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Society needs to do more to connect kids with their food

If you have driven along the highways or local roads in Delta of late, you will have noticed it is time to get some food in the ground.

If you have driven along the highways or local roads in Delta of late, you will have noticed it is time to get some food in the ground. Local farmers are busy plowing and seeding, and you can start to see varied hues of green in some fields, indicators of the bounty to come later in the year.

Spring is a magical time and we are lucky here in Delta to witness the cycle of food and food production. I think everyone knows by now that the average age of farmers is increasing and I have written about this extensively over the years.

The worldwide economy of food is massive and it is important that governments, agencies and educators do their best to engage youth so they are made aware of opportunities to become involved.

In a recent report from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFFAD), it is noted

that youth in rural areas around the world are discouraged from entering into activities associated with food and food production. Barriers to entry are steep and there is little in the way of incentive to motivate entry into farming specifically.

The first sentence in the report states, "Rural youth are the future of food security. Yet around the world, few young people see a future for themselves in agriculture or rural areas."

The Jamie Oliver Foundation's Food Revolution Day is coming up on May 15 and the primary goal this year is to promote and embrace education as the primary tool to engage youth and encourage them to understand the importance of nutrition and locally grown food.

This year's Food Rev campaign highlights some alarming statistics. There are 42 million children around the world under the age of five that are overweight or obese. Children today are the first generation predicted to live shorter lives than their parents, and diet-related illnesses such as type two diabetes are the world's biggest killers.

Kids in Delta will again be actively involved in Food Revolution Day. Mentors and students will seed 1,200 pickling cucumber plants that will sit in a greenhouse before being planted on their school farms as seedlings in June.

Nutritional health, food education and food sovereignty are issues that simply cannot be ignored.

Luckily, children have open minds and if given the opportunity to dive in to something, they will. Most of us know that if kids plant it, they will eat it. This has been very evident of late as I have been seeding with young farmers in our school district. The past few weeks the kids have been chowing on collard greens, spinach and cabbage right off the plant while we are in outside sessions.

As we can all appreciate, a nice way to engage kids is to talk about money. On Tuesday we harvested some sage from English Bluff Elementary. All 18 Grade 3 kids took some home. At your local supermarket a clamshell of this herb sells for around $3. It took a while, but the kids figured out that they had $54 worth of product. Light bulbs! When we went back to the plant to take a look at what the potential was for the rest of the harvest, the number was $400. Definitely food for young thought! Mike is the founder of Project Pickle and likes to write about growing, cooking and eating food. Visit www.bycoop.ca.