In honour of the Kyoto protocol going live, today I preached at a lunch-time Communion in the University of St.John York about the need to take the spirit of the contract and converge to heart. Talking yogether over soup afterwards about how we could do that in practice I menitoned that eating more locally produced food [saving oil on transport costs] it quickly became obvious that for a lot of young people, there wold be some diffiulty about how to prepare and cook fresh locally-produced vegetables which seems to go hand in hand with this: "'Our research demonstrated that while teenagers know the price of desirable items, they have no concept about the cost of everyday goods. Without understanding the true cost of living this next generation are storing up trouble for the future with potentially disastrous consequences.'". They have gad little contact with the processes of shopping for food and cooking. This is sitoring up difficulties in the future for localisation which is very necessary if we are to deal effectively with global warming. I unsuccesfully tried when a Bradford Univesrsity to get basic cooking groups and classes organised for students. I think now that it is mor important than ever to make the effort ...
Another issue in all of this is clearly the individualisation of young people's lives; people sharing kitchens and houses appear not to share in the preparation of food and the buying of it so much, so the trend towards 'TV dinners' out of a freezer are compounded.
It's worrying because of the implications for the duture [not to mention that the price of processed and pre-cooked food is making someone a nice tidy profit that is at the expense, in effect, of people [students] living on debt anyway.
Guardian Unlimited Money | News_ | Teens know cost of Apples but not milk:
16 February 2005
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6 comments:
This sucks!
Of course, people ought to be buying local, cooking for themselves and using good fresh produce. It's both important and makes sense for lots of reasons. But there's a big problem that this kind of news item doesn't even touch and yet, in my opinion, is the key.
There's lots of finger pointing and no-one taking responsibility.
How is a teenager supposed to make such counter-cultural choices when they've never been taught the values, shown the practices or had chance to experiment for themselves?
Who's responsible? Answer: their parent's generation - the ones who created a society that provides ready-meals, cheap produce from places where the workers are exploited and environmentally unfriendly transportation.
Who's responsible? Answer: their parent's generation - the ones who were so busy selling out to capitalism and materialism and teaching their children (those very teenagers) by both example and through 'education' that getting rich, even at the cost of basic values and principles, is the most important thing in life.
Do I sound a bit angry and bitter? Probably. How dare anyone point an accusing finger!
Move over world, there's some disgruntled teenagers coming through who would be more than happy to ditch the no-good society and systems you're offering as inheritance.
Not sure whether 'suck' refers to my comments or the stuff that pompted it. I happen to agree hugely with what you say and I want to be part of solution rather than the problem: that's why we investigated cookery classes, that's why I became such an advocate of the Fair Trade Cafe in Bradford as I saw it helping people to learn about food, food production and to gain skills in the handling of food, not to mention the networking and support that went on.
Jsut a question though what does it mean to take responsibility? It must be more than saying 'Yes I'm of that generation and I have even failed to show my children all my cooking skills' ...? [After all I have found it hard to interest my kids in my brown rice and Chinese-style wok recipes]. Surely it must mean being prepared to make things better. I certainly don't blame the kids -I hope that what I wrote didn't seem to be simplistically endorsing such a view. I think it's actually a complex thing between parents trying to do the best for their kids and often this means living a lifestyle that makes it hard to do the food thing well. On the other hand, kids, like everyone else, like what they like and sugar and fat taste pretty good ... it doesn't take a genius to figure out that there is a recipe for degradation of skills and tastes in that. I just hope that we can do the relearning as a society that will be needed without making a drama out of a crisis. The hopeful thing is the popularity of the cooking programmes on the tele. [or is it alimentary voyeurism with no kick-back into real lives?]
Point of clarification - I wasn't referring to what you'd written, Andii, but to the original article you'd blogged. It's 'another' article pointing the finger at young people and those who aren't offered the chance to make responsible and informed choices because they've been so 'indoctrinated' with the values and worldview of previous generations.
The practical stuff you mention is fantastic and will make a real difference to those you reach. I'm more concerned about prevailing social, economic and educational attitudes that lack a sense of taking responsibility for past and current problems, mistakes and weaknesses.
What my wife and I are currently struggling with is the pressure that we're experiencing from family, friends and church family to conform to expected 'norms' both in our own life choices and in the way that we are goin about teaching our two children. Our most common experience is of people responding very defensively if we share our experiences and make suggestions. Alongside that, there is a common tone of instruction that is usually accompanied with a 'you're only young' statement (relating to the fact that we're only in our mid-20's).
What hope for the future if young adults are simply pushed into more and more education, debt, all-absorbing careers and materialistic life ambitions? How about re-launching relationships of all kinds as the no1 priority so that decision making is based on an awareness and understanding of how we affect each other and can better go about life in community?
This is all getting a bit deep and heavy and perhaps wandering a bit too far from the original blog subject into stuff that's simply on my mind at the moment. Sorry if I'm hijacking your blog!
Please feel free to keep responding; that's what a blog's for and I really appreciate your input. I know what you mean about people feeling defensive when we share our experiences and values ... I also agree that I am unhappy at the way that it is very hard to deal with that 'you're only young' comment. Now I'm older I don't get that so much, but I found it helpful to be able to say 'Yes but I know people your age who see it my/this way'
I'm inclined to ask whether you have read the Tom Sine stuff like 'Mustard Seed vs McWorld'? -There seems to be a congruance of interests.
Thanks Andii.
Yes. Sine is basic required reading for anything like this. He's always good to stand as the progressive voice amongst the 'leading' generation.
I think I'll save the rest of my rant for another time!
By all means let us have the rest of the rant sometime. Sine is not the only voice from that generation but he is a consistent and published one. Others are Ron Sider ['Rich Christians in an age of hunger' was a major influence on a number of my contemporaries when I was an undergrad], Jim Wallis and the Sojourners, the Late Jim Punton, Horace Dammers [of the Lifestyle Movement] ... and actually there's quite a few. God is not without witnesses in every generation.
But I do agree that olders dissing youngers without taking out the plank in their/our own eyes sucks, indeed!
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