At the end of yesterday’s post I wrote,
The local food movement will not be fully realized if ordinary folks do not know what local, organic or seasonal means (as well as other buzz words in the movement.) To be a truly sustainable movement, the knowledge disparity must be overcome.
Writing these two sentences struck a deep chord in my thoughts. I’d go so far as to say I had an epiphany, one of great importance to my understanding of the local food movement.
Let me rewind a little bit. As you may know (if you read this blog somewhat regularly,) I am planning a class for families on “healthy eating and meal planning.” The class is an opportunity to teach both food literacy and basic cooking skills to families in the community of Floyd Light Middle School. Over the last couple months I have started to sketch the plans for the class, and as of this week, I finished writing the lessons for the 4-week class. Suffice to say, I am consumed by this planning process.
For me (as the teacher), it is equally important that families learn how to think critically about the food they eat, as much as they learn to cook a simple, nutritious meal. The post I wrote yesterday discusses one of the topics I want to cover in the course – popular terms in food marketing. After writing (and ranting) on this topic, I came to the conclusion (see opening quote) that the local food movement will not sustain itself if everyone started buying local foods.
Like any grassroots movement, education is the key to justice and long-term sustainability. For many people, the goals of eating local, organic or seasonal foods is clearly a class issue. And sadly, they are right (most of the time.) Access to “real food” is important, hugely important. But if an individual does not know why the farmer’s market produce is any better than the Walmart’s selection, we have a real problem. I don’t think the local food movement advocates for mindless consumption at farmer’s markets. In fact, I think some organizations are doing a great job of teaching people what to buy and how to access it. Nonetheless, I do think that this educational piece needs far more support.
In my experience, when I read about youth interacting with food its in the school garden context. That is, an elementary school plants a garden and learns about where food comes from. Another group might provide cooking classes for low-income people. But I think what’s missing is the skill set needed for shopping at the grocery store.
We have a long way before all our food comes from local food systems. It may happen with peak oil, it might not. I don’t really know and I don’t want to neglect the present need for critical food literacy. As long as most folks shop at the grocery store, or the neighborhood food mart, we need to provide people with the skills to decipher marketing ploys and such. More or less, this is my goal.
Everyone deserves the right to access and consume whole foods, grown in their community by people they know. Until we provide far greater access to resources (especially knowledge), we might end up preaching to the choir. And ultimately, that won’t get us anywhere.
Related posts: