Schools Need a Basic Food Class
Forget Home Ec, that’s too advanced
Pop quiz: Ask any kid you know where they think hamburger comes from. Or whether carrots grow above ground or below ground. Or, if they live in a northern state, where any of their fruits and vegetables come from during February.
I think you’d be shocked at the number of children and teenagers (and maybe adults?) who would not be able to give you the correct answers to those questions.
Many people today lament the absence of Home Economics or Cooking classes in their middle and high schools. I think what we need before we get that advanced is a “Food 101” course.
Most people are generations removed from the farm
I grew up on a working dairy farm.
Years later, when I had my kids and would read them picture books, I would just laugh and laugh when we read any books about farming or food or the country. All of these books showed happy white farm families in overalls, cuddling kittens and petting the farm dog, throwing seeds to a few chickens, or taking the one cow into the barn.
Even on my home farm, life didn’t look like that. Our farm was vanishingly tiny, by industry standards, with my dad milking 100 or so cows using a milking machine. My dad and…
