Promote food and agriculture education, so that good agriculture and good food can change children and change the world. The kind of world we want depends on the kind of children we want to raise.
”Food education”, as an interesting educational method, is being welcomed by students, parents and educators all over the world.
United States: Food and agriculture education begins with awareness of children’s obesity
The “Edible Schools Project” was the first to initiate food agriculture education in the United States. This program first started in 1995. The founder, Alice Waters, cooperated with a public middle school in Berkeley, California, to open a vegetable garden in the school and let the children taste the original taste of the ingredients. The plan quickly gained support from local educators, residents, farmers, and chefs. The children not only had an organic vegetable garden for experiential learning, but also shared their own food in the kitchen classroom. In recent years, the “Edible School Project” has moved towards “schools supporting agriculture”, calling on schools from kindergarten to 12th grade to support the development of regenerative agriculture, not only focusing on healthy diet, but also on soil and the earth.
Many sustainable agriculture and food-related organizations in New York City, Pennsylvania and other places will allocate a large part of their energy to food and agriculture education for children and the public.
For example, Brooklyn Farm, the world’s largest rooftop farm, took the lead in founding a non-profit educational institution for farmers, leading students to grow fresh vegetables and fruits in New York, where land is expensive, and older children can also manage beehives on the roof. Anastasia, one of the founders of the farm, said: “If we don’t touch the land, why should we expect the next generation of urban residents to understand the ecological impact of consuming resources and disposing of waste?
” Mountain Restaurant teamed up to develop a food education program for high school teachers, offering free training and funding to turn classrooms into kitchens. They tailor the courses according to the subjects taught by the teachers, and also invite chefs and farmers into the classroom to lead the children to experience the regenerative farms and greenhouses in the center. Every high school teacher who has completed their food education training can apply for a grant of up to $2,500 to help them turn their classrooms into teaching kitchens. According to the person in charge of the Shicang Food and Agriculture Center, high school is in a period of confusion and hesitation in life. Offering food and agriculture courses at this stage will help high school students establish a basic understanding of the entire food and agricultural system, which may change them. As the choice of consumers, and even the choice of life style.
South Korea: A year-long agricultural course
At the Cheonggyecheon Waldorf Free School in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, students in grades 6 and 9 have a year-long agriculture class. The school not only opened up a large area nearby to grow wheat, edamame and other crops, but also rented two vegetable fields to give children the opportunity to practice farming.
Beginning in August every year, students are in charge of a vegetable field in groups of two, and grow Chinese cabbage, white radish and other vegetables. The weekly agricultural class is to water and weed according to the growth of vegetables, add compost when necessary, and tidy up the vegetable garden. After returning home, write each labor experience and observation into an agricultural diary. This intuitive experience in farming allows students to better understand the close connection between agriculture and food. At the end of the term, the students worked together to make spicy cabbage. And the fruits of these labors, in addition to taking some of them back to the parents, will also be distributed to the teachers and students of the school and the lonely and widowed elderly in the community.
In 2016, South Korea passed a national law to include local food and direct selling in the national five-year plan (2017-2022). More than 70 local governments have promulgated local regulations to support the direct sales of ecological farm ingredients in various forms. It can be seen that the government has also included support for local farms and ecological ingredients in the consideration of the entire food and agriculture education system.
Switzerland: Sugar control education in kindergartens, even parents
Compared with many countries in Europe, Switzerland’s obesity rate is not very high. Especially in recent years, the obesity rate of children in Switzerland has dropped significantly, which is closely related to food education, and society as a whole has a relatively high level of vigilance against sugar intake.
Swiss children have the habit of snacking at 9 am. Kindergartens will have requirements for the content of this meal. It is very important that there should be no sugar. This can be regarded as the earliest intervention of Swiss education in eating habits. Even if children bring sugary foods, these foods cannot be eaten in the kindergarten. They can only eat substitutes prepared by the teacher or are hungry. Parents who prepare sweets for their children will be specially reminded by the teacher.
The nature classes of Swiss elementary and middle school students also have corresponding food education content to teach them how to read the various nutritional elements and calorie tables in the food formula table when purchasing, so that they can understand the relationship between sugar and body function and health.
