324 animal, vegetable, miracle
these testing regimes hanging over everything. Teachers sense them as
huge black clouds on the horizon of April. For the kids it’s more like a per-
manent threat of air attack. In our state—no kidding—they are called
Standards of Learning, or “SOLs.” (I don’t think anyone intended the
joke.) But Learning Landscapes works because it gets kids outdoors
studying for tests while believing they are just playing in dirt.
Deni knows how to get the approval of a school board, but she has a
larger game plan for these kids than just passing the next exam. “One of
the key things gardens can teach students is respect: for themselves, for
others, and the environment,” she says. “It helps future generations gain
an understanding of our food system, our forests, our water and air, and
how these things are all connected.”
From a biological perspective, the ultimate act of failure is to raise
helpless kids. Not a parent I know who’s worth the title wants to do that.
But our operating system values Advanced Placement Comparative Poli-
tics, for example, way, way ahead of Knowing How to Make Your Own
Lunch. Kids who can explain how supernovas are formed may not be al-
lowed to get dirty in play group, and many teenagers who could construct
and manage a Web site would starve if left alone on a working food farm.
Legislating Local
The epidemic of childhood obesity in the United States has incited par-
ents, communities, and even legislators to improve kids’ nutrition in one place
they invariably eat: schools. Junk foods have been legally banned from many
lunchrooms and school vending machines. But what will our nation’s youth eat
instead—fresh local produce? As if!
Dude, it’s going down. In 2004, in a National School Lunch Act amendment,
Congress authorized a seed grant for the Farm to Cafeteria Program, promoting
school garden projects and acquisition of local foods from small farms. The
Local Produce Business Unit of the Department of Defense actually procures
produce. Benefits of these programs, above and beyond the food, include agri-
cultural education through gardening, farm visits, presentations by local farmers,
and modest economic gains for the community. More than one- third of our
states now have active farm- to-school programs; farm- to-college alliances are
also growing.