James Chubb

Changing the way we look at food

A couple of weeks ago the District Council launched a new educational resource, as part of the year of food and farming, to bring local farming into the classroom.

The Food 4 Thought project kept me very busy during the summer months, so I wanted to write a feature about its aims here, to explain to some degree why I've not seen as much of East Devon's countryside and wildlife as I may have expected to in 2007!

It all started back last summer… I was boning a shoulder of lamb, because A: I like lamb; B: Shoulder is a little more thrifty; and C: because I can. The thought struck me  “I wonder how many people know how to do this?”

Now, don't get me wrong, it's not a difficult process, just a case of following the bones and being careful around the joints. But the thought struck me that as a society, we are becoming increasingly divorced from our food. If it doesn't come in a plastic tray, it isn't edible!

This misconception was further compounded this week when I took Radio 4 collecting prawns from rockpools to turn into a seafood paella. At first they were unsure about the wild ingredients but, when they tasted how good they were (vastly superior to those horrible things flown in from a muddy puddle in Asia), they tucked in with gusto. The programme was Open Country and you can hear how I got on sometime in early November - but I digress.

One thing led to another from my lamb moment and, by January 2007, I found myself in a meeting with Michael Caines and Sir John Cave. I pitched my idea to Michael. I was hellishly nervous, realising that his endorsement could be the difference between the project happening or not. As soon as I mentioned that this was a film to encourage local school children to think about where their food comes from, he was sold. He came up with so many new ideas I couldn't write them down fast enough and, most importantly, he didn't just offer his approval, he offered his time and was happy to appear in the film.

So that was it, as soon as Michael was on-board potential funders were falling over themselves to support the project and, between the District Council, East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership and Natural England, I was able to start to bring the project to life.

I wanted to rewrite a unit from the Key Stage 3 Geography curriculum, looking at consumption, sustainability and food production that had historically used West African cocoa farming as a case study. My thought was that these fundamental geographic principals could easily be demonstrated by looking at local food.

The film was produced with supportive materials and has been greeted with great enthusiasm from teachers across the county who have received Food 4 Thought free of charge.

We were keen to have students presenting the film, with me popping up from time to time to look at some biodiversity issues. Three students were chosen to appear in the film from Exmouth Community College, and the effort, enthusiasm and ability they showed during filming was incredible. They really did make the film.

The first chapter looks at the principals of consumption, sustainability and carbon footprints. The students then get challenged by Michael Caines to find out about local food production and they individually visit a dairy farm making cheese, a fruit farm and a beef farmer.

Then, in the final film, they get together with Michael and cook a special dish with the ingredients they have sourced: rarebit, apple crumble and beefburgers.
I wanted to include this cooking element in the film, to reinforce the message that these are issues we should be thinking about every time we eat. It's not just the special occasion meals, when we go out of our way to buy yummy things. Every time we tuck into a plate of food there's an associated cost in terms of carbon - did you realise six kilos of carbon are pumped into the sky to fly a single pineapple to our shores?

But the film doesn't linger on the negative, as it explores the truly world-class produce that we have in our region. Food 4 Thought is just that - it sets up potential for lively classroom debate and, in the hands of a dynamic teacher, should provide classes with plenty of discussion on the subject of consumption.
So I would like to leave you with a little something to ponder.

Tea. It's our national drink, but we can't grow it over here. It's shipped and flown into the UK in truly vast quantities and, if we were to simply say “no more food imports due to carbon emissions”, we would effectively annihilate several third world economies.

I'm not by any means suggesting drinking alternatives, or even cutting down on cuppas - perish the thought. But it is always good to question things. There's nothing healthier than an enquiring mind; I wonder if that's why I enjoy working with children?