SCHOOLS DESIGN HADNS-ON EXPERIENCE OF FARMING|食米教育向下紮根 學童下田體驗耕種

People nowadays only eat half the amount of rice compared to 30 years ago. This is mainly due to the influence of Western diet. Five schools designed a course for students to experience, how rice is produced and processed to educate them to eat rice and other domestic agricultural products. With rolled up trousers, bare feet in the fields transplanting rice, or bent over with a sickle to harvest by hand, more and more schools, give students hands-on experience of farming. Children know where white rice comes from. The Shuangxi Elementary School in Taipei has a similar curriculum. It has also integrated nature studies, arts and life sciences and other subjects successfully into rice-eating education. It has been accredited by the Council of Agriculture as a good rice school. ==CHANG WEN-SHOU, Shuangxi Elementary School Principal== Sow in spring, develop in summer, harvest in autumn, store in winter. When children understand the meaning behind "you reap what you sow" they will learn to appreciate and cherish everything. This promotion of rice is because the people of Taiwan now eat half the amount of rice that they did 30 years ago. Each person used to eat 90 kilograms of rice, now they only eat about 45 kilograms, a drop of half, as more Western grains are eaten. Rice is eaten less and noodles and wheat, corn and other grains imported from abroad, are eaten more. This also contributes to the low domestic food self-sufficiency rate of only 32 percent. ==LIN CHUAN-CHI, Food Industry Division Chief, AFA, COA== People consume a large amount of cake and bread in Taiwan. Therefore, we wish to promote grain growing sector in Taiwan. To promote rice consumption, the COA will organize activities in the Children's Park in Taipei City to launch a wide range of processed rice products. However, it is still necessary to reverse people's eating habits. Over the past few years, the Agriculture and Food Agency has been promoting rice in over 65 schools, to subtly try to change eating habits. TRANSLATED BY：CLARE LEAR 不管是捲起褲管，腳陷在田裡面插秧，還是彎著腰，拿鐮刀辛苦收割，越來越多學校，讓小學生親自下田耕種，體驗粒粒皆辛苦的過程，就是希望小朋友能知道白米得來不易，台北市的雙溪國小也有類似的課程，更融合了自然、藝文、生命科學等領域，成功推廣食米教育，得到農委會評鑑為「績優食米學園」。 ==台北市士林雙溪國小校長 張文壽== 春耕夏耘 秋收冬藏 慶豐年 這個一分耕耘一分收穫的道理 那小朋友學會了之後 他自然而然會懂得去珍惜 要這麼努力推廣食米教育，在於台灣人、米越吃越少，比起三十年前，每人每年吃90公斤的米，現在只剩45公斤、銳減一半，飲食西化造成米吃得少，麵類等製品越吃越多，加上小麥、玉米等雜糧多從國外進口，也造成國內的糧食自給率非常低、只有32%。 ==農委會農糧署糧食產業組長 林傳琦== 蛋糕 那像是麵包 那常常都是我們國人也是在消費量 很大的產品 那我們希望可以去推廣國內 種植這些雜糧作物 希望推廣米食，農委會周日選在台北市的兒童樂園舉辦活動，推出各式各樣的米製加工品，但要扭轉民眾的飲食習慣，幾年來辦了無數活動、似乎難見成效，農糧署已經推動超過65所食米學園，只能寄託從學校教育來潛移默化。 記者 林靜梅 吳其昌 台北報導