Solution Concepts
Community Involvement and Engagement
Alliance for a Heathier Generation- Healthy Schools Program Ambassadors
Healthy Schools Program Ambassadors are innovators in their fields. They are a selected team of experts who help improve access to healthy foods, beverages and physical activity for the schools in their communities.
Ambassadors can be your example for how to engage, motivate and lead students and staff toward healthier school environments. Learn from them how the act of sustainable agriculture can help our children overcome obstacles and find innovative ways that support good nutrition, while engaging in physical activity in the gardens they create.
Plant Facts
Scientists believe there are over 260,000 species of plants. Some plants are so small they can barely be seen. Others are taller than people or animals. One of the largest living plants on the earth are the sequoia trees of California. Some stand over 290 feet (88 meters) high and measure over 30 feet (9 meters) wide.
Certain characteristics of plants set them apart from other living things. Both plants and animals are complex organisms that are made up of many types of cells, but plant cells have thick, rigid walls that consist of a material called cellulose. Animal cells do not have this material. The cellulose enables plants to stand upright without the aid of an internal or external skeleton.
Plants and their Environment
Plants require a reasonable level of heat to grow. The most favorable temperature at which photosynthesis takes place ranges from near freezing to 20 to 25° C (70 to 80° F). The rates of photosynthesis and respiration increase with rising temperatures. Any temperatures above or below these levels limit plant growth. The climate of a region determines what types of plants can survive in that region.
A plant's environment is made up of many factors. One of the most important is the weather--sunlight, temperature, and precipitation (rain, melted snow, and other moisture). Soil and other plants and animals that live in the same area are also included in the environment of a plant. All these factors form what is called a natural community.
No two natural communities are exactly alike, but many resemble one another more than they differ. Botanists divide the world into biomes--natural communities of plants, animals, and other organisms.
Sustainable Alternative Solutions
It’s possible to produce food without threatening our health, sustainable farms do it every day. Sustainable farms operate effectively without jeopardizing the health and safety of their animals, workers, neighbors and the general public. A growing body of scientific research is showing that sustainable, pasture-raised, and organic foods provide significant health benefits for consumers. In addition to being raised without synthetic hormones, antibiotics, pesticides and chemical fertilizers Crops, studies show the health benefits of sustainably-raised fruits and vegetables.
Organic fruits, vegetables and grains, contain higher levels of nutrients, minerals, and antioxidants, including vitamin C, iron, magnesium and phosphorus. Organic crops also have lower levels of certain toxic heavy metals. One of the benefits of sustainable and organic produce come from minimal or zero pesticide use, which keeps crops free of pesticide residues. In addition, better soil management techniques used in organic and sustainable farming, such as crop rotation, use of cover crops and composting, help enrich the soil and increase the concentration of vitamins and minerals in the plants.
Faster and Fresher
Food from sustainable farms is fresher because you buy it locally, unlike food from centralized industrial farms that ship their products hundreds to thousands of miles to get to your supermarket. The longer food sits after harvest, the more vitamins and nutrients it loses, and since sustainable foods reach store shelves faster, they don't need to be processed to increase shelf-life; so they don't contain preservatives and aren't subjected to irradiation.
Sources
http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/health/
1. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Safe Drinking Water – Guidance for people with severely weakened immune systems.” U.S. EPA. June 1999.
2. Campagnolo, Enzo R., Kammy R. Johnson, Adam Karpati, Carol S. Rubin, Dana W. Kolpin, Michael T. Meyer, J. Emilio Esteban, Russell W. Currier, Kathleen Smith, Kendall M. Thu, and Michael McGeehin. “Antimicrobial Residues in Animal Waste and Water Resources Proximal to Large-Scale Swine and Poultry Feeding Operations.” The Science of the Total Environment. Vol. 299(1-3). p. 89-95. November 2002.
3. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Benefits of Reducing Nitrate Contamination in Private Domestic Wells Under CAFO Regulatory Options. U.S. EPA. December 2002.
4. Farm Safety Association. Manure Gas Dangers. Guelph, Ontario (Canada): Farm Safety Association, Inc., 2002: 1.
5. American Association of Public Health (APHA). “2003 Policy Statements: Precautionary Moratorium on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations.” APHA Association News (2003).
Plants and Medicine
Plants provide many useful drugs. Some of these plants have been used as medicines for hundreds of years. The bark of the cinchona tree was used 400 years ago to reduce fever. It is still used to make quinine, a drug used to treat malaria and other diseases.
Another drug, called digitalis, is used in treating heart disease. It is made from the dried leaves of the purple foxglove plant. The roots of the Mexican yam are used in producing cortisone, a drug useful in treating arthritis and a number of other diseases.
