Children, Food and Nature
This is a research monograph based on research carried out between 2005 and 2008 on children’s food practices, both at school and at home, and their knowledge about nonhuman animals and the natural environment from which foods are produced. The book addresses how children’s food consumption practices and children’s food tastes are formed, what influences them and how these practices are linked to children’s knowledge about where foods come from, e.g. their knowledge of farm animals and plants.
‘The 2006 Health Survey for England suggests that 19% of boys and 22% of girls aged 5 to 15 reported eating the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables daily, nearly twice as many as in 2001. In the UK school meals contribute significantly to the diets of children. Primary schools meals were found to be broadly in line with the Caroline Walker Trust guidelines but secondary school meals failed to meet the guidelines for fat, saturated fat, non-milk extrinsic sugars and fibre.’ (from http://www.heartstats.org consulted on 30/08/2009).
The immediate questions arising from this statement are: if only 19% of the boys and 22% of the girls aged 5 to 15 reported eating the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables daily, what do the other 81% of boys and 78% of girls eat? And these children, both the ones engaging with ‘fruit and vegs eating’ and the many who do not, how do they eat their meals? Who do they eat with, what do they like and what do they dislike about what they eat? How do they learn to eat (healthily and not) and how do they learn to (dis)like their foods? Are they involved/ engaged in food shopping, cleaning, cooking and other food preparation practices at home and in schools? Do they know/ are they curious about where food comes from? Do they know/ have an opportunity to know how animals are raised and how plants are grown to produce food?
These are some of the questions that this book explores by looking at a series of case studies of children aged 7-9 and 13-14, and their parents, in the UK, and in Italy.
Note: The book will be based on the research findings of a project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council in the UK, project title: Delivering sustainability: towards the creative procurement of school meals (RES-000-23-1095). It will look at several case studies in the UK, Italy and USA.
Children, Food and Nature, Ashgate, Series Geography-Critical Food Studies,
Additional Information
This publication is forthcoming.