ABSTRACT
Experiential learning often simulates workplace learning, and develops skills needed for being competitive applicants and for starting a career with previous real-world exposure and readiness to make a contribution. Outdoor experiential education involves learning through the body—not merely the head. The food system uses raw materials to create edible foodstuffs through sectors including production, transformation, distribution, access, and consumption. A pool of human and natural resources serves as the foundation of food systems that are combined with other factors such as technology, policy, economics, sociocultural trends, research, and education that influence how the system functions. Industrial food system operations create externalities that threaten environmental sustainability. Experiential education can be a method for learners to develop a more thorough and intimate understanding of food system issues and problems while actively engaging in formulating solutions. Local food systems generate alternative models of social organization that address the problematic aspects and externalities of the food system.
