Sustainable Futures Hero #1 – Jamie Oliver

In my spare time I daydream about scenarios of a brighter future. Amid all the miserable news of public spending cuts, troop surges in Afghanistan and Katie Price’s new husbands, it’s sometimes hard to conjure up a vision of a better tomorrow, so when I hear a public figure putting his or her head above the parapet to make a difference, I feel I have to give them their due.

So Jamie Oliver, you get my first prize for Sustainable Futures Hero on this blog (a pretty unsubstantial accolade I know, but a gong nonetheless). I award this to Jamie because he has taken his campaign for healthy eating beyond the school dinners of Greenwich and is now trying to change the way they eat in America. There’s something special about that Oliver lad – he’s got gumption! Maybe it’s his passion, his cheeky chappiness or his complete fearlessness that does it, but his mission to change the way the world views food is truly laudable. It may seem like he’s on a crusade, but it is one that I totally believe in.

In case you don’t know who he is, Jamie Oliver has been on TV in the UK for nearly fifteen years and in that time has gone from being a goofy kid on a moped, to a school dinner champion, to a political heavyweight in the realm of healthy eating with Jamie's Ministry of Food. He’s now on a one man mission to fight obesity – and he’s taken it Stateside. He has some pretty serious statistics to back him up as well. Currently 10% of healthcare costs in the US go directly on obesity – and that is set to double within a generation. At the same time there are frightening indirect costs that bad diet affects: for example heart disease is the biggest killer in the Western world and in many cases is directly related to what we eat. His mission is to get food back on the curriculum in schools across the world in the belief that if children learn early about healthy food then they will eat well throughout life.

Jamie is up for the TED Prize in 2010 where his main goal is the following: "I wish for a strong sustainable movement to educate every child about food, to inspire families to cook again and to empower people everywhere to fight obesity"

To find out what it’s all about watch his presentation on Jamie's TED Talk. Here he offers a brilliant incisive description of the way fast food is slowly killing us – and what we can do to change the way eat. I say: vote for Jamie for a healthier future.

Quote of the day - Prosperity without Growth

Every society clings to a myth by which it lives. Ours is the myth of economic growth. For the last five decades the pursuit of growth has been the single most important policy goal across the world. The global economy is almost five times the size it was half a century ago. If it continues to grow at the same rate the economy will be 80 times that size by the year 2100...

...But the current economic crisis presents us with a unique opportunity to invest in change. To sweep away the short-term thinking that has plagued society for decades. To replace it with considered policy capable of addressing the enormous challenge of delivering a lasting prosperity.

For at the end of the day, prosperity goes beyond material pleasures. It transcends material concerns. It resides in the quality of our lives and in the health and happiness of our families. It is present in the strength of our relationships and our trust in the community. It is evidenced by our satisfaction at work and our sense of shared meaning and purpose. It hangs on our potential to participate fully in the life of society.

Prosperity consists in our ability to flourish as human beings – within the ecological limits of a finite planet. The challenge for our society is to create the conditions under which this is possible. It is the most urgent task of our times.

From Prosperity without Growth by Professor Tim Jackson, March 2009

Thought for the day