Brain Food

How are we going to create a new environmentally-aware generation? The answer is complex and multi-faceted. But one extremely effective avenue is to stop assuming our kids will only eat high-fat, highly-processed foods with refrigerator-sized carbon footprints. Consuming local, sustainably-produced food is one way kids can learn the basics of personal stewardship at least three times a day. Granted, as Andrew Martin writes in today’s New York Times, eating local is not automatically more sustainable. But given the right circumstances, children who appreciate local food can be a powerful force for good. But how do we help our kids make good food choices? I recently talked to Uli Koester, executive director of the Midwest Food Connection, about how his organization goes into Twin Cities schools and helps kids (and adults) appreciate the culinary, environmental and even cultural roots of good food. At the basis of the Food Connection’s educational program is the idea that we do not need to “dumb-down” our kids’ food choices in order to fill their bellies. You can listen to what Koester has to say on episode 44 of LSP’s Ear to the Ground podcast. Smart food for smart kids. Sounds like a good recipe for sustainable consumerism.