The National Youth Agency: Comment - Food for thought

OK, I grant you that in the week The Guardian cleared its front page to tell us how young people are "depressed, anxious, antisocial", there may be more pressing concerns for the nation's youth workers. But the idea of flying Braeburns 18,000kms in the month our trees are fully laden is so mad, so Alice in Wonderland surreal, that it proves a fitting symbol for the cock-eyed way we approach food. Each week brings more health - or are they moral? - panics about young people and obesity, about school dinners, about the salt content of our diets. Food - and how it is produced, processed, marketed and consumed - is a key political issue. Why does it not feature more in youth work? Food ought to be one of the most profound sources of pleasure in anyone's life: what other deeply sensual ache can you gratify three times a day? And, to stop being so coy for a moment, if we think sex education is important for young people, why don't we see more food education? Why aren't educators getting young people to compare and contrast a Golden Delicious with an Egremont Russet? Why isn't preventing a hollandaise from curdling seen as a useful life skill? I'm deadly serious here. To encourage young people to eat well, to value the pleasure they derive from food, to have the ability to cook and to be curious about the variety of experience out there: what greater gifts can you give a young person?