Question for anyone with children still at home...? (Teens can answer too!)?

Question

What, if any, efforts are you doing, or able to put forth, to teach your children about where their food comes from? (Example shopping farmer's markets, reading books, growing a garden, raising your own meat animal, live in city-limit exposure, visiting farms, ect)

Where do you live? ( Just generally, like Idaho, U.S.A.)

Do you live rural, suburb, town, big city?

Do you feel it is important to teach your children about where their food comes from, and how it is produced? (If you're a teen, did your parents teach you?)

Teens, if you are still at home, please feel free to answer these (above) question also!

Thanks for your answers!

Answer 1

Sixteen-year-old living at home, here.

When I was younger, my parents taught me through picture books, but I was still convinced that food originated from the all-powerful grocery store. I had hands-on experience at my elementary school, when we visited a local farm in kindergarten. During this field trip, we were able to participate in the harvesting and sorting of grains, and took a tour of the rest of the facility. A little later in first grade, we visited a local Purity dairy farm, and took a tour of that as well. We got to see them milk the cows and even sampled some fresh milk and ice cream, which was everyone favorite part. :)

I attended a private, Catholic school in Nashville, Tennessee where I currently reside.

I believe that it is very important to educate young children in the agricultural field and make sure they gain first-and experience. I was lucky enough to attend a school that valued food-education. If other schools are not as enthusiastic or supportive of this, it is most definitely up to the parents to educate their children in this area.

Answer 2

i learned a little about it in school as a kid, but it was all very sugar coated.

parents sugar coat things too.

i think they have some tv shows for kids that say where food comes from.

i mostly learned where my food came from from documentaries or little articles in newspaper. you could get kid's national geographic for your kids because it talks about all that stuff-animals, environment, fun....etc.

i also learned quite a lot on the internet so maybe when your kids get older you can make them a yahoo account so they can ask questions.

i think it's important to teach your kids about where food comes from because it impacts their ideas about food and makes them think about where their next meal will come from. it's good to learn about farming companies buying out family farms because that way we can help support family farms by buying organic foods and other foods that weren't made by big bag companies. my parents taught me a little about that but i learned about that in social studies class.

oh n i live in manhattan in new york city so yeah, very urban place.

Answer 3

yes it very important

Answer 4

I am responding to this even though I don't have any children at home.  My daughter was exposed to gardening by her grandmother....I am not much for gardening myself and I abhor yard work...but put me on a tractor and I will "go to town'" so to speak....

I always was taking her to watch the harvest of various fields of plant life.  The smell of onions being harvested is still her favorite smell today.  She learned how to swath hay in her Jr year and also learned how to run the baler that year as well.

We have raised chickens and butchered them ourselves.  

I taught my daughter how to shoot a rifle when she was 7 years old.  Today she is a crack shot with her 40 cal S & W and carries a concealed weapons permit.  She is also a Medical Specialist in the Army National Guard and spent a year in Afghanistan last year.  She told me now those people live and subsist on nothing mom....

She was also taught how to milk goats at a young age.  I caught her & our roommates daughter sleeping in the barn one night with the newborn kids....they said they were helping the mother take care of them.

In response to Dawn F's post....chickens eat snakes....as do pigs.  So maybe get a Potbellied pig, keep it slim, and it will take care of any snake problems you might have.  And it will till the garden spot for you as well.

I use my pigs to till the fields and they do the job better than a tractor and disk will.  I only have to move the electric wire to get them started on a new spot in the field.

I was working on a ranch one time and the owner's sisters kids were visiting from LA.  They refused to drink the milk that was from the milk cow because they thought that milk was supposed to come from the store.  By the end of the summer they were drinking the milk straight from the cow and having fun at it too.

So yes kids should know where their food comes from.  All schools should have FFA programs and the Home ED classes should require having to ground your own flour etc....Agriculture is huge and needs to be taught right along Al Gore's curriculum.  After all it looks like he has been getting PLENTY to eat these days.

Answer 5

I live in a rural area in Southern Indiana.

The goal is 100% local food, and my soon to be 18 y/o daughter goes with me to the Amish veggie and fruit stands.  

You often wonder, as a parent, how much they pick up from observing.  

Well, I found out.  Her econ teacher gave her a poor grade on her assigned work up of an absolute no frills, rock bottom budget.  It included thrift store clothing, used cars, local produce and bulk dry goods, and buying meat by the cow or pig or chicken.  I gave her the evidence to challenge his decision that her budget was "unworkable."  

She brought in pictures of the clothing we wore (looked like everyone else...I'm one h**l of a thrift shopper) along with old receipts for the meats and a note from me indicating how you can grow some of your own produce in container gardens if need be, with a little effort, and that in rural areas, the locally grown produce is often cheaper than what you buy at the grocery.

He couldn't believe that people still can their own veggies and fruit.  

She goes to school in an affluent metro area, where I still work and used to live.  He could not believe I drove a $600 beater with 300000 miles on a one hour commute for two years.  But I did.  

He did change her grade but told her we were "exceptions to the rule."  I told her we're just "exceptional."

Answer 6

Graduated high school in NC, parents moved to Illinois, go to college in NC. the 2nd and 3rd part is urban; 1st was suburban. We always knew that just as long as we lived healthy, i.e. eating well, it doesn't truly matter where the food comes from.

Answer 7

we live in GA u.s.a in a pretty rural town.

i feel it is very important to teach everyone about where your food comes from, if only everyone could see the fryer in Mcdonalds they would never go back.

and yes i have grown a garden for food and well again this spring

Answer 8

um.....

we kinda learn about it in school....

my mom never really talks about it---its not that serious.

And my mom likes to yap her mouth about everything.

Does it matttttter?lol

Answer 9

im a teen and yeah i do live on a farm and YES DO TEACH YOUR CHILDREN ABOUT FOOD,

if you dont who knows what will they eat!

Answer 10

Education is never a bad thing.

Answer 11

We are moving soon due to some unexpected circumstances.  

J is in kindergarten and he got very upset, his new friends and so forth.  

This went on for over an hour until mom said "with the new yard, we can have the garden again!"

You never saw tears turn to laugher and joy so quick.

Warms my heart just thinking about it.

Answer 12

We live in a semi-rural suburb of Dallas, Texas, and the population of our town is about 10,500 (officially).

My oldest son has high functioning autism (Asperger's Syndrome) and is VERY litteral!  We started when they were very young telling them where various foods came from.  We were at a historical village park--where they dress in period clothes and do things as they would have been done in the 1800's--and we pointed out to the kids, when they noticed a very large pig, that we got ham, pork chops and bacon from that animal. My oldest (about 3 at the time) looked at his daddy and said, "Yum, yum!"  From that day on, instead of saying "bacon" he would always ask for "pig".  When we would see chickens, we told him that's where we get "chicky", and the cows are where we get steak.  (The boy has expensive taste in food!)  UNFORTUNATELY, I don't think he exactly "got" that we were eating the ANIMAL!  Recently we had a huge argument because he (now 11) said he doesn't "eat animals", but wanted "steak" for dinner.  (Autism has it's challenges!  LOL)  I'm planning on taking them to Heritage Village in Dallas again, now that they're older I think they would understand better.  I might have to resort to what my family did to me when I was young.  (Story below.)

We grew tomatoes last year, so they got to see at least some of our food coming off the vine.  I'm hoping to grow more this year, and get them more involved in the process.  I'd raise chickens, but hubby is TOTALLY against it!  (His big argument is that they "attract snakes"--like we don't have them all over the place already!!  (There's a 300 acre plot of land directly behind us.  If I thought I could get away with it, I'd try to till and plant some of that!  LOL)

Mom's side of the family were farmers, and dad's side were ranchers.  When I was 3, I was taken to the meat packing plant where my uncle worked, given a hamburger, then taken out to the kill floor to eat my lunch and watch them slaughter cattle.  (I remember that occasion, I don't feel it adversely effected me, and I'm NOT an ax murderer!)  Plus, when I was a teenager, we raised our own chickens for food (co-op type situation) starting from chicks to ringing their necks, plucking, freezing, cooking and eating them, although I'll admit that was a bit harder since we had to nurse some of the chicks who were getting pecked by the others, and constantly wondered if we were eating "Peepers".  Now that I'm older, it's easier to accept the "circle of life" thing, but I know my kids don't fully understand.  

I think it's VERY important that kids know EXACTLY where food comes from--and I don't mean the grocery store!  If it came down to it, I know I could hunt and gather to feed my family--or grow my own--but I know a lot of "city folk" who would probably starve before they figured it out.