Writing about TED "Jamie Oliver's TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food"

             Cases of homicide, murder, and death are always on the front page of every paper. We spend our lives being zealous and paranoid about death, murder, homicide, you name it. However, many people are indifferent about how food has taken away the lives of millions of people and will incessantly kill people.

             Sadly, in the next 5 minutes, several people who were once alive will be dead from the food that they eat. Look at homicide, for God's sake. It only makes up 5% percent of the total death in a year. On the other hand, diet-related disease makes up almost 40% of the total death and definitely is the biggest killer in countries such as United States, right now, here today. Mexico, Australia, Germany, India, China, all have innumerable problems of obesity and bad health. This is a global problem. It's a catastrophe. It's sweeping the world.

             Think about a female colleague who lives next door who got only got six years to live because of the food that she's eaten. Think about Justin, 12 years old, who has already gained 350 pounds. He is bullied in school, for God's sake. Imagine a girl, Maria, crying over her father who died in her arms because of obesity-related disease. And then the second-most-important man in her life, her uncle, died of obesity. You see, the thing is obesity and diet-related disease doesn't just hurt the people that have it; it's all of their friends, families, brothers, sisters.

             But the thing is children don’t even know what kind of food there are aside from fast food. When we ask children about healthy foods such as onions, potatoes, and so on, they can’t even differentiate these foods from each other. That is, they don't have any kind of discernment regarding food. This is what happens right now. When I point to an onion and ask Sally what this is, she’ll probably say, “It’s a lettuce!” Immediately you get a really clear sense of do the kids know anything about where food comes from. If the kids don't know what stuff is, then they'd never eat it. This is inevitable, especially in Western Europe and the United States. We've got to start teaching our kids about food in schools, exclamation mark.

             And these are the reasons why I came here to start a food revolution that I so much believe in. This is exactly the tipping-point moment. Now is the time when it's ripe. The good news is that deaths due to obesity are very preventable. So what are the solutions?

             Let’s begin with supermarkets and fast food companies. Supermarkets need to show us how to cook, quick, tasty, seasonal meals for people that are busy. This is not expensive. It is done in some. The big brands, you know, the food brands, need to put food education at the heart of their businesses. It's the only way. Also, labeling is a massive problem. The labeling in this country is a blasphemy. How can you say something is low-fat when it's full of so much sugar? Labeling, I said earlier, is an absolute farce, and has got to be sorted.

             Next, moving on to fast food companies and governments. Fast food companies are very competitive. Basically they've weaned us on to these hits of sugar, salt and fat. And everyone loves them. So, these guys are going to be part of the solution. But we need to get the government to work with all of the fast food purveyors and the restaurant industry. And over a long time span, governments should definitely reduce the extreme amounts of fat, sugar, fat and all the other non-food ingredients.

             Thirdly, let's think about schools and workplaces. Obviously in schools we owe it to them to make sure those 190 days of the year, they need to be cooked proper fresh food from local growers on site. There needs to be a new and lucid standard of fresh proper food for your children and my friends.  School food is something that most kids, 31 million a day in the U.S for example, have twice a day, more than often, breakfast and lunch, 190 days of the year. So you could say that school food is quite relevant, really, judging the circumstances. That is why schools need to ameliorate the quality of foods. Of course, additives and seasonings are appeasing to the tongue. However, if schools really care for their children and students, they need to instigate action for the enhancement of school foods. The workplace. It's high time for corporate responsibility to really look at what they feed or make available to their staff. The staffs are the moms and dads of friends as well.

             Next, think about households. Households should definitely teach their children about healthy foods and healthy cooking. It's profoundly important that every single child in the world learn how to cook recipes that will save their life. The home needs to start passing on cooking again, for sure. Before, cooking at home was considered to be a philosophy. Home is where it used to be the heart of passing on food and food culture, what made our society coalesce into one. But look at what's happening now. That isn't happening anymore. The only thing we hear from modern day people is "Do it faster! Faster!". This flagrant culture stems from the appearance of fast foods. We should change the current situation.

              I truly believe that if changes can be made in this country, beautiful things will happen around the world. I have a dream. My dream is for people to help a strong sustainable movement to educate every child about food, to inspire families to cook again, and to empower people everywhere to fight obesity. Let us now abandon the hedonistic eating habits and accept healthy ones. Let us imagine the happy faces of our blithe children. Let us escape from the apathy we once had towards our healthy foods. In 10 years time, the history of my friends and your children’s happiness will look different.