These days it’s easy to forget where our food comes from. When we’re dished up meals in restaurants and buying packaged food products, it’s easy to understand why we have lost our connection with rural food production.
But it’s important that our communities understand the connection between food production and what ultimately ends up in our plates, for a variety of reasons.
There’s a lot that goes into supplying the food we eat – think about the work done on farms and the energy use and transportation involved in shipping food to the shops where we buy it.
We should also consider whether or not what is done to our food is good for us and if we’re eating food that is good for our health and well-being.
A program called OpenIDEO, partnered with the State Government and the 2011 Ideas Festival is trying to bring back the connection that most people seem to have lost with food production.
They’re looking for ideas to help people think differently about food and start questioning its origin and how it came to be on their plates.
There’s probably no easy answer, but all ideas are welcome.
So head over to the OpenIDEO website and contribute your ideas of how we can start to re-establish the link between food production and consumption.