A culinária na educação ambiental: pertencimento e o cuidado com o ambiente

Abstract

Transformations in the way of producing, distributing and consuming food have produced an artificialization of food that causes many socio-environmental impacts and on human health. Among them, we have environmental uprooting, which is, the human being no longer sees themselves as an intrinsic part of the living organism that Planet Earth is about. In order to contain the effects of these transformations, alternate proposals are being created, such as the Slow Food and Real Food movements and the Food Guide for the Brazilian Population, which recommends the consumption of minimally processed foods and unconventional or non-colonized food plants (PANC), as well as the cultivation of vegetable gardens. It is believed that these alternatives are related not only to the rescue of healthy eating practices, but also to the production or resumption of the feeling of environmental belonging and deep connection with Mother Earth. If, on the one hand, the uprooting transforms eating habits, on the other hand, the question arises: how can the rescue of ancestral eating practices promote environmental belonging and care for this environment? In order to deal with this question and theme, this research is defined as a qualitative descriptive investigation, inspired by the participant research. It was also based on discussions about the role of Environmental Education in promoting belonging and care for the environment and on how the affections that are expressed in the activities of cooking and eating can be enhancers in Environmental Education. The work then sought to identify the possible affections capable of producing environmental belonging through workshops with practices related to food in a fourth grade class, in a public school located in the city of Santa Maria, RS. Four workshops were held, through which three practices practices capable of bringing about affections were identified that can be used as enhancers of Environmental Education: the PANC, the acts of cooking/eating and composting, the three of which are interconnected by a cyclical process which human beings do part.