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ILLUSTRATION: ISTOCK. PHOTO: LEFT: THE STEPHANIE ALEXANDER KITCHEN GARDEN FOUNDATION.Kitchen garden kids thrive
The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation is famous for its pioneering
work since 2001 getting kitchen gardens and cooking into schools, but until now
had never measured the results.
A new study done on behalf of the Foundation has found an overwhelmingly
positive outcome for school students who participate in the program.
Of the young people who took part during a 2008 and 2010 sample period (now
aged 18-23 years), 84 per cent agreed the program had a positive impact on their lives,
with 58 per cent reporting it increased their enjoyment of school.
A researcher from the University of Melbourne, which helped with the study, said:
“The surveys showed positive trends and those interviewed discussed a range of
benefits, including increased cooking skills and confidence, with several describing the
program as the highlight of their primary school years.”
Back in 2001, the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation was set up to
provide food education
to children within
the school or early
learning centre
environment. The
program continues
to expand and now
works with thousands
of schools and early
learning services
aroundAustralia.Getting to
the core
Next time you crunch into a
crispy apple you might want to
eat a few of the seeds in the
core. It turns out that apples
are filled with a selection of
good microbes – but if you eat
the whole apple, including the
core, you’re not only getting
extra fibre, flavonoids and
flavour, you’re also eating 10
times as many bacteria per
fruit as those who discard the
core. And science has added
one more factor into the
mix of goodness, with a new
study published in Frontiers
in Microbiology, claiming
organic apples harbour a more
diverse and balanced bacterial
community. The main finding was
that variety is the spice of life –
and in this regard, organic apples
seem to have the edge.
“Freshly harvested,
organically managed apples
harbor a significantly more
diverse, more even and distinct
bacterial community, compared
to conventional ones,” explains
study senior author Professor
Gabriele Berg, of Graz University
of Technology, Austria. The
research also found the majority
of the bacteria are in the seeds,
with the flesh accounting for
most of the remainder.Algae to the rescue
In the race to come up with solutions to our
climate crisis, scientists are searching for
ways to soak up all that carbon dioxide that is
playing havoc with our atmosphere. Trees are
a very natural, and beautiful, way to soak up
the damaging gases but algae also has proven
carbon absorption abilities. Now researchers
in the US have designed a box-shaped machine
that reportedly soaks up as much carbon from
the atmosphere as an acre of trees. The Eos
Bioreactor, designed to be installed in urban
environments, captures and sequesters carbon from the atmosphere, and produces
clean bio-fuels that could be used to further reduce a building’s carbon footprint.
The key is the specific strain of algae (Chlorella vulgaris), which is claimed to soak
up much more CO2 than any other plant. Hypergiant Industries, the company behind
the ‘reactor’, hopes to have a commercial product ready for market in 2020.Left: Stephanie
Alexander started the
first garden in 2001.
Below: The Eos
Bioreactor.