‘Does chocolate milk come from brown cows, teacher?’

EMPOWERING children, teenagers, adults and grandparents to learn the origins of their food is central to Deirdre O’Shea’s plan for Agri Aware.

Speaking to the the newly appointed CEO of the agri-food educational body said it is “shocking” how uninformed some people are about farmsourced foods.

“One example springs to mind where we had our mobile farm out at a school. A young boy pointed to a little brown calf in the pen and asked, ‘Miss, is that where my chocolate milk comes from?’

“There is a big disconnect there. They think a litre of milk comes from Tesco and they don’t ask questions beyond that.”

Although she believes the problem is particularly prominent in urban areas, she says there are some children in rural schools who are also unaware of their food sources.

“They may be familiar with dairy cows but they may never have seen a pig, and that is not uncommon,” said the qualified nutritionist.

Earlier this month, Agri Aware launched its 2017 ‘Incredible Edibles’ programme, which teaches primary-level students how to grow and cook their own seasonal Irish fruit, vegetables and herbs.

The initiative, now in its ninth year, was launched at St Philip’s SNS, Clonsilla, Dublin 15, with the help of Fourth Class pupils who have developed their growing and cooking skills by previously participating in the programme.

“Last year, over 1,200 schools across Ireland took part in the programmes and there are modules to go with it. The pupils have five different tasks so it’s about food origin, healthy eating, identifying the Irish produce in the supermarket and then cooking a dish with it for the parents at home,” she said.

The former IFA Pigs Committee executive also discussed her intention to promote their message at colleges and universities nationwide.

“We need to educate those who are not exposed to agriculture — that’s the challenge and third level is the way to do that.

“Advocating on career paths and making people aware that there is a really good career to be had in agriculture, whether it’s farming at home or working in the industry and that you can have a viable income, is another area I intend to focus on,” she said, before praising University College Dublin for coming on board as a patron of the body this year.

Ambitions

The Laois senior inter-county footballer also has ambitions to expand Agri Aware’s presence into Munster. “The Family Farm that we have developed in partnership with Dublin Zoo has been hugely successful. Over a million visitors pass through Dublin Zoo every year and they are learning about modern Irish farm life.

“I think it’s now time for us to have a greater presence in the south. We’ve had some initial communication with Fota Wildlife Park, so that would be an exciting development,” she said.

Coming to the position with widespread expertise in nutrition, diet and food science, Deirdre believes that improving understanding of the agri-food industry, from the classroom to the home, will help tackle Ireland’s obesity epidemic. “We’re on a slippery slope. If we don’t change, we’re going to be the most obese country in Europe, with the UK, by 2030, and that needs to be tackled.

“It’s our job to get credible people out there conveying the information that eating quality, wholesome food, meat, veg and potatoes should be the first choice, not processed foods.”