Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Finlay.

And today we're going to look at food production and organic farming.

Before we start the lesson, make sure you have with you paper and pen, and you're somewhere quiet, where you can hear the lesson.

I'm just double checking, that you've got that paper and pen ready to go.

So, you may have already done the introduction quiz so well done for that.

We're then later going to look at farming and processing of food.

And we're going to look at milking, and we're going to look at eggs.

We're, then going to look at the process of pasteurisation and understand why some milk will be pasteurised, and some milk won't be.

We're then going to look briefly at organic farming, and as always there will be an exit quiz at the end the lesson.

So here are keywords for the day, and I think some of them you might know already.

Organic farming.

This is a very natural way of farming.

Less intense, so it's a slower pace, and organic farming doesn't use pesticides.

So it wouldn't use chemicals that might naturally, kill weeds and things like that.

Let's look at the next one.

Free-range.

I bet you've heard of this word before.

This is a farming method where animals are reared, that means brought up and looked after, with space to move around.

So they're not confined to 24 hours being in a barn, they're allowed to roam free.

And the final one, is intensive farming.

Now this might be for animals or crops and it's farming where there is a high yield.

So there's a high output product.

So it might be a lot of eggs or a lot of meat, or there might be a lot of crops.

These are our keywords today.

Look out for them in our lesson.

Where does all milk come from? There are three terms that I want to share with you today.

And the first is organic.

Organic dairy farms, are slightly different to our standard dairy farms. A good example to start with, is the fact that, whereas on a standard dairy farm you might milk your cows at five o'clock in the morning, five o'clock in the afternoon.

On an organic farm, this will be much more relaxed.

And whilst you may get two milks in a day, the timing might not be as rigorous.

The other differences are the use of things like antibiotics and pesticides.

Antibiotics won't be as uniformly used on animals, and they will be allowed to live more natural lives.

They will be outside generally more, and only coming into the barns in really bad winter weather.

The other thing with organic farming is that the yield, and this is the amount of product, so if we're talking about a dairy farm, we'll be talking, our yield will be the milk.

The amount of milk produced in an organic farm is less, than a standard dairy farm.

Often about a quarter of the milk volume is produced in an organic farm.

So there are positives and negatives to this, but obviously the welfare of the animal is always really important.

The other two terms we want to talk to you about, are pasteurisation and unpasteurized milk.

Pasteurisation is a process where milk is gently heated, to kill pathogens.

And these are germs and harmful pathogens that might make us ill.

Particularly very young children, the elderly, or people who are pregnant for example.

Pasteurising milk also extends how long it can be used for.

It's used by dates.

But in some countries you can drink raw milk, and England is one of those countries.

So we're going to have a little look at a video, of a farm and we're going to see the cows being milked.

And then we're going to have a little look at the raw milk barn where you can purchase, one or two litres of raw milk.

Now raw milk tastes really good.

It's amazing if you make things like rice puddings and scones, but obviously you need to be aware, that it hasn't been pasteurised, so there is a level of risk there.

Milking parlour.

And you can see that the girls have just all come in and they're lined up.

On here down through here, this is the main part where the cows have been milked.

The milk runs along and it comes in to this first vessel.

So we'll have a little look, okay.

Back down through the line, and you can see they haven't been hooked up yet.

'Cause you can see that the dairy man is going down through and he's cleaning the udders.

There they are they're just coming in through there.

And these have been linked on.

So you can see the blue lines which are all jetted out and they're cleaned every day.

The blue lines are going down through, and all of these pipes, all the way up through here are pumping through the milk.

And these are yet to be attached.

So all the attachments all up here ready to be put onto the cows.

And there's counters up here, for how much milk is being produced as well.

There we go, these girls were all attached.

And then the milk goes all the way down through the middle, into that first station.

And then it comes through to this big stainless steel screen, where it's pumped through, and obviously kept to a sensible temperature.

So here we are at the vending machine, on the farm right next to the dairy.

You can see the little unit on the left here, that's sanitised and cleaned up every time somebody gets some milk.

So the first thing I'm going to do, is I'm going to get my bottle.

It's all been sterilised and unfortunately I didn't have the right change.

But I'm going to put some money in the vending machine.

I'm going to place my bottle underneath the nozzle, and that's a litre bottle.

So I'm going to select my litre of milk for a pound.

And the vending machine will then fill my bottle up for me.

And after this has filled up, you shut the door, and it steams and it cleans the whole area out.

There we go it's getting filled and then all I'll do is I'll put my lid on and shut the door, and there we are.

So we talked about organic, unpasteurized, and pasteurised milk previously.

The cows you saw in the little film, were not from an organic farm, but they are outside for most of the year.

And when I filmed this, it was December.

So the cows have been in the barn.

But you can see that they're super happy.

And the milk that they're producing, goes off in a tanker.

Goes into a bulkhead and off in a tanker, and some of it is kept on the farm, in the milk barn and sold as raw milk.

And obviously as a farmer, there's lots of things that they have to do, to check that the quality of milk is correct, and that if you're selling raw milk people will come and check the hygiene as well.

But I thought it was a really great opportunity for you to see, that real milk is available in certain countries.

And that's something interesting that you can talk about with your teacher when you're back at school.

Okay, we're going to put some notes together now, on the process of how milk is produced.

So we're going to write some notes, about what happens when milk is produced on a dairy farm.

I've put some notes underneath so that the cows are milked twice a day, their udders are cleaned, and they have suction cups added to their teats and that's what we saw in the video.

Milking takes about eight minutes a cow, and about 25 to 40 litres of milk is produced from each cow a day.

So if you think about the bottle that I filled up in the milk barn, it's about between 25 of those and 40, depending on the cow.

And then the milk is kept in a sterilised bulkhead.

That was the big stainless steel tank that we saw at the end of the film.

And then it's collected it's pumped out by a tanker.

Now it's up to you.

You can do little sketches like a cartoon strip might be quite nice.

And you might find that you want to rewind this video, and watch a film again.

So, pause the video and have a go of that activity.

We've done quite a lot of work so let's go back and look at what these terms actually mean.

Organic farming, free-range, and intensive farming.

Farming methods where reared animals have more space to move around.

A method of farming where there are high levels of output, that might be crops or animals.

And a more natural way of farming without using pesticides.

So, pause the video, and see if you can match up those terms. Okay, you ready to go? Let's go for it then.

Farming method where reared animals have more space to move around.

Yeah, that's right it's free-range.

Let's look at the next one.

A method of farming where there are high levels of output, that could be crops or it could be animals? Do you think that's organic farming, or do you think that's intensive farming? Yeah, it's intensive isn't it? Because the word intense means very focused.

You'd have to be very focused if you were really structuring on getting those high levels of output.

So this last one, a more natural way of farming, without the use of pesticides? Yeah, that's organic farming.

And that's a clue, it's more natural, slower paced, and not using pesticides, and when we were talking about the dairy farm, not having such an intense use of antibiotics on the animals.

Well done! I want to take some time now just to very briefly discuss pasteurisation.

And whilst I'm not going to ask you to do a diagram of it, I do want to talk about what pasteurisation is.

We pasteurise milk and we also pasteurise some fruit juices.

And the idea is to heat up the liquid, to below a 100 degrees, very gently, in order to kill off any of the microorganisms, the pathogens, the very bad germs that might be in there that might make us very ill.

And some of the illnesses we might get from it might be things like fever, vomiting where we're sick, or diarrhoea.

And for people who are very young or very old, or some that have underlying conditions this could be really serious.

So whilst pasteurisation is a fantastic thing for extending the life of products, that means that we don't waste so much juices and milk and things like that, it also is incredibly important to keep us safe.

The production of eggs.

So we've got a lovely Goldline chicken there, or hen.

And we're going to have a look at how eggs are mass produced.

Now there are four different ways that this can be done and I'm going to talk you through those in a little bit.

But eggs are amazing source of vitamin D and protein.

And they are found in what area of our Eatwell Guide.

Can you remember if they're protein, what area is it? What colour section is it? Yeah, the pink area.

Great stuff! So four different ways that eggs can be produced.

So we have organic.

Now can you remember some of the key bits of organic farming for when we looked at the cows? That's right, they're free to roam, they're free to lay their eggs any where you like.

So if you've got an organic hen or an organic egg farm, you'll be going around that farm yard trying to find those eggs.

Bit like a continuous Easter Egg Hunt I would imagine.

Free-range.

These are where their hens are able to roam around outside whenever they feel like it, but they come inside at night time, and they also lay their eggs inside as well, generally.

And we're going to have a little look at a free-range set up in a little bit.

Caged hens.

This is where the animals are in cages, and they do not come out of the cages.

So they are sat down, they eat, they drink there and they're physically caged in.

Now less places in the UK, now run caged setup 'cause there is a lot of ethical issues surrounding it.

And then barn.

Now this is when animals are inside all the time, but they were allowed to roam freely within the barn.

So we're going to have a little look at a set up where it's a free-range farm, and they're producing eggs.

So that means that the hens are allowed to go outside in the daytime, and at night time they come in.

And this protects them from things like foxes as well.

This is where the birds come inside to lay their eggs.

And there are two layers to this as well.

And quite often, they'll sleep up here too.

Now, when the eggs are laid, they go onto this conveyor belt, and there are many of these throughout the barn and the conveyor belts meet together and you can see them here, there's one coming from underneath and one coming from the top, and they come forward onto this conveyor belt at the front.

And then they move along to the left, and you can see the little brushes at the top there.

They're then slowly moved on 'cause obviously you don't want any eggs to break.

They're slowly moved on to here, where you can see that they start to go down these different channels.

On here there are rollers that move, and these are gently moving the eggs forward.

Here's a little film of that working.

The suction cups then pick up the eggs, and they moved them onto the trays.

There we go.

And then there's the eggs stacked, and dated, certified, and they're ready to leave the farm.

Now interestingly, this film was taken when avian bird flu was in the area.

So a lot of the chickens have been locked up into the barn but ordinarily during the day, they'd be out in the field doing whatever they need to do eating grass.

And they're only coming in at night time, to be locked up.

Okay, so now we're going to see if you have really understood those four different types of ways of keeping hens and producing eggs.

So you've got organic, free-range, barn, and caged.

And here will come our descriptors.

Hens are free to roam outside, but come inside at night time.

Look at the next one.

Hens live and roam freely.

Hens up caged indoors, light, feed and heat is controlled.

And hens move freely inside, but light and heat is controlled.

So let's take these one at a time.

Let's think about organic.

Which ones of those do you think is a description of organic? I'm going to read through the descriptors one more time, just to help you.

Hens are free to roam outside, but come inside at night time.

Hens live and roam freely.

Hens are caged indoors, light, feed and heat is controlled.

And hens move more freely inside, but light and heat is controlled.

So which of those do you think for organic? Yeah, hens live and roam freely.

Okay, there's no pressure on them to produce anything at any time.

And you may find that you're on a continual egg hunt.

Next one.

Free-range.

Do you think that's, hens are free to roam outside but come inside at night time? Hens are caged indoors, light, feed and heat is controlled? Or hens move freely inside, but light and heat is controlled? That's right it's the top one.

Hens are free to right outside, but they come inside at night time.

And that's like the hens we saw in the film.

Okay so we've got barn and caged left.

So which one is which do we think? So we've got hens are caged indoors, light, feed and heat is controlled.

Everything is controlled.

Or we've got hens move freely inside, but light and heat is controlled.

So which is which do you think? Okay, so which one do you think is barn? That's right it's the bottom one.

And then caged is when they're actually in physical cages and they don't move or stand.

Well done! This is a great opportunity to have a little think about, what is printed on our eggs.

So if you go and look at any eggs you have in the home you'll find that there'll be some coding and printed on them.

And this has lots of information the date they were produced and also the method of production.

And that's why we've looked, at the four different types today.

And it will be able to tell you in code exactly how your eggs were produced.

And on the packaging as well, it will tell you whether they are organic, free-range, they come from a barn or whether they are from caged hens.

Also on the egg you will have this symbol.

Do you know what this symbol is? Okay, well let's have a look together.

This is the lion quality mark.

They are stamped on any eggs that are produced within the UK and EU laws.

And when we say laws, mainly we're talking about safety and welfare.

So we're talking about the welfare of the animals, I'm also talking about the safety of the eggs, in terms of eating them.

And there are lots of laws and procedures that people have to adhere to, when they're producing foods in this country, and eggs are no different.

So I've got a bit of a question for you.

Lots of, listening today but a little bit of a question for you.

What sorts of things do we need to think about, when we're buying eggs? So give yourself a minute, maybe pause the video if you want to, and think about the thoughts of things you need to think about.

Okay, I'm going to come up with some of my ideas now.

You might have most of mine, you might have some even better ones and I expect you do.

So if I was buying eggs, what might I think about? Firstly, one of the things I might think about is the cost.

How much do they actually cost? I might only have 50 P in my pocket and I need to really quickly get some eggs because I want to make, pancakes or something like that.

So the cost, and the cost is going to be affected by how they're produced.

So if you buy eggs from caged hens the price of the eggs are going to be drastically cheaper, less than they are from organic.

You also might want to think about the methods of production.

So you might want to think about whether they are organic eggs, or you might decide that actually you don't want to buy eggs from caged hens.

And the third thing you might think about is where they were produced? You might want to buy eggs that are produced in the area in which you live, rather than eggs that are produced in very long way away.

So maybe you've got some other things as well.

But it's important that when we're buying our food, we think about the implications, especially when it comes to animals welfare and our safety.

So let's look at what we're going to finish off the lesson, by looking a little bit into, some more organic farming.

What do you understand by the word organic? Which of these images best describes, do you think, organic farming? Okay, for me the organic farming picture is more on the right.

Okay so in the fields.

Remember when we talked about dairy farming and also with the eggs as well being organic.

In that the animals weren't pressured into producing milk or producing eggs at any particular time.

They weren't influenced as much.

They weren't as many pesticides or antibiotics being used as well.

And this is same for if you're producing fruit or if you were producing crops of other types.

On the left-hand side is intensive strawberry farming which sounds hilarious, because you think is someone going to stand there and say, "Come on strawberry ripen." But the farming is done intensely by using different chemicals, so that the plant produces more pieces of fruit.

They ripen quicker.

They maybe don't damage in weather.

They're not affected by drought or things like that.

And so a more organic range of farming, you might have more damaged fruit, more wonky food and wonky vegetables, but this is a type of farming that doesn't tend to use so many chemicals, but also remember the yield will be less.

We're going to think about organic farming, a little bit more.

Organic farming is farming that does not use chemicals.

Not using chemicals reduces the water use, and reduces the soil pollution.

So, you need your pen and your paper now, and we're going to have a little go at saying why.

So I'm going to give you a statement, and I want you to write a lovely sentence about why that is the case, why that is correct.

So let's look at the first statement.

Organic farming is kinder to animals.

Now why do you think that might be? Pause the video now, and write a sentence or two, to support this comment.

Okay have you got that down, have you got one whole sentence? Have you said why, have you made sure you've got why in there, you've explained your answer? You haven't just written organic farming is kinder to animals because it is.

Have you given some examples? Okay, let's have a little look together then.

So organic farming requires animals to roam free, and does not lock them up.

It does not require them to mass produce food.

There's two examples I've put on there.

One being the fact that they are not caged in.

And one being the fact that they haven't got the pressure on them to produce milk maybe, or eggs or whatever it is.

Okay let's look at the second one together.

Organic farming produces better quality food.

So pause the video.

Can you give me some great examples of why? And I really want to see those in lovely sentences.

Let's look together.

Organic farming uses less pesticides, fertilisers and chemicals.

This can produce better quality food which has more vitamins and minerals in it.

And also remember when we were talking about the dairy farm, we tend to use less antibiotics with the animals as well.

Well done! Well done today, as always, there's an exit quiz at the end of this lesson, and I'll see you soon.