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Introduction to Food, Farming, and Community

Session 1

Summary

In this introductory session, learners share, discuss and reflect on the role and meaning of food in their lives, communities and cultures. To get acquainted, learners discuss their “food autobiographies” and share what they would include in their “personal food museum.” 

Guiding Questions

  • What foods and food related traditions are significant to each of us?
  • In what ways does food help define identities, cultures and communities?
  • What is “good food”?  What does it nourish?

Big Ideas

  • Food is a core part of identities, cultures and communities.
  • Eating is a biological need, but food can also nourish families, spirits, cultures and communities.
  • A food system is a series of interdependent elements that provides food to a community. This includes the growing, marketing, distributing, consuming and disposing of food. Food systems are comprised of human elements (farmers, gardeners, business people, and consumers) as well as non-human elements (stores, processing facilities, transportation).

Session 1 Materials


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"I wish I could fast forward the camera to see what agriculture would be like in twenty years. There are so many grass-roots movements out there, so many people that want to turn things around . . . so how can the higher power not bring us all together and give us some sort of vision on how to do this. I believe that each of us in doing what we are doing, already are making a difference, a huge difference."

Judy Hageman, Paoli, Wisconsin - Dane County from Voices of Wisconsin Farm Women by Cynthia Vagnetti, 2003.