Teaching Food Technology through the Narrative of Food

Abstract

This paper takes the position that food technology may be taught in secondary schools (learners aged 11 – 16 years) by a consideration of the narrative of food in the world. This narrative starts with food production mainly through agriculture and moves on to include storage, preservation and processing, sales, and distribution at different levels of scale, complexity, and sophistication dependant on context and concludes with food preparation and consumption. The place of food in society is dependent on the way in which various technologies are deployed throughout this narrative and how these may or may not help in our responses to the two great challenges confronting humanity today: social justice for all and the stewardship of Planet Earth in the face of climate change. It is important that young people learn about this in school in the light of both sustainable food production and nutrition. This paper will discuss how knowledge and understanding of this narrative, the embedded technologies and these challenges might be taught as the basis for a secondary school food technology course.