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CHAPTER 04: PRIORITY OUTCOMES, INDICATORS AND MEASURES75• Gardens provide youth and adults with places of refuge, saferafter-school environments and a physical location wherethey can connect with nature and nurture living things 39–42 .The environmental implications of agriculture and foodproduction, transportation, packaging and waste, opens uppotential linkages with school food procurement practices.Producers who use fertilizers efficiently, rely less on fertilizersand pesticides, restore degraded lands, or cultivate soil healthsupport environmental quality. With practices such as organicamendments, composting, wetland set-asides, crop rotationwith legumes, providing food for pollinators, optimizingmanagement of manure, increased productivity relative tolower resources used (i.e., fertilizer, fuel, water, land), and useof erosion control mechanisms, producers can contribute toreducing greenhouse gases as well 43–46 .As an essential part of creating healthy communities, farm toschool activities are hypothesized to support environmentallysound, sustainable and just approaches to food production,processing, packaging, transportation and marketing. Keyoutcomes related to environmental implications include:• Purchase of food products that use more sustainablemethods, such as poultry raised without antibiotics 47 .• Students’ performance of environmentally responsiblebehaviors including composting, recycling and startinggardens at home 40,48 .• Reduction in food waste 38,49 .There are other potential sustainable food production methodssuch as pasture-raised animals, organic foods and integratedplant-animal production systems used in permaculture (seedefinitions on this page) that farm to school program activitiescould support butt have not yet been fully examined in practiceand in research 9,10,50 .An Environmental Quality Lens for Farm to SchoolWhen applying the environmental quality lens to the socioecologicalmodel for farm to school, all three core elements offarm to school — procurement, gardening and education — arerelevant and contribute to various levels of behavior change.There are numerous ways that environmental quality goalscould be met through farm to school activities at the variouslevels; see examples in Figure 11.Sustainable Food SystemA sustainable food system is one thatprovides healthy food to meet currentfood needs while maintaining healthyecosystems that also can provide foodfor generations to come with minimalnegative impact to the environment. Asustainable food system also encourageslocal production and distributioninfrastructures and makes nutritious foodavailable, accessible and affordable to all.Further, it is humane and just, protectingfarmers and other workers, consumers andcommunities 6 .Ecosystem ServicesEcosystem services are the benefitspeople obtain from ecosystems. Theseinclude provisioning services such as food,clean water, timber and fiber; regulatingservices that affect climate, floods, disease,pollination, wastes and water filtration;cultural services that provide recreational,aesthetic and spiritual benefits; andsupporting services such as building soil,photosynthesis and nutrient cycling 7 .BiodiversityBiodiversity is the totality of genes, speciesand ecosystems in a region. It can bedivided into three hierarchical categories— genes, species and ecosystems — thatdescribe different living systems thatscientists measure in different ways 7,8 .PermaculturePermaculture involves the design ofsustainable agricultural systems andhuman habitats that mimic the patternsand relationships found in naturalecologies. The term refers to permanentagriculture and permanent culture 9 . Theethical foundation of the approach isto care for people, care for the Earth’senvironments, and redistribute resourcessurplus to one’s own needs 10 .NATIONAL FARM TO SCHOOL NETWORK