Revisioning Food, Farm and Forest: The Badges of Meadows Bee
By Rick Veitch
Meadows Bee Farm
This comic-book-style book was written to showcase the sustainable agriculture program designed for children at Meadows Bee Farm in Vermont. In the farmβs Young Farmers Badge Program, children are involved in every aspect of farm life, engaging in lessons and subjects ranging from farm animal biology to beekeepΒing to fermentation. As the children progress through the program, they earn badges recogΒnizing the skill they practiced. For example, in the dairy badge series, students earn a badge for learning milking, calving and cheesemaking.
Despite the format, Revisioning is primarily written for adult readers. Not shying away from the serious issues confronting our populationβs health and industrial food systems, author Rick Veitchβs message is clear: βIf we canβt get back to nature and imagine solutions, then weβre sunk.β Parents and educators of young children will find inspiration in the story of the Meadows Bee Farm program. They might even find an idea of how to incorporate more nature, outdoor time and food production into their childrenβs upΒbringing. Young children, meanwhile, will enjoy looking through the bookβs vibrant illustrations and discussing what is happening on the farm.
In the words of Weston A. Price, βYou teach, you teach, you teach!β Certainly, the farm program at Meadows Bee Farm is doing just that. Whether or not the young participants grow up to be farmers, the education they are receiving is greatly needed in the quest to find a harmonious relationship with nature. Through the hands-on skills they practice on the farm, these children will be rooted in an understandΒing of traditional food systems and an appreciaΒtion for high-quality food and stewardship of land that they can carry on throughout their life.
This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation,Β Fall 2022
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