I've started and scrapped and restarted this essay several times. Imagine the camera zooming in on a wastebasket filled with crumpled typewritten pages, my thoughts written in red pen across the top. Too mean, this introduction about how teaching people a new recipe won't help them eat more vegetables. Too accusatory, this one asking if the skills you are teaching were requested by the people you teach. Be more human.
Because the desire to teach is at the core of being human. We want to pass on knowledge, skills, culture, everything we have learned that we do not want to be lost. Education is a necessary component of changing food systems, not only for the skills and information shared, but also for the relationships built and strengthened, for the increased confidence and self-efficacy of individuals, and more.
We need it! But it is not everything. And emphasizing individual food education without also pushing for systemic change is problematic, particularly when those you are teaching are disproportionately burdened by systems of oppression.
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