If I had my wish, Jamie Oliver would be making over our School Lunch Program as he did in England. Well, they call it School Dinners, but all the same, it's still about that middle of the day meal that's served in public schools.
And it was this week that Oliver won a TED prize, a $100,000 to spread his good food ideas. With this award they gave him the floor for a twenty minute speech and he focused on what kids are eating in schools.
It's an issue that Slow Food USA is focusing on as well (Click the link and send your congress person an email) because the Child Nutrition Act is going to be renewed in Congress in the next two months. More funding, more Farm to School programs and less junk food in our schools would be a step in the right direction. Supporting local agriculture is one of the best ways to stop big AG from getting even bigger.
So, here's Oliver's take on the issue and his "wish".
In his TED Prize wish, Oliver called for the creation of a foundation to inspire a food revolution through communication, education, social networking and by challenging corporate America and the food industry to help transform the culture of junk food into a culture of fresh food and of cooking at home.
"We need to help people understand that if their kids are raised on a diet of junk food they are being set up for a lifetime of serious health problems and even a shortened life expectancy," says Oliver. "I know we don't want to be killing our kids."
Oliver asked the global TED community to provide the talent, hard work and other resources needed to make the wish come true, by:
Establishing a foundation for the movement with funding, office space and facilities
Creating a traveling food theater to teach kids about food and cooking in an entertaining way, and to provide basic training for parents and professionals
Building and maintaining a fleet of trucks for the traveling food theater
Equipping and running community kitchens, and food suppliers to provide fresh ingredients
Harnessing education experts, graphic designers, artists and writers to develop and produce creative, fun teaching materials
Tapping communications and marketing expertise to develop strong and effective messages for the movement
Forming corporate partnerships to invest in cooking and food education for their customers
Creating a website and online social networks and communities to bring people together
Establishing a line of branded food products to generate a sustainable, self-funding income for the campaign
Supporting Jamie's petition to challenge our leaders to make change now: www.jamiesfoodrevolution.com/petition.
Read more: http://www.earthtimes.org/...
Jamie Oliver's TED Talk Available at Youtube
I would love to see someone like Alton Brown take this issue on in the same manner that Oliver did in his own Country. It's really an issue that all Americans have to get behind. And the fix has to happen at home as well. It's an issue that, until addressed on so many levels, from how we grow our food, to how we cook at home.
And I think having "traveling food theaters" and more accessible learning environments is very helpful. With the advent of the food network and more people watching others cook maybe more will want to make time to cook at home. But is it the reality, especially when for many, the idea of fresh and healthy food is not a reality to them.
But having community kitchens and food suppliers in the right areas, especially places that have been coined fresh food deserts, where fruits and vegetables are not close and affordable as opposed to the foods that are easily available, will be another way to bring cooking back to kitchens everywhere. In fresh food deserts, the foods tend to be highly processed, calorie dense and cheap. The choices are so limited in many poorer communities making the better choices means more work for them. Does it mean it can't happen? Of course not. But it's less likely to.
The point is, we have to make it easier for the right foods to get to as many people as possible.
Community Kitchens is about bringing food back to the community and bringing community back to our food, that is how it used to be for so many. That we shared our lives through our food and vice versa. We need to bring the movement back to our tables and our communities. Jamie Oliver has some great ideas and ways to implement them.
So many changes need to be made, but bringing attention to the problem is so important. And I love that someone like Oliver is now branching outside of the UK to raise awareness elsewhere.
Jamie Oliver's ideas for changing the food system:
- Put food "ambassadors" in supermarkets to inform buyers about cooking and to help consumers make good choices
- Big brands should put food education at the heart of their business
- Fast food should be part of the solution by working with government to help wean people off excess fat, salt and sugar
- Better labeling
- Fresh food should be cooked on site at schools
- Every child should learn how to cook ten simple recipes by the time they leave school
- Corporate responsibility should include a plan for making sure employees are fed well
- Cooking should be passed on in the home as a vital philosophy
- Re-instate local institutions like community kitchens that teach cooking lessons
- Identify the experts and "angels" already doing this work and help them get access to resources
- Businesses in America should support what First Lady Obama is doing at the White House
I do realize it's far more complicated than this, it's a generation that grew up on fast food, eating less home cooked meals, etc. and it's going to take going against a huge food lobby, and changing attitudes. It's a battle. But it's one worth fighting.
And that Oliver recognizes that we have so many battling this issue is amazing. We have our own Angel right here, Jill Richardson, who would be someone who could go far with the right resources (hint, hint Oliver). And there are so many others, from the usual suspects like Michael Pollan to my new favorite, Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals.
And it's why I joined my local Slow Food and I'm so glad that I now sit on their Board. (Hey, if you are in Orange County, you have a Slow Food Chapter!)
What we grow and how we grow it is killing not only us, but other food sources and the very environment we need to survive. The evidence is mounting and every week brings another startling headline.
How our food system is destroying the nation’s most important fishery
Take the example of crops growing hundreds of miles inland in the "I-states," and the putrefying aquatic ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi River Basin empties into the Gulf below New Orleans. It drains the U.S. Heartland and upper Midwest, home to most of the country’s prime agricultural land outside the state of California. Lots of fertilizer is applied every year in this watershed to produce lots of non-organic corn, soybeans, cotton, and rice. Massive amounts of agricultural nutrients escape these fields through erosion, runoff, and leaching through soil into groundwater. These intended-nutrients-turned-agricultural-pollutants have disastrous effects when they accumulate in the Gulf waters.
"Dead Zone" The term sounds morbidly ominous, with good reason. During the summer months, a huge amount of water with limited dissolved oxygen ranging from 5,000 to 8,000 square miles in size (approximately the size of Connecticut to that of New Jersey) forms in the Gulf.
Nitrogen and phosphorus runoff nourishes algae, causing massive blooms in the water. As algae decompose, oxygen is removed from the water. Aquatic life forms are asphyxiated and die off. Stocks of large fish dependent on these tiny plants for food are affected, causing fishermen to experience a lower catch and the possible loss of their livelihoods. Result: U.S. consumers are deprived of seafood from one of the nation’s most important fisheries.
It's so important that we rethink how we eat, important on so many levels and in so many ways. And we can use all the allies we can get. Jamie Oliver is one of my favorites, so that he is adding his voice in this way and in our back yard is a prize we should be happy about.
Can't wait to see what he does with it and hope to hear more!