Food Education
Back to where we want to be! At last!
Food has some unique properties. Food is for life and food is for learning too. A Food, Energy and Water education, or FEW or maybe even a FEW4ALL education, is what we want. Learn one and learn all. Should we enter the food cycle first we would then be in a very fortunate and privileged position to enter all life cycles. Thanks to food we can: a) develop common synergies; b) answer the ‘profound questions’ (Wellcome Trust) faced by humanity; c) localise learning and localise production. The case is hereby made – food is the produce of the soil. If not the produce of the soil, then do not call it food. We call it food because of, implicitly, the necessitating properties attributed to it.
There are two parts to food: one is the word itself (what it means and whether it actually means the same thing to all of us); the other the thing we eat and drink. When dealing with the meaning of words, we are in effect dealing with the meaning of Life and, same thing, the meaning of our actions. It is a matter of seeing food in a newer light. Underpinning this work are a number of food pledges and guiding principles, and these in turn lead to the formulation of a new social contract.
5 Food Pledges – One Agenda
Like start in Start with Food, what the ‘Do’, ‘Study’, ‘Make’, ‘Let’ and ‘Privilege’ pledges do is to provide a clear set of instructions that can form the backbone of social cohesion and responsibility.
1) Do Food
2) Study Food
3) Make Food the entry point for joyful and compassionate living
4) Let Food inform the social, educational and economic function of the family group
5) Privilege Food and realise the beautiful worlds of work, affections and relationships
Guiding Principles
Our primary need is to satisfy our needs. The guidance the following two principles offer may be sufficient to show us how to satisfy the stated requirements. Most of our decisions are based on them.
1) All peoples have the same basic food requirements.
2) All households have the same basic energy requirements.
Social Contract
In an ideal world, we can identify the interests of the family group with those of society, the community or the state. The fortunes of one with the fortunes of the other. This ideal world is the starting point for social and political inquiry. These interests however diverge widely and this is at the root of inequality and much adversity. For civil society proper, we, identifiable with the family/social group, must
– be the state
– act like the state
– represent the state
– embody the state
People have said,
“ Our food begins with the earth. ” (Colin Spencer)
“ It is not just learning about food growing, but also encompasses maths, environmental science, geography, science, organic principles. “ (Ruth Hirsch)
“ … we don’t truly understand biology until we understand water. ” (Prof Brian Cox)
“ … the needs of [a] system for energy are provided by that system. ” (Bill Mollison)
This ‘food’ project is a wonderful one. I invite readers to join me.