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Actions Speak Louder than Words – Food for thought!
“Beneath the rule of men entirely great, the pen is mightier than the sword.” [Baron Edward George Bulwer- Lytton (1803-1873) English novelist]
In 1839 Lytton first wrote: ‘The pen is mightier than the sword‘, which meant that you can solve problems or achieve your purpose better and more effectively through communication with words than by violence with weapons. On the other hand, we now live in a climate of rhetoric and spin where ‘words’ are often valueless. Sometimes another proverb ‘Actions speak louder than words’ construed to be derived from the Bible, where we learn more from people's actions than from their words, can be more appropriate to the cause for effect. Such is the case when dealing with the bombardment of children in school via advertising and vending of unhealthy foods and drinks for their consumption and feeding them less than healthy school meals. The good news is that in France, once the ‘world capital of food’ before the advent of Fast Food emporiums that even infiltrated the hallowed Champs Elysees, they have taken ‘action’ against soft drinks and junk food vending machines in schools. They are getting kicked out, as part of a Public Health bill passed by parliament to combat rising obesity amongst youths.1 And the French are not hanging about, the ban will take effect for the school term beginning this September 2004. As a nation of wine imbibers, France’s legal drinking age is 16, but the legal eagles are also going to put a ‘dissuasive’ tax (still to be decided) on sweetened alcoholic beverages that are popular among the young, as part of the new law.2 It doesn’t stop there either, they mean business. Snack food and drink manufacturers will have the option of including ‘Health Warnings’ in their televised advertisements or to pay a tax amounting to 1½% of their advertising budget. The French public also knows that this tax revenue, which is projected to be worth around £8,617,878.34, will be dedicated to a national health institute to promote awareness campaigns for healthy eating.3 So what is the UK Government doing about it all – very little it seems. We are lucky to have an individual called Jamie Oliver - love him or hate him – the good-hearted ‘Have a Go Hero’ of Food, to target school meals in a mission to bring “pukka” food to Britain’s poorest children. And, in a new television series, he plans to train up a number of school cooks in deprived areas across the country to better school food in taste and nutrition value. Jamie may be a rough Londoner, but he is very articulate and called on the government to do something about school meals: “Parents wonder why their kids are hyperactive, have gut ache and stink when they come home. It’s because the food they are fed is made of s++++.” He made clear one of the major reasons why school meals are so bad: “They are cheap and they are outsourced to businesses who have to make a profit, so they end up being made of rubbish …”4 ‘Food for Life’, an independent campaign group, reported that the daily amount spent on each child’s school lunch can be as low as 31p. compared with about 60p. spent on a prisoner’s lunch.5 It’s saying something when the country is suffering from obesity that we do not pass laws that would help the situation, as the French have done, and appear to feed the proven guilty almost doubly better than the innocent! HRH The Prince of Wales is another protagonist for the improvement of school meals. In July, he headed up a special school meals summit aimed at raising awareness about the importance of providing school children with healthy food. In Gloucestershire, where the Prince’s favourite family residence High Grove House is and his own children were brought up, the discussion took place with fourteen County Council Chief Executives and Directors of Education at South Gloucestershire Secondary School, chaired by the Policy Director of the Soil Association, Lord Peter Melchett, an avid GM crop ripper-upper!6 The meeting was designed to show the advantages of using local unprocessed and organic food for school children’s meals and to recount how this had been achieved by South Gloucestershire Council.7 One important advantageous result of using fresh, locally sourced food reported, that would curb the feeding drugs to inattentive children, is that “teachers were reporting better pupil behaviour”.8 Another advantage is that the method not only makes for a vastly improved and much healthier diet for the children, but also benefits the local economy and farmers.
COMMENT: No matter what the outcome of Jamie Oliver’s attempts to help, he should get an ‘A’ for Effort. It speaks volumes that such a young man of fortune wishes to help those less fortunate, and what’s more does something about it. Never mind his lack of education or his somewhat colourful language, nor if you do not particularly go for his brand of food, look at the results to date for his ‘No.15’ restaurant to help hitherto hapless youths, a project that showed he also puts his own money where his mouth is.
Admittedly it’s probably less difficult for rural based Councils to make such changes, but there are a lot of other counties that could - where there’s a will there’s a way. Prince Charles made a similar visit to North Yorkshire last year, where teachers and cooks and the local organic farming community are working together with schools. Instead of rhetoric and spin, and leading members of the British Government’s protagonism for genetically modified crops and food, it would be better to use their political will to help our children eat healthily and safely, work against the probable causes of increasing obesity and save the NHS loads of money in the future. There is no reason why the work of South Gloucestershire Council should not be copied by all local education authorities, except of course those who are making profits now out of bad school meals and drugs for ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), which may be food related in some children, or allergies from food and diet additives, would lost out.9 If we are indeed a ‘rich’ country, why do so many people have to live impoverished lives, starting with not feeding our children properly? References: 1. ‘French remove junk food vending machines’ - Associated Press news bulletin 30th July, 2004. 2. Ibid. 3. Ibid. 4. Obesity – ‘School meals to get Jamie Oliver touch’ by Ben Dowell, The Sunday Times 12th October, 2003. 5. Ibid. 6. Ibid. 7. ‘Prince Charles leads school meals summit’ p.11 – Trade Magazine: Natural Products, August 2004. 8. Ibid – Lord Melchett of the Soil Association, reported. 9. ADHD – ‘Is Intolerance to Food Additives related to ADHD?’ – Food Standards Agency – www.foodstandards.gov.uk
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