Food is a complex system, interwoven with and linked to almost every aspect of modern life and every academic subject. Simultaneously universal, physiological, and personal, food is at the core of our humanity. It can enhance or undermine our health and wellbeing, and our robustness in the face of disease, infection, or stress. Food becomes us.
At the same time, our appetites are chief drivers of planetary heating, a source of inequity and injustice, and a cause of biodiversity loss.
Because food, a chief comfort, is linked to all other natural systems that are prerequisites to life, food is a potent K-12 educational gateway to understanding systems thinking, along with the complexities of climate change.
This systems approach links the myriad communities in which we take part, beginning with nature and the living organisms that feed us – the reciprocal relationships among microorganisms within plants and their parallels in our own guts and on our skin – as well as more familiar societal versions of family, friends, towns and communities, citizenship, etc.
The practice of food systems literacy builds community of the table and celebrates connection, putting students’ wellbeing first and using it as a learning tool. Five-senses food systems study, breaking bread together, is delicious. It bestows associated pleasures of the palate, plate, community, and landscape.