“A quietly radical gift”

“Our food choices offer our greatest source of agency in a system which is broken for both consumers and growers.  Giving children this agency is a quietly radical gift that has the power to transform not just their relationship with nature, but their physical and mental health.  As we start to face up to the poly-crises unfolding in our world, projects like these are going to become a key part of the solution.” 

Sarah Langford

Author of Rooted – How Regenerative Farming Can Change the World.

The publication of the “Local Food Plan” report in June 2024 has once again drawn our attention to the obstacles that stand in the way of developing more resilient local food systems.

With 9 retailers occupying 94.5% of food sales it might feel as if big business is too big to beat but we believe that, through collective action and education, communities can restore local food systems, serving local farmers, businesses and consumers. 

Our aim at The Yard, home of The Kent School of Food, is to create a hub for the trade of local produce and for the sharing of the expertise of local farmers.

Children are the farmers, consumers and environmental caretakers of the future. Through early and consistent engagement with the environment and food production children are provided with a lens through which to understand their fundamental relationship with the natural world. 

Children are the farmers, consumers and environmental caretakers of the future.

Over the past 12 weeks Rebel Farmer, Ed Kyrke Smith and children’s author and educator, Rebecca Smith, have volunteered their time to deliver a seedling project with children from Bodsham School.  On a patch of grass in the pub garden the children have created 3 no dig beds.   With a teaspoon of soil in each child’s hand, they have learnt about microbial fungi, understanding that in each of their small palms they held 2 billion life giving microbes without which we would not exist. 

The children discussed climate change and learned that carbon is captured in the soil.  They were taught that, by not digging the soil, carbon can remain locked in the earth. It was explained that we are all part of a system that starts beneath our feet and that, by learning and growing in this way, we can take care of that system, protecting the environment.

The children have learnt about germination, growing their own microgreens.  Selling them, they calculated their costs and worked out their profit margin to reinvest into their project.

They have listened to the sky larks and learned that they make their homes in the set aside or the skylark plots that farmers leave in their fields.  Back in the classroom they listened to Vaughn Williams, ‘The lark ascending’, considering how the movement and song of this special bird is reflected in the music. 

The children have got their hands and uniforms dirty, they have worn compost as war paint, they have lain quietly in the grass and listened, not wanting to get up.  They have overcome disappointment - when their greens were eaten by rabbits - they have tried again.  They have developed a sense of agency in relation to the natural world. These children are 7 and 8 years old.

We want to make The Yard an axis for the sharing of expertise about food production, not only through schools’ engagement, but through community workshops, through a traineeship that draws together expertise from the local farming community, through the engagement of visitors to the restaurant or pub or as a local picking up a veg box at the shop.

Philosophers, economists and ecologist are uniting in the recognition of the need to understand economy and ecology hand in hand.  It is now widely acknowledged that there is no one for whom an understanding of the value of our ecology is not of fundamental importance. 

The model devised by the Kent School of Food would provide avenues for local farmers and suppliers to share their expert knowledge as well as their produce, rooting the next generation of farmers, consumers, economists, adults in a deeper understanding of the land and the skill of food production.

Sarah Langford, in the opening quote of this newsletter, describes The Kent School of Food model as ‘a quietly radical gift’.  It is a lovely phrase.  A relationship with nature and the food it produces may feel like a gift, but it is in fact something fundamental to our existence that has, in recent history, been stolen from many.

Here in this beautiful place in the North Downs, we have an opportunity to take a step towards claiming that connection back for our community, our children and the future of a place that many reading this call home.