In cities across the country, it is becoming increasingly clear that the food movement and other sustainability ideals are gathering force. Even as the economy tanks and the job market tumbles, more and more people are inspired by the possibilities of “green businesses.” Here in Portland, the DIY (do-it-yourself) fad is more than just a trend. It’s a way of life for many people living here. It comes as little surprise that the urban farming piece is not far behind. But this trend has transcended the uber-liberal walls of the NW. The anti-Establishment goals of the local food movement are planting roots all over the place.
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The Urban Farming Revolution
Cooking Class Takes New Direction
I want to use this post to share a new update in my ever-evolving, food-project-focused life. It began with this blog. Then the menu consulting (which is beginning a second start.) Then the cooking class at Floyd Light Middle School. And now an opportunity to teach the “food literacy and cooking skills” class at an alternative high school, called Fir Ridge (also in the David Douglas school district.) From this grows the most exciting detail in this action-packed tale…
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School Gardens are All the Rage – Resources to Join the Movement
Like it or not, school gardens are popping up across the country. The opportunity for children and young adults to grow their own food and learn math, science and social studies is a huge incentive for teachers and administrators. The physical activity is also a major plus. Beside the one well-written and poorly argued essay published recently in The Atlantic, everyone else is ecstatic about the food movement reaching the classroom and school community.
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A Glimmer of Hope
In today’s world of information overload, where most news is bad news, I think it’s important to emphasize the positive moments. And so I’d like to use this entry to mention an article I read in yesterday’s New York Times. While reading this I was reminded that there are moments of hope in our incredibly cynical society.
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Where Education and Food Collide
Imagine that as a young and desperately poor Mexican man, you had made the dangerous and illegal journey to California to work in the fields with other migrants. There, you performed stoop labor, picking lettuce and bell peppers and table grapes; what made such an existence bearable was the dream of a better life. You met a woman and had a child with her, and because that child was born in the U.S., he was made a citizen of this great country. He will lead a life entirely different from yours; he will be educated. Now that child is about to begin middle school in the American city whose name is synonymous with higher learning, as it is the home of one of the greatest universities in the world: Berkeley. On the first day of sixth grade, the boy walks though the imposing double doors of his new school, stows his backpack, and then heads out to the field, where he stoops under a hot sun and begins to pick lettuce.
