Lord knows why I keep watching this show. Oh, wait, it’s because I passionately believe in kids, nutrition, shitty school lunches and obesity in America. But the show continues to try my patience. This week, I only got six minutes in before I experienced my first moment of RAGE and ran over here to start a blog post.
It started off so well. Jamie goes to a convention of CA lunch reps, who basically call him out on all the reasons they don’t want to work with him (shock tactics, he’s full of himself as a star, ratings). One admin elaborates in a direct-to-camera interview: he doesn’t want Jamie to demonize people like him. Ok. But then he says:
“We dont want to hear anymore that it’s because of us that Americans are fat. No, they are fat because they decided to be fat. Including me.” (this man is large).
COMMENCE RAGE. (also: file this under Even Fat People Believe in FALC)
I know I’m a broken record, but NO. Nobody chooses to be fat, but just to play along a bit, ok. Let’s say American adults “make choices.” Ok. But children. CHILDREN DO NOT AND CANNOT CHOOSE TO BE FAT. They eat what is given to them and learn lifelong food habits, behaviors and attitudes based on what they observe around them. This includes what their parents show them, as well as what the media and advertising sell them. So if kids can’t CHOOSE to be fat, and it’s adults GIVING THEM BAD CHOICES… and those adults were also given BAD CHOICES as children… feedback loop, ipso facto: NO ONE CHOOSES TO BE FAT. Yes, Jamie’s a didactic, dramatic chef with a myopic view of the American obesity crisis, but you, people preparing school lunches, are not absolved of blame. And you don’t get to BLAME FAT PEOPLE FOR BEING FAT. No.
I just… this makes me so tired. No one wants to feel like it’s their fault for getting kids fat. But come on. People serving lunch to children at school… you have to know you’re doing some bad work. Would you eat this food? It’s gross. (and if you do, you’re probably also overweight and unhealthy) In fairness: schools have been lead astray by a lax FDA. There are larger forces at work.
So I’m ready to have Jamie Oliver go away. I’m not sure how much more of this I can take. Getting angry at Jamie’s Food Revolution is giving me ulcers 
If you want, you can watch the ep in question:
I missed this because it was on at the same time as Dual Survival, which I love.
“I don’t know why anyone else can’t do it if we could.” Really? Talk about privilege. I know that the boy is young, but I wish they would have taken the time to comment on that. That family lives in an upper middle class suburb with plenty of yard and garden space to grow veggies, herbs, and possibly fruit. Later, Jamie calls the school in Santa Barbara “humble.” A “humble school” that has a self-sustaining organic vegetable garden? No. You’re not going to have that in an urban school that has no land for growing anything. You’re not going to be able to have a school in a poor area that has the funds to withdraw from the larger district because a considerable portion of school funding comes from property taxes! You have to rely on funding from the district, or you won’t be able to provide anything to the students.
I haven’t watched many episodes because I’m a West Virginian and was mortified by the way he portrayed the people of Huntington (where I lived for two years). Not everyone in WV eats poorly, but because WV is such a poor state, we’re going to have more trouble getting healthy foods at an affordable price. While I think that what he’s doing is, or can be, good for American students, I think he’s overlooking a lot of factors. I was reading comments on a blog one day about how there’s “no excuse” not to grow your own veggies. “Just put them on a windowsill,” commenters said. What if you live in a high rise apartment complex or the projects where you don’t have windows with ledges or enough sunlight at all? It infuriates me that people don’t understand that not everyone has the means to grow or buy organic produce.
The girl at the 23:30 mark breaks my heart. Simply losing weight isn’t going to suddenly make you love yourself if you have self-esteem issues. I’m getting in shape because I love myself, not because I hate myself.
Geesh. I think I’m done now.
I know, right? I mean, first of all, it’s SANTA BARBARA. No, not some humble school. Frankly, if you cover ANY school in a suburb in California in SoCal or NorCal (ie: skipping the vast farm belt in the middle/east — I have driven through there and it is depressing), your results are skewed. California is literally its own planet. I know why Jamie chose Los Angeles, where the disparity between rich and poor is staggering (and those on the lower end of the spectrum truly need help with access to affordable produces & good food), but 90% of the people he’s actually interacting with are middle class and up, and live a lifestyle & diet that is 10X healthier than the average U.S. citizen. I get to eat seasonally here year round — I AM IN LOVE.
I was frustrated by his treatment of West Virginia, as well. I’ve not been there, but I worked extensively with Kentuckians in my last job and was in close proximity to Huntington — I spent a week north of Lexington in horse farm country — and he grossly exaggerated things. Yes, there’s an issue, but I experienced far more obesity and unhealthy habits in Atlanta than when I was running around the poor farmland of northern Kentucky (so pretty in some parts). Only a small handful of the Kentuckians I worked with were overweight or obese — too many of them worked farms or active jobs (and their kids were super sporty), and so sure they ate crap but they weren’t obese! Jamie treated the residents of Huntington like they were stupid — dude just b/c it’s West Virginia/Kentuckiana, doesn’t mean people are dumb!
But also: Jamie talks about doing this in England. a) he wasn’t as smug then b) their school food was unilaterally shitty — worse than ours, and harder for anyone to defend and c) England is SO SMALL compared to some of the reforms he’s going for here. School food budgets also aren’t dependent on income tax, as you mention. He lacks an understanding of the complex economic & financial workings of our education system, as well as how such regulating boards as the FDA effect what happens in schools.