Minister of Education Ronald Thwaites is promoting the planting of school gardens, particularly in farming communities, as a way to cut the country's food import bill.

The country spent US$930 on food imports last year alone, an increase of some US$100 million when compared to 2012. This in spite of Government's 'Grow what you eat, Eat what you grow' campaign designed to promote the consumption of local foods.

"You are a farming community. Your background is in agriculture. Teach your children to love it also because it is the hope of our future," Thwaites said as he addressed the graduation ceremony at the north-east St Elizabeth-based Schoolfield Primary and Infant last Wednesday.

He said that children should be taught to love the foods that are produced locally and that fast food should become occasional treats.

"I go to so many schools and all they (the children) want is fried chicken and chips or rice. So often in our schools we have lost the pattern of teaching... our young children how to love the land and how to gain their prosperity and their nutrition from it.

The cheese trix and bag juice culture must go…." (Thwaites)

Observer Link:
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/regional/-Cheese-trix-and-bag-juice-culture-must- go-_17045768

At a time & place, with multiple food options, and examples of agricultural methods (hydroponics/organic/permaculture…) vying for attention & endorsement, just how many of school children are exposed to getting their hands dirty in micro-farming, one of the primal sustaining/cientific/social laboratory features of our lives?

There are so many aspects of community participation, especially in the lessons of elders & all the creative lesson plans, touting the research ascribing BENEFITS of thriving School Gardens…not the least of which are future planning, work ethic & harvesting a crop for themselves and others!

Links:
http://www.kidsgardening.org/article/research-supporting-benefits-school-gardens

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/kindergarden/child/school/growlab.htm)

INSPIRATION FOR YOUNG & OLD BIO-DESIGN THINKERS:
This Living, Sustainable Mushroom Building Could Be The Future Of Green Architecture (Cornstalks & Mushrooms &…)

The wildly creative engineering feat, essentially creating a new ecosystem of design, is named Hy-Fi.
"Hy-Fi is a reference to a kind of technical term called hypha, which is the type of living organism that we use to manufacture the building blocks of our project," designer Benjamin explained to The Creator's Project.
"In this project, we're using a living organism as a factory. So the living organism of mycelium, or hyphae, which is basically a mushroom root, basically makes our bricks for us."

...at the end of the lifespan of the temporary structure, we're going to compost it, again, right here in New York City, and then return that raw material to local community gardens and tree planting. In that sense we're experimenting with a local version of architecture similar to some experiments with the local food movement."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/02/moma-hy-fi-_n_5549107.html?page_version =legacy&view=print&comm_ref=false