The Case Against Jamie Oliver: Why the Naked Chef Should Take His “Food Revolution” Back Home
In February, celebrity British chef Jamie Oliver scooped up the prestigious TED Prize , awarded for his crusade "against obesity and other diet related diseases" and for having "pressured the UK government to invest billion to overhaul school lunches to improve nutrition." Upon receiving the award, he warned America that it was committing national suicide through food. In an attempt to recreate his British school lunch campaign in the United States, Oliver is launching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, a reality show that attempts to overhaul the school lunch regimen in America's unhealthiest city. But while food nags like Oliver and First Lady Michelle Obama are surely right that Americans need to eat better, is he right that our eating habits are killing us? And do we need a massive budget increase to introduce fresh foods and food education to our schools? Reason.tv's Michael C. Moynihan talked to food blogger and journalist Ed Bruske and Reason senior editor Katherine Mangu-Ward about school lunch reform, whether more government money could slim student waistlines, the United States Department of Agriculture's role in making kids fat, and whether young American really are, as Oliver claims, living shorter lives their parents and grandparents. Approximalely 7 minutes. Written by Moynihan. Shot and edited by Dan Hayes. Production assistant, Joshua Swain.
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Tagged with: drew carey • ed bruske • Food Revolution • Jamie Oliver • katherine mangu ward • libertarian • reason magazine • reason.com • reason.org • reason.tv • school lunches
Filed under: Jamie Oliver
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Where is your Reasoning? Its not the fat that makes you fat, its the carbs and fructose. And the veggie oils will clog your arteries.
Looks like the Obamatron shills are out in force today.
I hope you short attention span persons listened to the germane points. In particular, that school administrators cater to the child’s “sweet” tooth to keep government money flowing. Explains the disappearance of the lunch box/brown bag I and most of my fellow students took to school back in the day with a bag of vegetables ,a piece of fruit, and a sandwich.
@cellspotbiz: no, being fat is mostly not due to genetics though in small minority of cases it is genetic factors that are the primary driver. For almost everyone, if you take in more calories than are burned through exercise and daily activity, you gain weight in the form of stored fat. Fat parents influence offspring in bad habits. Essentially, it is a mater of proper parenting.
@danno321s: I should add that the fat kids at my school mostly ate the school-provided lunch.
@TheFarix: if the money was attached to the kid not the school, schools would have to compete for students. This would result in phasing out many of the crony programs like the lunch program and improved teaching.
What I got out of it is they’re saying Oliver is right, but just throwing money at the problem doesn’t get to the root. You need to deal with yet another government bureau; the USDA is at the core of it. Yet another example of where gov’t IS the problem, but with a few more dollars, swears it can fix it.
What a country we live in where our biggest problem is eating ourselves to death. Just ~80 years ago a promise of a “chicken in every pot” would win you high office in this country.
Shills for the fast food and packaged food industry.
.
I love cheeseburgers. Mmmm! No Healthy Choice microwave dinner compare to a hot, fresh cheeseburger.
Just imagine if federal gov’t tried to mandate what we are suppose to eat & when. That has disaster written all over. Obama needs to lay off people’s choices.
I’m going to start smuggling Oreos into Britain.
I assume you are aware that for our children, and for many of our poor, the government does indeed mandate nutrition. We feed our citizens food that isn’t fit for animal consumption and we expect to get healthy and stay competitive.
God Jamie is a wanker….
I think he actually believes he is changing things.. what a joke
There is an obesity issue in this country…but it’s the people that has to change, not the laws.
Here’s an idea, why doesn’t America stop overspending on there Military and start trying to save the lives of there obese who are dying younger than than they should be. No? Your choice.
Vertical farming could be a solution? Fast food is bad for you, obese people are dying younger, grades are lower because of the low nutrition and keep feeding them crap and this will only be the beginning.
I think the problem is Americas worst enemy is itself.
Good luck to all the sane Americans.
Go Jamie!
This film’s research is dated. Greenwich, London where I work, in one of the schools that featured in Jamie’s show, has shown an increase in academic stanadards, it is clear in cold hard stats. If you come to my school now, the children have only ever had Jamie’s food and they eat it happily as they don’t know any different. They eat fresh fruit, salad and veg every day. The woman in this film giving nutritional advice looks ill perhaps its her diet of microwaved food? Change takes time.
Hey, how about parents go back to making their kids’ lunches?
I like reason tv but this film was dumb. The food has a big role in why US kids are fat and in the UK Jamie helped educate without massively increasing costs or imposing lots of extra rules. Maybe watch the series before dismissing it and tucking into your synthetic burger.
errr… this is a stupid stupid video. what the hell. do you even realise how big of a difference good wholesome food makes to a child’s mood/attention/education/LIFE?!
full of sugar, MSG’s and preservatives
mmmmmmm!!
That was the most polite brush-off I’ve seen in a long time.
Good video. Keep the food Gestapo at bay!
Somebody tell Jamie there’s no crying in the kitchen. WWGRD? What Would Gordon Ramsay Do? LOL
mallybo0o, don’t forget saturated fat. Dang, does it taste good!
smoothtalker123, I’m a sane American. I would love to see our government remove our military presence from the globe: no more massive army in Germany, Japan, Korea, etc. This is costing us a lot, and it provides no meaningful defense.
Unfortunately, our military is a powerful special interest group. They won’t give up their worldwide occupation for anything.
@tkwelge I basically agree with you there. There are many inefficiencies that I think almost anyone, Democrat or Republican, could agree on. I think part of the political gam is distracting both parties from the obvious and widely agreed upon things that can be done because there are too many special interests involved. Both liberals AND conservatives disagree with agricultural subsidies, why do they still exist?