Smithsonian - Perishable Pundit

a27Similarly, the Culinary Vegetable Institutein Huron, Ohio, has launched Veggie U toeducate food professionals and the generalpublic about vegetable growing and cooking.Recently, it has developed a curriculum forschools that will soon be m Texas systems.The Center for Ecoliteracy has developed adetailed "how-to" guide for school systemsto follow in creating their own programs.Spoons Across America, sponsored by theAmerican Institute of Food and Wine andthe |ames Beard Foundation, sponsors DaysofTaste in schools across the country. Localprograms also abound. In Washington, D.C.,Brainfood teaches children about life skillsthrough food activities after school and duringthe summer. The Washington Youth Gardengives children from the Washington, D.C.,public schools hands-on experience gardeningand then cooking their harvest. Programslike these are growing across the country.Then, of course, there is the timehonoredway of passing traditions on in familykitchens and on family farms. Hopefully, manyof these more formal programs remind cooksand growers to explore their own family traditionsand the foodways of those around them.This food revolution is about growing andcooking traditions and their adaptation to newcircumstances. It is about finding—amid a landscapedominated by pre-packaged goods—closer association with processes such as soilpreparation, harvesting, and cooking thatprevious generations took for granted. And itan awareness oí what a meal is, and how mealtimeis a time to slow down, to listen, and tosavor food. Perhaps most importantly, it is aboutsharing these things—or passing them on.This sharing and understanding taketime that today's busy schedules frequentlydon't allow. However, many are realizingthat the richness of shared experiencesinvolving food is too precious to give up.Thev think about the taste of afresh carrotpulled from a garden on a summer atternoonor a meal savored with family and friends.The food revolution that we celebratelooks both backward and forward: backwardto long-held community traditions ingrowing, marketing, cooking, and eating;forward to innovations for making thesetraditions sustainable and passing them on tofuture generations. It depends on nurturinga physical environment that supports diversity;sustaining the know ledge needed tocultivate that biodiversity; and passing ontraditions of preparing and eating. Together,these traditions are the foundation otmuch of our shared human experience.Everyone has to eat; why not cat together?isFOOD CULTURE USA