An excerpt from Agyeman and McEntee in “Moving the Field of Food Justice Forward Through the Lens of Urban Political Ecology” compliments the story Melissa shared at Common Good City Farm: “The state now defines what is or is not an area of inadequate food access, thereby legitimizing the claims of some and discounting others who do not meet the state’s criteria.” (Agyeman, McEntee, 2014). Melissa spoke about how Shaw, the neighborhood where Common Good City Farm is located, is no longer considered a food desert because a Whole Foods was recently built. However, simply building a grocery store does not guarantee food access or food justice. Some basic solutions to end food injustice are often left out of the equation. This includes nutrition education–providing access to healthy food and produce does not guarantee that people will shift their diets.
So what do I see as part of the solution? One way I envision change is through school food education, with a curriculum that’d include farming, cooking, and tasting. Just as Phys Ed is not a class confined to a lecture-style classroom, “Food Ed” should not be either.
Malnutrition spans across socioeconomic class and race/ethnicity; undernutrition and overnutrition fall under this umbrella and adverse health problems can accompany both. Thus, food education needs to be implemented into the school curriculum, and should not be limited to low-income communities or communities designated as food deserts. Making it a mandatory component to education, similar to how Phys Ed is integrated in the school day, would provide children with the training and skills to eat and grow healthy food.
So what is the potential and feasibility for something like this to happen, in D.C. perhaps? Over the past few weeks we have learned that there is enormous opportunity for rooftop farming in D.C. because buildings have a 12-story height limit and most of the city’s rooftops are flat. Of course there are larger factors that would greatly influence such a monumental change in the curriculum and city landscape to occur, but certainly, D.C. would be an excellent starting point before scaling up.
While farming is largely associated with acres of crops in rural America, it is clear that farming is being redefined to encompass a broader breadth of landscapes. Urban farming offers a unique opportunity to make food education feasible for most schools–whether it be rural, suburban, or urban. Schools especially can help change this perception by exposing kids to the joy of farming, the skillset required to produce their own food, and the resources to develop a healthful palate.
I think this is a very important point; education is a key step in food. I don’t think I’d know much about local food if it wasn’t for education. Education also seems to play a prominent role in all the topics we’ve discussed. Many people just don’t know about what’s “good” or “bad” in terms of food because no one has ever informed them, not because they choose to eat the way they eat.
Camryn brought up a great point: who is determining the curriculum for education. I think the government would probably have to get involved in order for food ed to really make an impact, but often times the government’s view of nutrition is skewed and not beneficial. Something Pollan-esque would be good. I especially think people should know what goes into processed food.
This connection between food ed and phys ed is fascinating, Jeanne. By the way, a couple of days ago I had a meeting Carolyn Dash, who told me she had taught you in a class (two classes?) at Hamilton. She shared my admiration of your interesting and perceptive work.
I completely agree that comprehensive and hands-on food education is critical to addressing malnutrition. Like you said, we also need to recognize that malnutrition affects all community members, regardless of socioeconomic class and race/ethnicity.
Habits form at an early age. While our adult brains are capable of rewiring and breaking bad habits, educating young children about how to grow and cook their own food is critical to ensuring their overall physical and cognitive development. If we can prioritize experiential food education in all elementary schools, we can also be hopeful that our entire approach to food and food systems will change for the better. It is one thing to replace processed, sugary and fatty foods with prepared local, healthy foods in cafeterias and talk about out how we are healthier, “better” people by eating them. But, it’s another to teach students how the food got to their plates and how they can contribute to making a more sustainable food system.
The issue that you bring up about the lack of education around food, its production, and consumption, is becoming more and more of a prevalent problem for the health of consumers. Restrictions that come with the loss of food preparing skills has been discussed both in readings and by members of the food community in Vermont that the Middlebury-based FoodWorks fellows have met with. The lack of infrastructure for food preparation and limited knowledge are particularly problematic in schools, where cafeteria kitchens are no longer equipped to make food from scratch, but are instead only able to heat prepackaged products.
I think that the idea to view food as a legitimate topic of study is an important step in bringing awareness back to what we eat. However, in doing so, we must also be careful to present “Food Ed” in a way that does not adhere to government standards of nutrition education, but instead, in a way that focuses on whole foods and traditional farming methods.