--- --- # How School Lunches Can Boost the Local Economy by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jul 25, 2017 4:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jul 25, 2017 4:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**Here’s how schools can help boost the local food economy.**](http://www.gracelinks.org/blog/8121/five-models-for-local-school-food-procurement) By Maggie Tauranac at _EcoCentric_ **2\.** [**Privatizing our military again would be a mistake.**](http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-michaels-privatization-military-20170720-story.html) By Jon D. Michaels in the _Los Angeles Times_ **3\.** [**Is it time to get rid of algebra?**](https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2017/07/20/does-algebra-do-more-harm-than-good-community-colleges-rethink-requirements/) By Kayla Lattimore and Julie Depenbrock at _KQED’s Mindshift_ **4\.** [**Algae could be the next great alternative fuel — and now it can be produced much faster.**](https://news.wsu.edu/2017/07/24/algae-cultivation/) By Tina Hilding at the _Voiland College of Engineering at Washington State University_ **5\.** [**In the future, military robots will take more inspiration from nature than from “The Terminator.”**](https://warontherocks.com/2017/07/the-future-of-military-robotics-looks-like-a-nature-documentary/) By Gregory C. Allen at _War on the Rocks_  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ Five Best: How School Lunches Can Boost Local Economies ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4872105/how-school-lunches-can-boost-the-local-economy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4872105/how-school-lunches-can-boost-the-local-economy/"},"headline":"How School Lunches Can Boost the Local Economy","datePublished":"2017-07-25T16:00:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:39.274Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4872105/how-school-lunches-can-boost-the-local-economy/","keywords":["Five Best Ideas","Military","Lunch"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/five-best-ideas/","name":"Five Best Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4872105/how-school-lunches-can-boost-the-local-economy/","name":"How School Lunches Can Boost the Local Economy"}}]}] ```