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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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"We get up and do it every day because it's a good life and I think the children are benefiting from it. It allows us to work together as a family a lot. It allows us to do things that other families don't get to do, spend a lot of time together, even though they're hard hours and sometimes long and tiring."

Antonio Monzanares, La Puente, New Mexico - Rio Arriba County from People Sustaining the Land, by Cynthia Vagnetti 2002.