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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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"Women need a voice in how our food is raised. You can no longer just "keep the books: for the men folk. We need to start writing the books on how to become better farmers. I would love for more women to realize how significant our traditional care-taking roles can be in caring for our soils. I am grateful for being able to raise my children on a farm where we use no harmfor agricultural chemicals. The greatest gifts I have given my children have been learned from this farm. The lessons taught here will help them become responsible adults."

Nancy Vogelsberg-Bush, Home City, Kansas --Marshall County from Kansas Farm Women Growing Out of the Tilth by Cynthia Vagnetti, 1992.