FOOD IS FUNDAMENTAL to how we live. It is something every one of us has to navigate every day.

It affects our health, environment, culture, communities and economy. It connects us to farming, biodiversity, climate, tradition, family and place and influences the choices we make at home, in schools, in shops and in our communities.

Yet our understanding of food is increasingly fragmented.

Recent research carried out by our team at Airfield Estate, the only urban working farm and food education charity in Dublin, found that almost all parents and primary school teachers surveyed (89.5%) believed that many children are disconnected from how food is grown, produced and prepared. If we lose that connection entirely, we risk raising generations with little understanding of the very systems that sustain them.

This is mirrored by research published by the National Dairy Council earlier this year, which found that over half (56%) of children under 12 in Ireland have never seen a cow being milked.

This means that places like Airfield now play a critical role in bridging the growing divide between urban life and the realities of food production. These experiences should not be rare or novel for children in Ireland.

We welcome 12,000 schoolchildren every year, and as a working farm and food education provider in Dublin, we see this gap every day. Many children arrive having never seen where eggs come from or vegetables growing, met farm animals or spoken to a farmer.

Emilie Dillon and Sive McEntee in Airfield in 2014. Sasko Lazarov / Photocall Ireland Sasko Lazarov / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

Yet the moment they experience it first-hand, the connection is immediate. We work hard to champion youth food education through our Living Classroom model, which combines food production, education, nutrition and sustainability through hands-on learning experiences. Through programmes such as Farmer Time, Breakfast Clubs, GROW and our 38-acre farm and gardens, we demonstrate how experiential food learning can connect young people........

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