Resourcing the food crisis: geographies of food

ABSTRACT

Eating is an everyday act which connects individuals with agricultural workers, commercial concerns, multinationals, weather patterns, financial markets, transport networks and world trade. It also reflects local cultural geography and changing social trends. Food insecurity threatens these connections, regardless of geographical location.

As an aspect of ‘living geography’, the geographies of food production and consumption allow for enquiries into the connections between young people and the wider world, and exemplify the concept of interdependence. There are also links with the growing trend for convenience and the importance of decisions made by consumers.

This article outlines the creative process which was undertaken by the author as he wrote an online continuing professional development (CPD) unit for the Training and Development Agency (TDA), and prepared a workshop for the Geographical Association conference in April 2009 in association with Oxfam. It provides some ideas for teaching and resourcing KS3–5 lessons on the subject of food security, with a focus on adding web-based media to provide the ‘hook’ into the activities.