00:00:16
Sadly,
00:00:18
in the next 18 minutes when I do our chat,
00:00:21
four Americans that are alive
00:00:24
will be dead through
the food that they eat.
00:00:29
My name's Jamie Oliver.
00:00:31
I'm 34 years old.
00:00:33
I'm from Essex in England
00:00:35
and for the last seven years
00:00:38
I've worked fairly tirelessly
to save lives in my own way.
00:00:44
I'm not a doctor;
00:00:46
I'm a chef,
00:00:47
I don't have expensive equipment
00:00:49
or medicine.
00:00:51
I use information, education.
00:00:54
I profoundly believe
that the power of food
00:00:57
has a primal place in our homes
00:01:00
that binds us to the best bits of life.
00:01:07
We have an awful, awful reality right now.
00:01:13
America, you're at the top of your game.
00:01:17
This is one of the most unhealthy
countries in the world.
00:01:20
Can I please just see a raise of hands
00:01:23
for how many of you have
children in this room today?
00:01:26
Put your hands up.
00:01:27
You can continue to put your hands up,
aunties and uncles as well.
00:01:31
Most of you. OK.
00:01:33
We, the adults of the last
four generations,
00:01:36
have blessed our children with the destiny
00:01:39
of a shorter lifespan
than their own parents.
00:01:45
Your child will live a life
ten years younger than you
00:01:50
because of the landscape of food
that we've built around them.
00:01:54
Two-thirds of this room,
00:01:56
today, in America, are statistically
overweight or obese.
00:01:59
You lot, you're all right,
00:02:00
but we'll get you eventually, don't worry.
00:02:02
(Laughter)
00:02:04
The statistics of bad health are clear,
00:02:07
very clear.
00:02:09
We spend our lives being paranoid
about death, murder, homicide,
00:02:12
you name it; it's on the front page
of every paper, CNN.
00:02:16
Look at homicide
at the bottom, for God's sake.
00:02:19
Right?
00:02:20
(Laughter)
00:02:22
(Applause)
00:02:27
Every single one of those in the red
is a diet-related disease.
00:02:31
Any doctor, any specialist
will tell you that.
00:02:34
Fact: diet-related disease
is the biggest killer
00:02:37
in the United States,
right now, here today.
00:02:43
This is a global problem.
00:02:45
It's a catastrophe.
00:02:46
It's sweeping the world.
00:02:48
England is right behind you, as usual.
00:02:51
(Laughter)
00:02:55
I know they were close,
but not that close.
00:02:58
We need a revolution.
00:02:59
Mexico, Australia, Germany,
00:03:02
India, China,
00:03:03
all have massive problems
of obesity and bad health.
00:03:07
Think about smoking.
00:03:10
It costs way less than obesity now.
00:03:12
Obesity costs you Americans
10 percent of your health-care bills,
00:03:17
150 billion dollars a year.
00:03:22
In 10 years, it's set to double:
00:03:24
300 billion dollars a year.
00:03:25
Let's be honest, guys,
you haven't got that cash.
00:03:28
(Laughter)
00:03:32
I came here to start a food revolution
that I so profoundly believe in.
00:03:38
We need it. The time is now.
00:03:40
We're in a tipping-point moment.
00:03:42
I've been doing this for seven years.
00:03:44
I've been trying in America
for seven years.
00:03:46
Now is the time when it's ripe --
ripe for the picking.
00:03:50
I went to the eye of the storm.
00:03:52
I went to West Virginia,
the most unhealthy state in America.
00:03:55
Or it was last year.
00:03:56
We've got a new one this year,
but we'll work on that next season.
00:03:59
(Laughter)
00:04:01
Huntington, West Virginia. Beautiful town.
00:04:03
I wanted to put heart and soul and people,
00:04:06
your public,
00:04:08
around the statistics
that we've become so used to.
00:04:12
I want to introduce you
to some of the people that I care about:
00:04:15
your public, your children.
00:04:17
I want to show a picture
of my friend Brittany.
00:04:19
She's 16 years old.
00:04:22
She's got six years to live
00:04:25
because of the food that she's eaten.
00:04:28
She's the third generation of Americans
00:04:30
that hasn't grown up
within a food environment
00:04:32
where they've been taught
to cook at home or in school,
00:04:35
or her mom, or her mom's mom.
00:04:37
She has six years to live.
00:04:40
She's eating her liver to death.
00:04:43
Stacy, the Edwards family.
00:04:45
This is a normal family, guys.
00:04:48
Stacy does her best,
but she's third-generation as well;
00:04:51
she was never taught to cook
at home or at school.
00:04:53
The family's obese.
00:04:54
Justin here, 12 years old,
he's 350 pounds.
00:04:57
He gets bullied, for God's sake.
00:04:59
The daughter there, Katie,
she's four years old.
00:05:01
She's obese before she even gets
to primary school.
00:05:04
Marissa, she's all right,
she's one of your lot.
00:05:07
But you know what?
00:05:08
Her father, who was obese,
died in her arms,
00:05:11
And then the second
most important man in her life,
00:05:14
her uncle, died of obesity,
00:05:16
and now her step-dad is obese.
00:05:19
You see, the thing is,
00:05:21
obesity and diet-related disease
00:05:24
doesn't just hurt the people that have it;
00:05:26
it's all of their friends, families,
brothers, sisters.
00:05:30
Pastor Steve:
00:05:32
an inspirational man,
00:05:33
one of my early allies
in Huntington, West Virginia.
00:05:36
He's at the sharp knife-edge
of this problem.
00:05:40
He has to bury the people, OK?
00:05:42
And he's fed up with it.
00:05:44
He's fed up with burying his friends,
his family, his community.
00:05:47
Come winter, three times
as many people die.
00:05:50
He's sick of it.
00:05:52
This is preventable disease.
Waste of life.
00:05:55
By the way, this is
what they get buried in.
00:05:58
We're not geared up to do this.
00:06:01
Can't even get them out the door,
and I'm being serious.
00:06:03
Can't even get them there. Forklift.
00:06:06
OK, I see it as a triangle, OK?
00:06:08
This is our landscape of food.
00:06:10
I need you to understand it.
00:06:11
You've probably heard all this before.
00:06:13
Over the last 30 years,
00:06:15
what's happened that's ripped
the heart out of this country?
00:06:18
Let's be frank and honest.
00:06:20
Well, modern-day life.
00:06:22
Let's start with the Main Street.
00:06:25
Fast food has taken over
the whole country; we know that.
00:06:28
The big brands are
some of the most important powers,
00:06:30
powerful powers, in this country.
00:06:33
(Sighs)
00:06:34
Supermarkets as well.
00:06:36
Big companies. Big companies.
00:06:38
Thirty years ago, most of the food
00:06:41
was largely local and largely fresh.
00:06:44
Now it's largely processed
and full of all sorts of additives,
00:06:47
extra ingredients,
and you know the rest of the story.
00:06:50
Portion size is obviously
a massive, massive problem.
00:06:54
Labeling is a massive problem.
00:06:57
The labeling in this country
is a disgrace.
00:07:00
The industry wants
to self-police themselves.
00:07:06
What, in this kind of climate?
They don't deserve it.
00:07:08
How can you say something is low-fat
when it's full of so much sugar?
00:07:13
Home.
00:07:16
The biggest problem with the home
00:07:18
is that used to be the heart
of passing on food culture,
00:07:23
what made our society.
00:07:25
That is not happening anymore.
00:07:27
And you know, as we go
to work and as life changes,
00:07:30
and as life always evolves,
00:07:32
we kind of have
to look at it holistically --
00:07:34
step back for a moment,
and re-address the balance.
00:07:36
It hasn't happened for 30 years, OK?
00:07:39
I want to show you a situation
00:07:42
that is very normal right now;
the Edwards family.
00:07:46
(Video) Jamie Oliver: Let's have a talk.
00:07:49
This stuff goes through you
and your family's body every week.
00:07:53
And I need you to know
00:07:55
that this is going to kill
your children early.
00:07:59
How are you feeling?
00:08:01
Stacy: Just feeling really sad
and depressed right now.
00:08:05
But, you know, I want
my kids to succeed in life
00:08:09
and this isn't going to get them there.
00:08:12
But I'm killing them.
00:08:14
JO: Yes you are. You are.
00:08:17
But we can stop that.
00:08:23
Normal.
00:08:25
Let's get on schools,
00:08:27
something that I'm fairly much
a specialist in.
00:08:30
OK, school.
00:08:32
What is school? Who invented it?
What's the purpose of school?
00:08:35
School was always invented
to arm us with the tools
00:08:38
to make us creative, do wonderful things,
00:08:40
make us earn a living, etc., etc.
00:08:43
You know, it's been kind of in this sort
of tight box for a long, long time, OK?
00:08:48
But we haven't really evolved it
00:08:50
to deal with the health
catastrophes of America, OK?
00:08:53
School food is something
00:08:56
that most kids --
31 million a day, actually --
00:08:59
have twice a day, more than often,
breakfast and lunch,
00:09:04
180 days of the year.
00:09:05
So you could say that school
food is quite important, really,
00:09:08
judging the circumstances.
00:09:10
(Laughter)
00:09:15
Before I crack into my rant,
00:09:18
which I'm sure you're waiting for --
00:09:20
(Laughter)
00:09:23
I need to say one thing,
and it's so important
00:09:25
in, hopefully, the magic
that happens and unfolds
00:09:28
in the next three months.
00:09:30
The lunch ladies,
the lunch cooks of America --
00:09:33
I offer myself as their ambassador.
00:09:36
I'm not slagging them off.
00:09:38
They're doing the best they can do.
00:09:43
They're doing their best.
00:09:45
But they're doing what they're told,
00:09:47
and what they're being
told to do is wrong.
00:09:49
The system is highly run by accountants;
00:09:52
there's not enough, or any,
food-knowledgeable people in the business.
00:09:56
There's a problem:
00:09:58
If you're not a food expert,
and you've got tight budgets
00:10:01
and it's getting tighter,
then you can't be creative,
00:10:03
you can't duck and dive
and write different things around things.
00:10:07
If you're an accountant, and a box-ticker,
00:10:09
the only thing you can do
in these circumstances
00:10:11
is buy cheaper shit.
00:10:12
Now, the reality is,
00:10:13
the food that your kids get
every day is fast food,
00:10:17
it's highly processed,
00:10:18
there's not enough
fresh food in there at all.
00:10:21
You know, the amount
of additives, E numbers,
00:10:23
ingredients you wouldn't believe --
00:10:24
there's not enough veggies at all.
00:10:26
French fries are considered a vegetable.
00:10:28
Pizza for breakfast.
They don't even get crockery.
00:10:31
Knives and forks?
No, they're too dangerous.
00:10:34
They have scissors in the classroom,
00:10:36
but knives and forks? No.
00:10:37
And the way I look at it is:
00:10:38
If you don't have knives
and forks in your school,
00:10:41
you're purely endorsing,
00:10:42
from a state level, fast food,
because it's handheld.
00:10:46
And yes, by the way, it is fast food:
00:10:47
It's sloppy Joes, it's burgers,
00:10:49
it's wieners, it's pizzas,
it's all of that stuff.
00:10:53
(Sighs)
00:10:55
Ten percent of what we spend
on health care, as I said earlier,
00:10:58
is on obesity, and it's going to double.
00:11:02
We're not teaching our kids.
00:11:03
There's no statutory right
to teach kids about food,
00:11:06
elementary or secondary school, OK?
00:11:08
We don't teach kids about food, right?
00:11:10
And this is a little clip
from an elementary school,
00:11:13
which is very common in England.
00:11:17
(Video) Who knows what this is?
00:11:18
Child: Potatoes.
00:11:19
Jamie Oliver: Potato?
So, you think these are potatoes?
00:11:22
Do you know what that is?
00:11:23
Do you know what that is?
00:11:25
Child: Broccoli?
00:11:26
JO: What about this? Our good old friend.
00:11:28
Child: Celery.
00:11:29
JO: No. What do you think this is?
00:11:31
Child: Onion.
JO: Onion? No.
00:11:33
JO: Immediately you
get a really clear sense
00:11:35
of "Do the kids know anything
about where food comes from?"
00:11:39
Who knows what that is? Child: Uh, pear?
00:11:41
JO: What do you think this is?
Child: I don't know.
00:11:43
JO: If the kids don't know what stuff is,
00:11:45
then they will never eat it.
00:11:49
(Laughter)
00:11:50
JO: Normal. England and America,
00:11:53
England and America.
00:11:54
Guess what fixed that.
00:11:57
Two one-hour sessions.
00:12:00
We've got to start teaching our kids
about food in schools, period.
00:12:04
(Applause)
00:12:10
I want to tell you about something
00:12:14
that kind of epitomizes the trouble
that we're in, guys, OK?
00:12:18
I want to talk about something
so basic as milk.
00:12:21
Every kid has the right to milk at school.
00:12:23
Your kids will be having milk
at school, breakfast and lunch, right?
00:12:27
They'll be having two bottles, OK?
00:12:29
And most kids do.
00:12:30
But milk ain't good enough anymore.
00:12:33
Don't get me wrong, I support milk --
00:12:36
but someone at the milk board
00:12:38
probably paid a lot of money
for some geezer to work out
00:12:41
that if you put loads of flavorings,
00:12:42
colorings and sugar in milk,
00:12:44
more kids will drink it.
00:12:46
Yeah.
00:12:48
Obviously now that's going to catch on
00:12:50
the apple board is going to work out
00:12:52
that if they make toffee apples
they'll eat more as well.
00:12:55
Do you know what I mean?
00:12:56
For me, there isn't any need
to flavor the milk.
00:12:59
Okay? There's sugar in everything.
00:13:01
I know the ins and outs
of those ingredients.
00:13:03
It's in everything.
00:13:04
Even the milk hasn't escaped
the kind of modern-day problems.
00:13:08
There's our milk. There's our carton.
00:13:10
In that is nearly as much sugar
as one of your favorite cans of fizzy pop,
00:13:14
and they are having two a day.
00:13:15
So, let me just show you.
00:13:17
We've got one kid, here --
00:13:22
having, you know,
eight tablespoons of sugar a day.
00:13:26
You know, there's your week.
00:13:29
There's your month.
00:13:32
And I've taken the liberty of putting in
00:13:34
just the five years
of elementary school sugar,
00:13:41
just from milk.
00:13:46
Now, I don't know about you guys,
00:13:48
but judging the circumstances, right,
00:13:50
any judge in the whole world,
00:13:53
would look at the statistics
and the evidence,
00:13:55
and they would find any government
of old guilty of child abuse.
00:13:59
That's my belief.
00:14:00
(Applause)
00:14:07
(Applause ends)
00:14:09
Now, if I came up here, and I wish
I could come up here today
00:14:12
and hang a cure for AIDS or cancer,
00:14:15
you'd be fighting
and scrambling to get to me.
00:14:18
This, all this bad news, is preventable.
00:14:22
That's the good news.
00:14:23
It's very, very preventable.
00:14:26
So, let's just think about,
we got a problem here,
00:14:29
we need to reboot.
00:14:31
Okay so, in my world,
what do we need to do?
00:14:34
Here is the thing, right,
00:14:35
it cannot just come from one source.
00:14:38
To reboot and make real tangible change,
00:14:41
real change, so that I could look you
in the white of the eyes
00:14:44
and say, "In 10 years' time,
00:14:46
the history of your children's lives,
00:14:48
happiness -- and let's not forget,
you're clever if you eat well,
00:14:51
you know you're going to live longer --
00:14:53
all of that stuff,
it will look different. OK?"
00:14:56
So, supermarkets.
00:14:58
Where else do you shop so religiously?
00:15:00
Week in, week out.
00:15:01
How much money do you spend,
in your life, in a supermarket?
00:15:04
Love them.
00:15:05
They just sell us what we want. All right.
00:15:07
They owe us to put a food ambassador
in every major supermarket.
00:15:12
They need to help us shop.
00:15:14
They need to show us how to cook
quick, tasty, seasonal meals
00:15:18
for people that are busy.
00:15:20
This is not expensive.
00:15:22
It is done in some, and it needs
to be done across the board
00:15:24
in America soon, and quick.
00:15:27
The big brands, you know, the food brands,
00:15:30
need to put food education
at the heart of their businesses.
00:15:33
I know, easier said than done.
00:15:35
It's the future. It's the only way.
00:15:37
Fast food.
00:15:39
With the fast-food industry
00:15:42
you know, it's very competitive.
00:15:44
I've had loads
of secret papers and dealings
00:15:46
with fast food restaurants.
00:15:48
I know how they do it.
00:15:49
I mean, basically they've weaned us on
00:15:52
to these hits of sugar,
salt and fat, and x, y, and z,
00:15:55
and everyone loves them, right?
00:15:57
So, these guys are going
to be part of the solution.
00:16:00
But we need to get the government to work
00:16:02
with all of the fast food purveyors
and the restaurant industry,
00:16:05
and over a five, six, seven year period
00:16:07
wean of us off the extreme amounts
00:16:09
of fat, sugar and all the other
non-food ingredients.
00:16:13
Now, also, back to the sort of big brands:
00:16:15
labeling, I said earlier,
is an absolute farce
00:16:18
and has got to be sorted.
00:16:21
OK, school.
00:16:23
Obviously, in schools, we owe it to them
00:16:26
to make sure those 180 days of the year,
00:16:28
from that little precious age of four,
00:16:30
until 18, 20, 24, whatever,
00:16:32
they need to be cooked proper, fresh food
00:16:37
from local growers on site, OK?
00:16:39
There needs to be a new
standard of fresh, proper food
00:16:41
for your children, yeah?
00:16:43
(Applause)
00:16:47
Under the circumstances,
it's profoundly important
00:16:51
that every single
American child leaves school
00:16:53
knowing how to cook 10 recipes
00:16:55
that will save their life.
00:16:58
Life skills.
00:16:59
(Applause)
00:17:01
That means that they can be
students, young parents,
00:17:04
and be able to sort of duck and dive
around the basics of cooking,
00:17:08
no matter what recession hits
them next time.
00:17:10
If you can cook,
recession money doesn't matter.
00:17:13
If you can cook, time doesn't matter.
00:17:17
The workplace, we haven't
really talked about it.
00:17:19
You know, it's now time
for corporate responsibility
00:17:23
to really look at what they feed
or make available to their staff.
00:17:27
The staff are the moms and dads
of America's children.
00:17:30
Marissa, her father died in her hand,
00:17:33
I think she'd be quite happy
00:17:35
if corporate America could start
feeding their staff properly.
00:17:38
Definitely they shouldn't be left out.
00:17:40
Let's go back to the home.
00:17:41
Now, look, if we do
all this stuff, and we can,
00:17:44
it's so achievable.
00:17:45
You can care and be commercial.
00:17:46
Absolutely.
00:17:47
But the home needs to start passing on
cooking again, for sure.
00:17:52
For sure, pass it on as a philosophy.
00:17:55
And for me, it's quite romantic,
00:17:57
but it's about if one person
teaches three people
00:17:59
how to cook something,
00:18:01
and they teach three of their mates,
00:18:02
that only has to repeat itself 25 times,
00:18:05
and that's the whole
population of America.
00:18:07
Romantic, yes, but most importantly,
00:18:11
it's about trying to get people to realize
00:18:14
that every one of your individual efforts
makes a difference.
00:18:17
We've got to put back what's been lost.
00:18:20
Huntington's Kitchen.
00:18:22
Huntington, where I made this program,
00:18:24
we've got this prime-time program
00:18:26
that hopefully will inspire people
to really get on this change.
00:18:29
I truly believe that change will happen.
00:18:31
Huntington's Kitchen.
I work with a community.
00:18:33
I worked in the schools.
00:18:35
I found local sustainable funding
00:18:37
to get every single school in the area
from the junk, onto the fresh food:
00:18:41
six-and-a-half grand per school.
00:18:44
(Applause)
00:18:45
That's all it takes,
six-and-a-half grand per school.
00:18:47
The Kitchen is 25 grand a month. Okay?
00:18:50
This can do 5,000 people a year,
00:18:53
which is 10 percent of their population,
00:18:55
and it's people on people.
00:18:56
You know, it's local cooks
teaching local people.
00:18:59
It's free cooking lessons,
guys, in the Main Street.
00:19:03
This is real, tangible change,
real, tangible change.
00:19:07
Around America, if we just look back now,
00:19:10
there is plenty of wonderful
things going on.
00:19:13
There is plenty of beautiful
things going on.
00:19:15
There are angels
around America doing great things
00:19:19
in schools -- farm-to-school set-ups,
00:19:22
garden set-ups, education --
00:19:24
there are amazing people
doing this already.
00:19:26
The problem is they all want to roll out
00:19:28
what they're doing to the next school,
00:19:30
but there's no cash.
00:19:33
We need to recognize the experts
and the angels quickly,
00:19:36
identify them, and allow them
to easily find the resource
00:19:40
to keep rolling out
what they're already doing,
00:19:42
and doing well.
00:19:44
Businesses of America need to support
00:19:46
Mrs. Obama to do the things
that she wants to do.
00:19:49
(Applause)
00:19:55
And look, I know it's weird
00:19:57
having an English person
standing here before you
00:20:00
talking about all this.
00:20:01
All I can say is: I care.
00:20:03
I'm a father,
00:20:05
and I love this country.
00:20:07
And I believe truly, actually,
00:20:09
that if change can be made
in this country,
00:20:12
beautiful things will happen
around the world.
00:20:14
If America does it,
other people will follow.
00:20:17
It's incredibly important.
00:20:18
(Audience) Yeah!
00:20:19
(Applause)
00:20:25
When I was in Huntington,
00:20:26
trying to get a few things to work
when they weren't,
00:20:29
I thought "If I had a magic wand,
what would I do?"
00:20:34
And I thought, "You know what?
00:20:36
I'd just love to be put in front
of some of the most amazing
00:20:39
movers and shakers in America."
00:20:42
And a month later, TED phoned me up
and gave me this award.
00:20:46
I'm here.
00:20:50
So, my wish.
00:20:56
Dyslexic, so I'm a bit slow.
00:21:04
My wish
00:21:06
is for you to help a strong,
sustainable movement
00:21:10
to educate every child
00:21:14
about food,
00:21:16
to inspire families to cook again,
00:21:20
and to empower people everywhere
00:21:22
to fight obesity.
00:21:25
(Applause)
00:21:35
Thank you.
00:21:36
(Applause continues)