Picture Yourself Cooking With Your Kids

Truth in Catch Phrases: Oliver and Lansley edition

In the years before I wrote Picture Yourself Cooking With Your Kids I wrote technical books on everything from applications to operating systems (a 'bible" no less!) to a primer on esoteric technologies, all of them based in actual data. This means that I had to get it right, before it went to print and into the permanent record. A few things always slip by, of course, but like most writers I try to get their facts straight.

Having said that, I have to say I love people with strong opinions and a willingness to participate in honest, open discussion; I learn a lot from them. Solid facts, strong opinions, love them both.

What I don't love is when people repeat catch phrases based on opinion (or repetition) as if they were real live non-smooshy facts.

Like "Children born today will have a shorter life span than their parents."

Unless you have been off-planet for the last six months, you have heard this one, I know you have. Unlike many such sound bites, however, this one has a specific genesis: Jamie Oliver's TED speech.

What he actually said was this:

"We, the adults of the last four generations, have blessed our children with the destiny of a shorter lifespan than their own parents. Your child will live a life ten years younger than you because of the landscape of food that we've built around them."

Shorter lifespan? That's some scary stuff. This meme spread like wildfire. Maybe faster. Like wildfire on the Internet! Seriously, it seemed that within hours everyone who works with food, kids, school, or health was repeating it. The line is being used as the rallying cry for a long overdue reform of the school lunch program - a goal I support wholeheartedly.

There's only one problem: it's just not true.

Michelle Stern's Lunch Revolution

Everyone is talking about Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (I am no exception, I've a bit of a rant brewing) but I have found a much more accessible little revolution taking place in our own little corner of the web.

Michelle Stern, who owns a cooking school for kids, writes at What's Cooking, does community outreach for DOOF, and is about to sign a deal for her first cookbook has been taking on school lunches in her school district and making inroads. (Michelle was also the tech editor for Picture Yourself Cooking With Your Kids so I am especially proud of her.)

Michelle's approach is a straightforward one that many people would be able to make work in their own school districts. . There have been two meetings so far and there are already changes being made to the food being served at the school. After only two meetings. Take that, Jamie Oliver!