educate every child about food

One of my personal heroes…..Jamie Oliver. Here he is last night in California presenting his”wish” to the TED foundation. Jamie was this year’s TED prize winner. The benefits of winning are that you get to make a wish and the TED foundation puts all it’s resources together, along with influential interested individuals with government/corporate connections, and they try to make that wish come true. TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. They have conferences every year and the speakers are always amazing and thought provoking. I have been inspired by many, well worth checking out.

On streaming CNN last night I watched Jaime live, as he gave a passionate speech about the state of America and Britain’s eating habits, obesity, fast food and the growing ignorance of children with regards to what “real” food is. He showed a chilling example of children not being able to identify produce, thinking tomatoes were potatoes, an eggplant was a pear, broccoli was celery, etc. They won’t eat what they don’t know. Parents are relying on fast and packaged foods, loaded with junk. Cooking arts and knowledge are not getting passed on. Health is suffering.

His wish was this:
“I wish for the TED community to create a movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and bring people together everywhere to fight obesity,” said Jamie. “My hope is that millions more people will learn, as so many have already, that it is a happier, healthier life that is built around eating good food, together with family and friends.”

Jamie called for the foundation to inspire a nutrition 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 healthy eating.

It was wonderful to see the members of the audience pledge their support and offer the resources they had. You can read more about it HERE