Food News

Junk food black market

I think this is a case of someone coming up with an eye-catching headline without a lot of evidence to back it up, but it's certainly true that people always find ways to work around bans, especially kids.

I kind of love Jamie Oliver*, who is mentioned in that article, because he has used his fame to make a lot of noise about the quality of food in school lunches. I am a huge fan of programs dedicated to bringing amazing food into schools and teaching children about eating healthfully without turning it into a negative message. Over here in the US, Alice Waters** has started a similar movement, centered around both gardening at school and eating what you've grown, that has been catching on at a snail's pace in some parts of the country, but tends to get held up by the difficulties involved in bringing this kind of program to a large school system.

I am eventually going to get my nutrition degree, and one of the things I am most interested in doing is trying new ways to run school lunch programs. I think that if we want to change the way we deal with food in western society, we need to work on taking out all of the fear and confusion and creating a firm base of knowledge about and love for the food we eat and the way it nourishes our body.

*A popular Food Network chef who has published several cookbooks.

**A well known chef who made more people aware of the whole idea of eating locally, back in the seventies.

posted by Shelly @ 12:00 PM