Where Does Food Come From? Bringing Children Straight to the Source

As children, my siblings and I grew up in the city. Our parents bought all our food from the supermarket. But for two weeks every summer for a number of years, they took us to visit good friends of theirs who had a farm on 20 acres in Vermont. We fed the pigs, cows, goats, sheep, and chickens. We gardened, learning to tell the delicate green fronds of baby carrot tops from the equally delicate baby weeds. We picked blackberries, ate them until we were covered with purple stains, and gave the remainder over to be made into pies. Now, as adults, all three sisters in our family are passionate gardeners, and consider providing our children with healthy fresh food that we grow ourselves an important part of parenting. Our children help in the garden (some more happily than others!) and all benefit from the fresh food and fresh air and exercise that we enjoy while gardening. It all began with our parents' willingness to introduce us to growing food locally in those brief summer visits.

The typical plate of food in the United States travels 1,500 miles before we eat it (Pirog, 2001). Packaged food shipped from long distances disconnects us from the sources of our food. Failure to question toxic additives, coloring, preservatives, genetically modified organisms, and pesticides means that we allow corporations rather than our own cultural traditions and preferences to determine what we put into our children's bodies. The results are nothing short of epidemic. Rising rates of ADHD and ADD have been linked to food colorings and other additives. The age of onset of puberty in girls has dropped dramatically due to hormones in meats. Children with some autistic symptoms and Asperger's syndrome have been shown to respond positively when certain foods such as those containing gluten and casein are removed from their diets. Ninety percent of American children have measurable amounts of pesticides in their urine (Los Angeles Times, 1999). And certainly, less healthy foods are linked to obesity.

Now that rising gas costs are making us pay attention to where our food comes from, we should take this opportunity to examine our entire food culture in the United States, and improve it for the sake of our children. Instead of spending extra dollars on food that has traveled hundreds or thousands of miles, we could be shopping at the local farmers' market, filling our baskets with fresh fruits and vegetables. Instead of worrying about how many pesticide residues are showing up on the salads we feed our children, we can buy lettuce from local farmers' markets or we can grow our own. We can even grow whole gardens with our families, saving money and investing in our children's health through exercise and natural, fresh food straight from the garden. Wouldn't it be wonderful if instead of eating Pop-Tarts and sugary cereal for breakfast, our teenagers started their day with fresh strawberries, raspberries, or blueberries, oatmeal, and maybe a serving of eggs from local, free-range chickens? It is all possible.

The best thing about changing our food habits may be that we can recreate a food culture that returns food to its natural place at the heart of the community. While introducing our children to the wonders of gardens, we can improve their eating habits, reduce problems of obesity and unhealthy eating, and create in them a love of good food. A taste for fresh, unprocessed food from local farms and gardens often lasts a lifetime, not only because it tastes so much better, but also because it is attached to memories of a place with deep cultural roots in our human history - the garden. Will your children have memories of hours of walking the aisles in supermarkets and waiting in endless checkout lines, or will they have memories of friendships with farmers, picking blackberries in the sun, and collecting eggs from the henhouse? Children who remember plucking fresh cherry tomatoes off the vine and popping them into their mouths for a snack, or gathering a handful of snow peas or berries to add to a meal, or growing summer squash themselves are unlikely to prefer junk food for the rest of their lives.

Will Allen of Growing Power in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has demonstrated that even urban teenagers, including those with serious behavioral issues, can become excited about gardening. Will created Growing Power to educate and involve teenagers in gardening, not only to improve their own health and eating habits, but also for profit. The teenagers working at Growing Power sell their produce at the farmers' markets in Chicago and Milwaukee, building their self-confidence, their bank accounts, and better eating habits for life.

Schools from California to Massachusetts provide another example, growing school gardens to inspire their students and involve them in growing fresh food for their school lunches. At the same time, these schools are helping their students develop a love of good food and a connection to its source. While we may not be able to create projects on the scale of Growing Power, we can begin our own small-scale efforts right in our local schools and our own backyards.

Here are six simple steps to introduce your children to fresh, wholesome foods and to start creating culturally meaningful food for your family.

• 1. Visit the local farmers' markets in your area. Make it a family outing and let each child pick out fresh foods that appeal to him. Now is the perfect time of year to begin, as farmers' markets open around the country.
• 2. Join a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture farm, near your community. You will pay about the cost of one or two weeks' groceries up front, and for that you will receive up to 16 weeks of fresh fruits and vegetables, straight from the farmer's fields to your table. Most CSA's offer delivery service to central locations. Many offer opportunities for your family to visit the farm and even help in the garden.
• 3. Start growing some food in your own home. It can be as simple as growing your own lettuce on the windowsill. Here in Alaska, my 11-year-old daughter grows all the lettuce we can eat on one large sunny windowsill from March through June. Then we eat lettuce from the garden during the warmer summer months, and again from the windowsill garden even as the snow is falling in October.
• 4. Begin a small food garden in your yard or at the local community garden, and allow each child her own plot to grow whatever she wishes. Visit your local extension agent to get suggestions, free advice, and materials. Right now is the perfect time to start a garden that will produce food you can harvest and eat from now through December. If you learn a few techniques for freezing and canning, you may even have your own homegrown food available until next summer. Best of all, you will help your children appreciate where their food comes from, the good taste of fresh food, and a sense of connectedness to the earth.
• 5. Work with your local school system to start a school garden, and consider getting involved as a volunteer. If other parents are supportive, you can change the quality of food your children eat every day at school at the same time that you inspire confidence and a new sense of attachment to fresh food that is good for them. Older students can manage a green house, even growing food throughout the winter.

Even if you feel you are too busy to do any of these things, you can find a camp this summer that will introduce your child to farming and gardening and help reconnect them to the place where all food comes from - our earth. Some camps combine farm experiences with wilderness camping while others provide cultural experiences, such as a stay on an Amish farm. Even if your child attends for just four weeks, it may change his life and improve his chances to avoid obesity now and in the future, as he reconnects to food in the healthiest way.

REFERENCES AND RESOURCES:

Kimbrell, Andre. 2002. The Fatal Harvest Reader: the Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture. Washington: Island Press.

Kingsolver, Barbara, Camille Kingsolver, and Steve L. Hopp. 2007. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

Pirog, Richard et al. 2001. Food, Fuel, and Freeways: An Iowa Perspective on How Far food Travels, Fuel Usage, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. Iowa State University: September.

Pollan, Michael. 2008. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. New York: Penguin Press.

Pollan, Michael. 2006. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin Press.

Pollen, Michael. 2003. Second Nature: A Gardener's Education. New York: Grove/Atlantic Inc.