Food and agricultural education begins at youth
Food and agricultural education begins at youth
New Taipei City Mayor, Eric Chu, attended the “2015 New Taipei City International Environmental Education Forum” today; the event took place at Shenkeng District’s Tungnan University. The mayor said that New Taipei City is planning and executing intermediate agricultural education projects; the city hopes agricultural awareness can start with healthy and organic lunches in elementary and middle schools and practical farming on campus. The mayor hopes that educating the youths on important nutritional concepts will make food products safer and healthier for our nation’s citizens in the future.
Mayor Chu said that for every elementary and junior high school in the city, the government has promoted the use of organic and safe vegetables in lunches. Moreover, these schools took available spaces and turned them into organic farms for the students to work on. The mayor encouraged the students to become familiar with practical farming and food production while they are young and be rooted in healthy and safe food production. During the forum, the mayor presented vegetable shoots to the invited guests, Associate Professor Kamioka Miho from the Tokyo University of Agriculture and several New Taipei City teachers. The gifting is symbolic of the experience of New Taipei City schools implementing “Japanese Fundamental Education Methods in Food” program.
The Department of Education reports that today’s forum focuses on food and agriculture and the organizers invited professionals, such as Professor Kamioka and Tungnan University Professor Jingdong Weng, to share about how food and agriculture is promoted internationally and locally.
The Department of Education says that New Taipei City is implementing a 4-year food and agricultural education project. This project entails on-campus farming education, creating produce inside school grounds, constructing ecosystem and environmental class experiences. This project goes from “farming fundamentals” to “food on the table,” realizing the goal of “New Food Generation - Let Children Eat Well.” The department hopes that food and agricultural education can start young.
Aside from several academic talks, this forum also includes field trips to Pingling, Gongliao, Yingge, Shulin, Linkou, Tamsui, and other places to tour organic farm and experience local produce.
For more information: Education Department, Environmental Education Section, Meilan Liu, Phone Number: 1999 or (02)2960-3456 x 3741