An Open Letter to Fergus

Categories: Rural
An idea I'm working on with my S3 classes is very dependent on this evenings dinner. I openly declared at the start of our rural topic that, even as a teacher, it took me a long time to realise the reason that kids in town and cities really need to know about farming. I set a homework, which is due tomorrow. Some have already returned it. I've asked the class to bring in a piece of packaging from tonights meal. I'm interested to see what the students eat and where it's from. So far, even the processed stuff is farming produce and the majority of it is British. I'm trying to explore with the class the notion that we depend on farmed produce for, well basically, our existence. As part of the lesson, I'll ask students to plot their packaging on Google Earth ( which will also allow us to look at local v International produce) and reflect at the end of the unit on my old trusted Fergus Drennan video. Fergus is a forgager and basically feels that we should be able to rely on wild, fresh food. I'm not sure he is really saying it in so many words, but it could be argued this is anti-farming. At the end of the unit, I'm going to ask students to draft an open letter to Fergus Drennan. They can agree or disagree with his own views, but I'm more interested that they can articulate the positives and negatives of modern farming. We'll see how it goes...