ Waste Management
◼ Antibiotic Resistance
◼ Community Impacts
◼ Worker Health and Justice
◼ Animal Welfare
Click on the button above this section that is entitled, "Click to Read IFAP Primer" each expert group and ask them to read the section that pertains to their topic. Instruct students to consolidate the information into no more than four main points as a group. Have students record these points on the Impacts of IFAP Handout. See link above. Then rearrange the “expert groups”into “sharing groups.” Each sharing group should have at least one student from each expert group. If the number of students does not allow for even distribution of group members, groups can have more than one “expert” for a topic. Each expert will share their main points and students in sharing groups will record this information on their handouts.
Level 4 VDOs: IFAP and AFAP pros & cons
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Level 4 Elaborate: How can we make our garden more Ecologically sensitive lab?
Display the Ecological Production slide note that this is a very small operation and a very small percentage of animal products in the U.S. are from farms that use ecological approaches. These typically involve raising animals outdoors, at lower densities, and on diverse farms that cultivate a variety of crop or animal species. Well-managed pasture-based farms avoid many of the problems of IFAP, offer farmers greater autonomy, and allow animals to express their natural behaviors.
Consider the images on the slide and reflect on these questions:
◼ Do the benefits of IFAP outweigh the negative impacts?
◼ How could we change IFAP to mitigate the negative impacts?
If we were to shift our garden toward ecological approaches to raising animals for food, how would we achieve this? Come up with two or three projects the we will build and install in our garden. What, if anything, should be changed about the way animals are raised for food?
Consider the images on the slide and reflect on these questions:
◼ Do the benefits of IFAP outweigh the negative impacts?
◼ How could we change IFAP to mitigate the negative impacts?
If we were to shift our garden toward ecological approaches to raising animals for food, how would we achieve this? Come up with two or three projects the we will build and install in our garden. What, if anything, should be changed about the way animals are raised for food?
Level 4 Review: Compare and Contrast IFAP & AFAP
Using all the resources on this page such the VDOs, lists you created, and the IFAP primer create a infographic comparing and contrasting IFAP & AFAP. When complete turn your PDF infographic by attaching it to your "Google Classroom" page. Popular infographic sites are provided but if you have another on you like to by all means use it.
Level Summary: Unit Test
You are to survey your local supermarkets and food stores (2) to investigate what kind of animal products are available and how financially accessible they
are. Students will investigate: What kinds of animal products are sold? Are organic or pasture-based options available? What are the price differences between these and conventional versions of those products? What does this tell us about the accessibility of animal products that are raised in a more sustainable and/or more humane way? What costs of production in the industrial system are not included in the retail price? You are to use a spreadsheet (Excel or Google sheets) to gather the data and display and explain the final report on a document i.e. Work or Google Docs.
are. Students will investigate: What kinds of animal products are sold? Are organic or pasture-based options available? What are the price differences between these and conventional versions of those products? What does this tell us about the accessibility of animal products that are raised in a more sustainable and/or more humane way? What costs of production in the industrial system are not included in the retail price? You are to use a spreadsheet (Excel or Google sheets) to gather the data and display and explain the final report on a document i.e. Work or Google Docs.