Re: Where does food come from?

Gilbert (csare@vms2.macc.wisc.edu)
Thu, 7 Sep 1995 10:03:57 -0400

Here's one example from my experience. I happen to be allergic to wheat,
and I can't tell you how many times I have refused something like whole
wheat bread saying I'm allergic to wheat, and been asked if I would like
white bread instead! As if "white" bread weren't wheat bread! Or I'll be
going out to dinner and say something about wanting to avoid wheat and folks
will suggest pasta, forgetting that most pasta also is made from wheat.
This kind of thing happens all the time. I think it's partly that folks
don't think about what their food is made from. But also wheat is a
particularly taken for granted staple in our diet so that it doesn't occur
to people that much of their food is made from wheat.

EBird

>Date: Wed, 6 Sep 95 23:18:48 EDT
>From: WLockeretz@infonet.tufts.edu
>Subject: Where does food come from?
>To: SANET-MG@amani.ces.ncsu.edu
>X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
>
>It's quite common in sustainable agriculture and other circles these days to
>lament the lack of knowledge among children (and adults) about where their
>food comes from. Typically, this exemplified by reports of children
>believing things like "The cereal grows in the cereal box" or "Milk comes
>from the supermarket." But usually the report begins with something like
>"Kids say that ... " or "People think that ... " I am interested in
>examples beginning "I heard a child say that ...," i.e., direct, first-hand
>cases. Also, "milk comes from the supermarket" could mean that it comes from
>the supermarket on its way to us, not that it originated there.
>
>I'd appreciate hearing first-hand (preferably verbatim) examples of children
>or adults who truly do not realize that milk, for example, comes (initially)
>from a cow.
>
>Willie Lockeretz
>School of Nutrition Science and Policy
>Tufts University
>
>
>

===============================
Elizabeth Ann R. Bird, Ph.D.
Executive Director,
Consortium for Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, and
Research and Technology Policy Project Leader,
Center for Rural Affairs
3609 Busse St.
Madison, WI 53714
608-249-5796
FAX 608-265-3020
Internet: csare@macc.wisc.edu