The Coordinator of Farmers and Livestock Organizations (COAG) has presented a campaign so that content on the agri-food sector is taught in a broader and more objective way in the mandatory primary and secondary education syllabus. “We aspire to get a specific subject on agri-food culture to bring students and teachers closer to the reality of food production and its transformation. To do this, educational laws must be modified at both the state and regional levels,” stressed the general secretary of COAG, Miguel Padilla.
To gather the maximum number of possible supports, COAG has prepared an exhaustive report that has already been presented to political groups represented in the Congress of Deputies and to the entire associative fabric related to this initiative: more than 40 associations of parents of students , teachers, nutritionists, professional organizations in the food chain, educators, already know this initiative.
In addition, the initiative will soon be presented to the ministries of Education, Agriculture, Health and Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030 and a campaign to collect signatures has been launched.
From COAG they hope that this analysis will serve to justify the importance and need to carry out a political advocacy campaign from civil society, concerned about the almost non-existent presence of the agri-food sector in the compulsory education of Spanish students.
The three themes that constitute the axis of the document – food, health and the agri-food chain – are not only strongly interrelated, but also play a very important role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For this reason, COAG has carried out a study on the presence of these themes in the compulsory education curriculum. On the one hand, the basic knowledge established by the regulations for Primary, Secondary and Baccalaureate Education and its representation in textbooks have been analyzed.
“We start from a state curriculum that is very ambitious in terms of content, but not very specific, which focuses on science, technology, sustainability and the urban, but which in general shows an agri-food sector that is biased and filtered by the environment and under an eminently urban vision. For example, in high school the term “agriculture” appears 5 times, four of them cited simply as an example, and the fifth in the context of “pollution, salinization and degradation of soil and water”, in the syllabi corresponding to the subjects of Biology, Geology and Environmental Sciences. Something similar happens with the term livestock, which appears only 3 times,” stressed Jaume Bernis, responsible for this initiative in the COAG Executive Commission.
They demand that compulsory education offers new generations much deeper and more extensive training, and at all educational levels, about the importance of food in its health, economic and social aspects.
COAG hopes that this analysis will serve to justify the importance and need to carry out a political advocacy campaign from civil society, concerned about the almost non-existent presence of the agri-food sector in the compulsory education of Spanish students.
Therefore, they demand that compulsory education offer the new generations much deeper and more extensive training, and at all educational levels, about the importance of food in its health, economic and social facets, reaching the point, if It will be considered necessary to incorporate a subject that addresses these topics. “Committing to the education of the youngest is investing in the knowledge and health of the new generations,” added the person responsible for this project on the COAG Executive Committee, Jaume Bernis.
More information, clic the link.
