Conventional wisdom going into the crunch held that eating out would fade from
everyday life. We'd be back to simple ingredients and verities. ... But it
hasn't turned out like that. You have to look at the way society moves on as it
struggles to function. ... A takeaway isn't a treat, merely a particular sort of
retail therapy. Recession simply means we are eating worse, then slumping on the
sofa. We are supposed to shape up. In fact, we're calling Domino's and ordering
extra cheese.
Preston, armed with statistics I didn't know about before reading his article, debunks some polyanna ideas which were popular in blogosphere last year. It brings to mind another one which I felt unable to thrill to: that in severe economic depression we would start working together as a community better, getting to know our neighbours and helping each other more.
It's not that it is a bad idea. I feel part of my community here in smallwettown and the egg and clothes and childcare swaps, the school gala and the endless raffles which are part of the fabric of my life are treasured (perhaps the childcare swaps more than the raffles, but you get the idea).
It is just that I think it is naive.
Methamphetamine use is destroying individuals and families right now in New Zealand and it was last year and the year before that. Don't even get me started on pokie machine addictions. These are but two examples of fragile communities where the recession will intensify the pain and helplessness, not save through potato swaps.
In a country where cooking and gardening skills have been off the school curriculum for decades (yes I know there are semblances of cooking, usually called something obscure, but have a close look at what the actual learning focus is - let me know if you find meal planning and budgeting in there as I'd be ecstatic to be proven wrong on this), baked beans and McDonalds happy meals are routine default options.
With big business making so much money from our collective lack of cooking skills, I don't see any change in the school curriculum coming, not even on the furthest horizon. The Ministry of Education have spent millions (I betcha anything it was lots of millions) on it's latest school curriculum (introduced 2008) in which students learn to be nice to each other as well as to count. That came out last year and no doubt a number of education consultants were very well paid for it. They probably did have input from the Otago Home Science people (what are they called this year - the university food tech department as another possible clue) who no doubt have some wonderful ideas on how to develop new food products and brand awareness and blah blah get their students jobs in the food industry.
How many parents who balance the home budget through careful rationing of expenditure, fruit and vegetable growing and cooking from scratch do you think they consulted? I know they are around because I count them among my friends locally and internationally and also amongst those I admire in blogosphere. We share our knowledge, our successes and failures and learn from each other. There is not money to be made from marketing us. We work collectively and cooperatively and our exchanges are not of cash.
2 comments:
maybe the makeup of paul's school sets it apart somewhat, but every class at his school has it's own vege patch that the students tend & eat from throughout the year (there was jubilation in his class yesterday as the 1st pea seeds had germinated!) the have "worm monitors" who take the food scraps to feed to the school worms, then put the worm tea on their vege patches.. and last year the students put together a cookbook of low cost, simple ingredient recipes.. and our local steiner school does all of that & more of course! so there are schools out there heading in the right direcion :) but probably not many of them to be sure. and of course it needs to be followed up through high school too.
Nova that is wonderful news about Paul's school. I do hear often of great garden and cooking activities in primary schools. It is secondary schools, where the interface with individual survival and responsibility is so intense, where I see so much room for skills development. I've got my fingers crossed, plus a practical programme up my sleeve. Hopefully I'll have more to report in a few months' time.
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