Around the Western world, people are becoming more conscious of what they eat and where it comes from.

That was not the case for a few decades, with town and city people being particularly detached from where their food came from.

In the past decade, however, that has changed, and with most of Tasmania being rural and agricultural, we have the advantage of food production being on our doorstep.

The past few years have seen a rise in farmers markets, ‘paddock to plate’ style restaurants, and even little veggie plots in the suburbs or potted herbs hanging in apartment kitchens. Buying local in-season produce is something that began many years ago as a sort of alternative trend, but it has become a lot more mainstream of late.

That has allowed small farming businesses to sell directly to consumers, cutting out some of the processing, packaging, miles and ‘middle men’ that usually come with supermarket purchases. 

It has also allowed people to get a real understanding of food origins, what’s in season, and how it’s produced.

As part of The Australia Institute’s #WTF2050 (What’s Tasmania’s Future?) campaign, Hobart foodies Jo Cook and Jess Robbins have outlined a future where food education is the norm. More specifically, that it becomes a bigger part of the school curriculum. Ms Cook suggests children learn how to grow, harvest and cook it in primary school, and then in high school, move onto food marketing, design, production, agriculture and organic farming techniques.

Some schools already have a big focus on agriculture, which gives students an opportunity to learn how to produce their own food. And schools have, for a long time, included cooking classes as well.

But having ‘food’ as a subject in a broader and more holistic sense could significantly increase overall understanding of the process, from start to finish, of food production. That could include climate, seasonal food knowledge, nutrition, cooking, and, as Ms Cook and Ms Robbins suggest, marketing, design and organic farming techniques.

Educating children is also one of the quickest ways to educate a community, because they pass that knowledge onto their immediate families, and it continues through to the next generations.