Ann Cooper :谈学校午餐

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http://dotsub.com/view/bb446105-7d4d-4eca-81bf-1257159a8b29
Ann Cooper :谈学校午餐
在我看来，学校午餐是一件关乎社会公平的大事。 我是伯克利联合校区膳食营养部门的主管， 在我手下有90名员工 和17和服务站，为9600名儿童提供服务。 平均每天我们要提供7100份午餐 并且已经持续了两年。 我们这样做的目的是为了改变在我们国家里给孩子提供膳食的方式， 这就是今天我想给大家讲述的内容。 现在大家看到是孩子们在沙拉吧台前的照片。 我上任伊始，就在所有学校里设置了沙拉吧台。 当时，所有的人都认为这行不通 因为他们认为年幼的孩子够不着吧台， 而大点的孩子又会往里面吐痰，但事实上这两种现象都从未出现过。
当我接手这个职位的时候，我试图真正弄明白一些事情， 比方说，我的理想究竟是什么； 我们应该怎样做才能改变孩子和食物之间的关系？ 我想说的并不仅仅是为什么我们需要去改变， 而是我们必须要去改变。 我逐渐意识到， 我们有责任给孩子们灌输 健康的地球，有益于健康的食物和健康的孩子 这三者之间的共生关系。 如果我们不那么做的话，对立面将会是， 不是危言耸听， 人类将会灭绝， 因为我们的喂养方式会使孩子们一步步走向死亡。 这就是我的前提。
我们看到，身体差的孩子变得越来越虚弱。 造成这种现象的原因，总的来说是因为 我们的食品体系 和食品商品化过程中政府采取的方式， 以及政府监管食品的手段， 和美国农业部设定的食物进入孩子们餐盘的流通渠道 种种这些，都是不健康的，并且直接导致了那些对身体有害的食物进入了校园。 我们大家都心照不宣的把子女、 孙子、侄女、侄子送去学校， 并且告诉他们 学校教什么就学什么。 而当你给孩子们提供劣质的食物时， 这也是孩子们在学校里学到的一部分。这才是关键问题之所在。
我们走到这一步要拜那些农业综合企业巨头们所赐。 总之，我们如今生活在一个我们大多数人没有权力决定我们吃什么的国度， 那些生产落叶剂和耐污地毯的大财团， 如Monsanto（孟山都）和DuPont（杜邦）， 他们掌控着全美国百分之九十的商业化种子。 仅仅十家公司， 就掌控着零售店里出售的大部分商品和食品， 这不能不说是个问题。
因此，当我开始思考这些问题 以及思考怎样才能改变孩子们所摄入的食物时， 我开始把注意力集中在这样一个问题上，即我们应该给孩子们灌输些什么。 首当其冲我们要灌输给孩子们的是 区域性食品， 即尝试食用本地出产的食物。 毋庸置疑， 随着化石燃料的不断消耗 和油价的持续飙升， 是时候开始思考 我们把食物从1500英里以外运送过来的这种做法 是否是可行的。 因此，我们和孩子们交流探讨这种现象， 并且开始让孩子们食用本地出产的食物。
现在，我们来谈一谈有机食品。 目前，大部分校区负担不起有机食品， 但我们，作为一个国家， 必须开始考虑 把消费、种植和给孩子们提供 不含有化学物质的食品摆在我们的议事日程上。 我们不能让孩子们再继续摄入杀虫剂 除草剂、抗生素和激素了。 我们不能再那样做。 这样做是行不通的。 这样做的结果是孩子们的身体将会变得越来越糟糕。
现在我想着重谈一谈抗生素。 在美国，百分之七十的抗生素 用于畜牧业。 孩子们每天都从 牛肉和其它动物蛋白中摄取抗生素。 百分之七十，不可思议的数字。 结果将导致疾病。 我们面临着像大肠杆菌这样无法攻克的难题， 当孩子们生病感染，我们却束手无策。 抗生素的滥用不仅仅是医学界的现象， 同时也是食品供应中出现的问题。 我可以举一个很好的例子， 美国农业每年要消耗12亿磅的杀虫剂。 这就意味着我们每个人以及我们的孩子 要消耗大约5磅重的袋装农药， 就跟我们平时家里常用的袋子那么大，假设我现在手头有这样的一个袋子， 并且把它撕开， 把里面的东西摊在地上， 这就是我们自己和我们的孩子们每年摄入的农药量。 导致这一切的原因是因为流入我们食品供应环节中的农产品， 以及我们摄取 农产品的方式。
美国农业部为我们食品供应环节中流入的抗生素、 激素和杀虫剂开了绿灯， 并且还为时代杂志上的这则广告 买单。 好，那我们现在来谈谈蕾切尔·卡逊和滴滴涕， 我们知道，滴滴涕对我们每个人都是有害的。 但这却是美国农业部在食品供应中允许的物质。 这点必须要改变。 我们再也不能把美国农业部的相关规定视为 我们给孩子们吃什么 以及哪些物质被允许摄入的权威。 我们不相信他们的心里存有我们的最大利益。 与之相反的是可持续性食物。 这也是我试图让人们了解的。 我想把它灌输给孩子们-我认为这是最重要的一点。 在这种可持续性食物的作用下， 我们的地球不会消亡， 孩子们将健康成长， 并且能够缓解 我们所遭受的一切负面的影响。 这完全是一个全新的理念。 我的意思是人们总是谈论到可持续性， 但是我们必须搞清楚可持续性到底是什么。
在不到200年的时间里，仅仅几代人的时间， 我们农民的比例数从 100%下降到95%， 直到不足2%。 现在我们生活在一个囚徒比农民的数量还要多的国家， 210万囚徒，190万农民。 平均一年我们花在狱中一个囚徒身上的钱 达到35000美元 而校区每年却只花费500美元 给一个孩子提供膳食。 也难怪犯罪分子层出不穷了。
（笑）
随之出现的是，我们的身体越来越差 我们和我们的孩子都将被疾病所困扰。 这和我们为孩子们提供的食物有关。 我们摄入的食物是什么样我们就会变成什么样。 摄入的食物和我们休戚相关。 如果我们继续沿着这条老路走下去， 如果我们继续为我们的孩子提供劣质食物， 如果我们不教给他们什么是对健康有益的食物， 将会发生什么呢？你们知道将会发生什么吗？ 我们的整个医疗系统将会受到什么样的影响？ 随之而来的是， 我们的下一代的寿命 将会比我们这一代更短。 据疾病防控中心（CDC）的统计数据显示， 在2000年出生的新生儿人群中， （这些孩子现在大多7-8岁左右） 每三个白种人， 每两个非洲裔美国人和西班牙裔美国人中 就会有一个孩子患上糖尿病。 如果这还不足以引起警惕的话，疾病防控中心进一步表明， 糖尿病多出现在这些孩子们高中毕业之前。 这就意味着40%或45%的 学龄儿童 将会在未来的十年间 对胰岛素产生依赖。
将会发生些什么呢？ 好吧，疾病防控中心还说了， 那些2000年出生的孩子 可能会成为我们国家历史上首代 寿命短于他们父辈的一代人。 这都要归功于我们提供给他们的食物。 因为八岁大的孩子还没有决定权， 如果他们有权决定的话，他们会送你去看心理医生。 我们有责任去决定 孩子该吃些什么。 但是，或许现在这成了这些大财团们的事， 大财团每年要花掉200亿美元 投入在给孩子们吃的垃圾食品的广告费上。 200亿美元，能使大多数孩子们一年看到10000个垃圾食品广告。 他们投入500美元 去为那些价值1美元的垃圾食品做广告。 广告上那些垃圾食品被描述成有益健康，营养丰富的食物， 但实际上，这些是对孩子们有害的。 这样做的结果将会对孩子们产生误导， 鸡块成了他们不可或缺的食物。
大家都觉得孩子们应该尽可能多的多吃。 大家看到的这是美国农业部规定的份量，很小一份。 图那边的是麦当劳和汉堡王里出售的份量， 甚至比人的脑袋还大。 这些大财团认为我们就应该吃这么多。 可是为什么他们提供的份量可以那么多呢？ 为什么我们可以买到售价29美分的大杯饮料 和99美分的双层汉堡呢？ 原因是政府在食品商品化过程中所采取的手段， 以及流入我们食品供应环节中的 廉价的玉米和大豆。 正是这些原因，使得这些垃圾食品的价格 非常低廉。 所以说为什么在一开始我把这称之为一件关乎社会公平的大事。
现在当我跟你们说我在伯克利做的这件事，你们就会想， “噢，伯克利，那可是个好地方，在伯克利当然你可以这么做。” 好吧，这是我在两年前看到的食品。 这简直就不能被称之为食品。 这就是我们给我们的孩子们吃的玩意儿-Extremo墨西哥玉米煎饼、 炸热狗串、 披萨馅饼和烤芝士三文治。 这些东西都用塑料袋封好，装在纸箱子里。 员工仅有的一件厨房用具是一个纸箱切割刀。 厨房里唯一的一样设备是一个 易拉罐压扁机，因为他们要么是以罐装的形式运过来， 要么就是以冷冻箱的形式运过来。 这就是美国农业部许可的。 美国农业部对所有这些都开了绿灯。 也许你不能完全分辨得出，例如 pink Danish 和某些杯形糕饼的区别。 鸡块、炸土豆泥、加了高浓度果糖的巧克力牛奶、 什锦水果罐头-共同组成了一顿廉价的午餐。
这就是政府为什么允许它们进入孩子们餐盘的原因。 这样做是不行的。你们知道吗？这样做是不行的。 我们，我们所有人， 必须了解， 这是和我们休戚相关的- 我们可以让这一切发生改变。 此刻，我不知道在座的人中是否有人发明了鸡块， 但我可以肯定，如果你们发明了鸡块就一定会很有钱。 又是谁决定了鸡应该长什么样， 心形，长颈鹿形，或是星形？ 泰森公司做到了，因为鸡块里压根没有鸡。 他们也许会断定 我们会把这些玩意儿推销给孩子们。 其实，告诉孩子们鸡长得就是鸡样 有什么错呢？ 大多数学校都把这些食物提供给孩子们。 事实上，有很多家长也是这么做的 我们尝试做的恰恰和这相反。
我们的确需要改变 孩子与食物的整个模式。 我们必须教给孩子 鸡不是长颈鹿。 蔬菜是 富有色彩的，同时也是有味道的。 胡萝卜生长在泥土里， 草莓生长在泥土里。 世界上不存在草莓树或者胡萝卜灌木。 我们必须改变 我们灌输给孩子们这些知识的方式。 我们可以做的有很多。 有许多学校开展了从农场到学校的活动。 有许多学校的的确确把让新鲜的食物进入了校园。
目前在伯克利，可以说我们的所有食物全部是新鲜的。 我们不供应含高浓度果糖的玉米糖浆、 不提供反式脂肪、不提供加工食品。 我们每天烹饪时不用现成酱料或半成品食物。 有25%...... (鼓掌) 谢谢大家。我们25%的原材料 都是当地有机的。我们是真正意义上的烹调。 这是我的双手。我每天清晨四点起床， 为孩子们准备早餐， 因为这是我有责任要做的。 我们不能再继续给孩子们吃那些 加工过的垃圾， 化学物质充斥其中， 还指望着我们的孩子会长大成为健康的公民。 你也别再指望你的下一代 或者下下代像我们一样进行思考了， 我是说如果他们继续食用这些垃圾食品的话。 如果他们还继续 食用这些有害的化学物质， 那么他们将会丧失思考的能力。 他们将会越来越笨。 你知道吗？这样下去他们只会患上疾病。
来到伯克利后，我发觉 人们对我们所做的一切充满了惊奇， 这和他们以往的做法有很大不同，我感到有责任去推广我们的做法。 我制作了这些日历，并且把它们发放到每家每户的家长手里。 从这个日历里可以了解到我们的整个活动计划。 现在我负责教授我们校区范围内所有的烹饪课程和 园艺课程。 这是一个颇具代表性的菜单 上面写有本周学校供应的食物。 你们注意到旁边这些食谱了吗？ 在烹饪课堂上我会把这些食物的做法教给孩子们。 在园艺课上，孩子们可以品尝各种各样新鲜的蔬果。 孩子们还可以亲手种植蔬果。我们的食堂为孩子们提供这些新鲜的食物。 如果我们打算改变 孩子们和食堂里提供的这些既美味又有营养的食物的关系的话， 那么你们在烹饪和园艺课堂上所看见的实际动手操作 和课堂上的理论知识两者必须结合起来。
听我讲了这么多，大家也可能知道我对美国农业部不怎么感冒了， 他们制定出的金字塔让我匪夷所思。 我搞不明白倒金字塔上为什么有一道彩虹。 从底部一直到彩虹的末端， 我不知道你们是怎么看的。我设计了一个我的金字塔。 你们在我的网站上也可以找到，使用了英语和西班牙语两种语言。 它借助了视觉手段来给孩子们讲述食物。 小份的汉堡和大颗的蔬菜。 我们必须让这一切发生改变。 我们必须要让孩子们知道， 选择什么样的食物是非常重要的事情。 我们开设了烹饪课，在学校里我们还设置了专门的烹饪教室。 这些对我们而言意义重大的原因是 我们清楚的知道我们在养育一代人， 或者两代人，这些孩子们每四顿饭就有一顿是在快餐店里解决的， 另一顿是在车里吃的， 还有一顿是在电视机前或者电脑前完成的。 孩子们学到了什么呢？我们的家庭时间到哪里去了呢？ 没有社会交往，也没有交流讨论， 这样下去，孩子们将不知道如何去与人交谈。 我们必须要改变这一切。
我的工作总离不开孩子。这些是我在Harlem工作时遇到的几个孩子。 EATWISE，是这群倡导科学饮食的开明的青少年的称呼。 我们有必要让孩子们知道， 可乐和小烘饼 这些都不能称之为早餐。 我们要让孩子们知道 如果他们长期食用精制糖的话， 就会像长期食用可卡因一样坐立不安。 在我们的校园里有堆肥制造装置。 也有再循环系统。 你知道吗，这些我们在家里也会做， 并认为很重要的事， 我们在学校里也有必要教给孩子。 这些仅仅只是孩子们需要了解的一部分， 他们需要学习的还有很多很多。 因为我们中的大多数人 都处于我们职业生涯的末年， 我们有责任给与这些孩子们， 年轻人以及下一代 拯救自己以及 拯救地球的工具。
我还经常参与公共私人伙伴关系的合作。 我和一些私人公司打交道， 他们很乐意与我们合作从事科研开发， 以及为我们进行宣传， 他们也很乐意把他们的事业拓展到校园。 大多数的学校面临资金不足的难题。 美国的大部分学校一年花在一个孩子上的教育经费开支 不足7500美元。 折合每小时不足5美金。 大多数人每小时花费10美元、15美元 去雇佣钟点工照看小孩。 而我们的教育系统投入在孩子身上的钱每小时不足五美元。 如果我们要改变现状， 改变我们给孩子提供膳食的方式的话， 我们必须要好好的进行反思。 我们看到那些公共私人合作伙伴、 倡导组织正在和基金会一同齐心协力地试图改变现状。 在我们校区， 我们的经费来源是校区的拨款。 仅占到整个营养膳食部门不指定用途资金的0.03%。 我想如果每个校区都 拨款0.5%-1%， 这项计划就可以顺利进行。
我们必须要改变现状。 我们还需要更多的资助。 当然，这不光和食物有关， 还和孩子们的运动量有一定联系。 一个简单易行的做法是 把课间休息放在午餐前进行。 听起来像是很傻。 但是你想想，如果你准备让孩子们吃午餐 孩子们一想到午餐过后就可以休息， 你会看到他们直接把餐盘往旁边一甩，就跑出去玩去了。 到了中午一点，他们已经累得精疲力尽。 由于孩子们没有吃午饭， 当你接孩子放学的时候，你会看到他们一个个无精打采。 因此，午餐过后唯一能让孩子们做的事就是上课， 相信我，孩子们一定会乖乖地坐下来吃完他们的午餐的。
我们必须要 我们必须要进行教育。 我们必须要对孩子进行教育。 我们必须要对员工进行教育。 在我手下有90名员工。 有两个本应当做厨师的，却没有做成。 大家都知道，我们的资金并不充裕。 但是教育这件事不能松懈。 我们得让那些学术机构想法子 重新教给人们科学烹调的方法， 因为他们从未想过去这么做， 这是由于在学校和一些教育机构里 人们长期食用加工食品所导致的。 我们的午餐时间需要达到40分钟 大多数学校的午餐时间只有20分钟 我们还需要选择恰当的时间进餐。 刚进行的一项重要研究显示，大多数学校 选择在早上九点至十点开始午餐 这并不是午餐时间。
要知道，我们所做的一切太荒唐了。 我们应该默默地记住这一点， 至少在我们的心里， 这就是我们教给孩子们的 告诉他们应该做的事情。 如果我们想要改变现状的话， 我们要做的事情之一 就是改变我们对 全国学校午餐计划的监督方式。 而不是让全国学校午餐计划处于美国农业部的监管之下， 我认为应该由传染病防治中心来进行监管。 如果我们以健康为出发点 来考虑饮食 以及我们喂养孩子的方式， 如果我们从健康的角度来探讨食物， 那么我们的午餐餐盘里就不会出现 炸热狗串这样的垃圾食物了。
财政基础学科里谈到了这样或者那样的内容， 最后我想用一些财政数字来结束我的发言， 因为我觉得有必要让大家了解这些。 全国学校午餐计划每年花费80亿美元 为3千万孩子提供服务。 这个数字恐怕要翻倍。 人们会问，“噢，天啊，我们上哪去弄80亿？” 在我们国家，我们每年在快餐上的消费高达 1100亿美元。 每年在减肥辅助品上的消费高达 1000亿美元。 我们在蔬菜上的消费却只有500亿美元， 这就是我们为什么需要那么多减肥辅助品的原因。 每年我们2000亿美元 用于治疗肥胖引起的疾病， 9%的孩子患有二型糖尿病 2000亿美元。
你们现在可以明白了，当我们说到 还需要80亿美元的时候，其实这也并不是什么大数字。 80亿美元最后分解为2美元49美分 这是政府在每份午餐上投入的经费。 大部分校区把其中的三分之二用于工资支出和管理费用。 这就意味这我们每天真正用于提供午餐上的支出 不足一美元 大部分学校是80至90美分。在洛杉矶，这个数字是56美分。 这样看来，我们在午餐上的花费还不足一美元。 我不知道你们的消费标准是什么样的， 但我在旧金山去星巴克，Pete's这样一类的餐馆吃饭， 或者点一大杯拿铁咖啡的价格是五美元。 一杯极品咖啡 的价格会更贵。 在我们的学校里， 平均一周， 我们自己花在午餐上的钱比我们花在孩子身上的钱要多得多。
你知道吗，我们应该为此感到羞耻。 我们，作为一个国家， 应该为此感到羞耻。 这个世界上最富饶的国家。 在我们国家， 孩子最需要健康的午餐， 而他们现在却吃着垃圾食品。 正是这些有着爸爸妈妈、爷爷奶奶、 叔叔阿姨的孩子 他们甚至付不起学校提供的垃圾午餐。 还是这些孩子， 他们的身体越来越差。 还是这些孩子，他们需要我们的照顾。
我们都可以做点什么 我们中的每一个人都可以， 不论我们自己是否有孩子， 不论我们是不是喜欢孩子，不论我们有没有侄女或是侄子， 不论怎么样 我们都可以尽自己的一份力量。 无论当你坐下来和你的孩子们一起吃饭的时候， 还是带着你的孩子，或是孙子， 抑或是侄子侄女 去农夫市场采购的时候，陪他们一起品尝一下食物的美味吧。 只需要坐下来，用心地陪一陪孩子。 从宏观上看， 我们正处于 为期19个月的总统选举期， 当我们提问给 这些总统候选人时， 不妨也请大家多多关注一下儿童健康的问题。
谢谢。 谢谢大家。

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Ann Cooper talks school lunches
My thing with school lunch is, it's a social justice issue. I'm the Director of Nutrition Services for the Berkeley Unified School District. I have 90 employees and 17 locations, 9,600 kids. I'm doing 7,100 meals a day and I've been doing it for two years, trying to change how we feed kids in America. And that's what I want to talk to you a little bit about today. These are some of my kids with a salad bar. I put salad bars in all of our schools when I got there. Everyone says it couldn't be done -- little kids couldn't eat off the salad bar, big kids would spit in it -- neither happened.

When I took over this I tried to really figure out, like, what my vision would be: how do we really change children's relationship to food? And I'll tell you why we need to change it, but we absolutely have to change it. And what I came to understand is, we needed to teach children the symbiotic relationship between a healthy planet, healthy food and healthy kids. And that if we don't do that, the antithesis, although we've heard otherwise, is we're really going to become extinct, because we're feeding our children to death. That's my premise.

We're seeing sick kids get sicker and sicker. And the reason this is happening, by and large, is because of our food system and the way the government commodifies food, the way the government oversees our food, the way the USDA puts food on kids' plates that's unhealthy, and allows unhealthy food into schools. And by tacitly, all of us send our kids, or grandchildren, or nieces, or nephews, to school and tell them to learn, you know, learn what's in those schools. And when you feed these kids bad food, that's what they're learning. So that's really what this is all about.

The way we got here is because of big agribusiness. We now live in a country where most of us don't decide, by and large, what we eat. We see big businesses, Monsanto and DuPont -- who brought out Agent Orange and stain-resistant carpet -- they control 90 percent of the commercially produced seeds in our country. These are 10 companies -- control much of what's in our grocery stores, much of what people eat -- and that's really, really a problem.

So when I started thinking about these issues and how I was going to change what kids ate, I really started focusing on what we would teach them. And the very first thing was about regional food -- trying to eat food from within our region. And clearly, with what's going on with fossil fuel usage, or when -- as the fossil fuel is going away, as oil hits its peak, oil -- you know, we really have to start thinking about whether or not we should, or could, be moving food 1,500 miles before we eat it. So we talked to kids about that, and we really start to feed kids regional food.

And then we talk about organic food. Now, most school districts can't really afford organic food, but we, as a nation, have to start thinking about consuming, growing and feeding our children food that's not chocked full of chemicals. We can't keep feeding our kids pesticides and herbicides and antibiotics and hormones. We can't keep doing that. You know, it doesn't work. And the results of that are kids getting sick.

One of my big soapboxes right now is antibiotics. 70 percent of all antibiotics consumed in America is consumed in animal husbandry. We are feeding our kids antibiotics in beef and other animal protein every day. 70 percent -- it's unbelievable. And the result of it is we have diseases. We have things like E. coli that we can't fix, that we can't make kids better when they get sick. And, you know, certainly antibiotics have been over-prescribed, but it's an issue in the food supply. One of my favorite facts is that US agriculture uses 1.2 billion pounds of pesticides every year. That means every one of us and our children consumes what would equal a five-pound bag -- those bags you have at home -- if I had one here and ripped it open, and that pile I would have on the floor is what we consume and feed our children every year because of what goes into our food supply, because of the way we consume produce in America.

The USDA allows these antibiotics, these hormones and these pesticides in our food supply, and the USDA paid for this ad in Time magazine. Okay, we could talk about Rachel Carson and DDT, but we know it wasn't good for you and me. And that is what the USDA allows in our food supply. And that has to change, you know. The USDA cannot be seen as the be all and end all of what we feed our kids our kids and what's allowed. We cannot believe that they have our best interests at heart. The antithesis of this whole thing is sustainable food. That's what I really try and get people to understand. I really try and teach it to kids -- I think it's the most important. It's consuming food in a way in which we'll still have a planet in which kids will grow up to be healthy, and which really tries to mitigate all the negative impacts we're seeing. It really is just a new idea. I mean, people toss around sustainability, but we have to figure out what sustainability is.

In less than 200 years, you know, just in a few generations, we've gone from being 200 -- being 100 percent, 95 percent farmers to less than 2 percent of farmers. We now live in a country that has more prisoners than farmers -- 2.1 million prisoners, 1.9 million farmers. And we spend 35,000 dollars on average a year keeping a prisoner in prison and school districts spend 500 dollars a year feeding a child. It's no wonder, you know, we have criminals.

(Laughter)

And what's happening is, we're getting sick -- we're getting sick and our kids are getting sick. It is about what we feed them. What goes in is what we are. We really are what we eat. And if we continue down this path, if we continue to feed kids bad food, if we continue not to teach them what good food is, what's going to happen? You know, what is going to happen? What's going to happen to our whole medical system? What's going to happen is, we're going to have kids that have a life less long than our own. The CDC -- the Center for Disease Control -- has said, of the children born in the year 2000 -- those seven- and eight-year-olds today -- one out of every three Caucasians, one out of every two African-Americans and Hispanics, are going to have diabetes in their lifetime. And if that's not enough, they've gone on to say, most before they graduate high school. This means that 40 or 45 percent of all school-aged children could be insulin-dependent within a decade -- within a decade.

What's going to happen? Well, the CDC has gone further to say that those children born in the year 2000 could be the first generation in our country's history to die at a younger age than their parents. And it's because of what we feed them. Because eight-year-olds don't get to decide, and if they do, you should be in therapy. You know, we are responsible for what kids eat. But oops, maybe they're responsible for what kids eat. Big companies spend 20 billion dollars a year marketing non-nutrient foods to kids. 20 billion dollars a year. 10,000 ads most kids see. They spend 500 dollars for every one dollar -- 500 dollars marketing foods that kids shouldn't eat -- for every one dollar marketing healthy, nutritious food. The result of which is kids think they're going to die if they don't have chicken nuggets.

You know, that everybody thinks they should be eating more and more and more. This is the USDA portion size, that little tiny thing. And the one over there that's bigger than my head is what McDonalds and Burger King and those big companies think we should eat. And why can they serve that much? Why can we have 29-cent big gulps and 99-cent double burgers? It's because of the way the government commodifies food, and the cheap corn and cheap soy that are pushed into our food supply that makes these non-nutrient foods really, really cheap. Which is why I say it's a social justice issue.

Now I said I'm doing this in Berkeley, and you might think, "Oh, Berkeley. Of course you can do it in Berkeley." Well, this is the food I found 24 months ago. This is not even food. This is the stuff we were feeding our kids -- Extremo Burritos, corn dogs, pizza pockets, grilled cheese sandwiches. Everything came in plastic, in cardboard. The only kitchen tools my staff had was a box cutter. The only working piece of equipment in my kitchen was a can crusher, because if it didn't come in a can, it came frozen in a box. The USDA allows this. The USDA allows all of this stuff. In case you can't tell, that's, like, pink Danish and some kind of cupcakes. Chicken nuggets, Tater Tots, chocolate milk with high fructose, canned fruit cocktail -- a reimbursable meal.

That's what the government says is okay to feed our kids. It ain't okay. You know what? It is not okay. And we, all of us, have to understand that this is about us -- that we can make a difference here. Now I don't know if any of you out there invented chicken nuggets, but I'm sure you're rich if you did. But whoever decided that a chicken should look like a heart, a giraffe, a star? Well, Tyson did, because there's no chicken in the chicken. And that they could figure it out that we could sell this stuff to kids. You know, what's wrong with teaching kids that chicken looks like chicken? But this is what most schools serve. In fact, this may be what a lot of parents serve -- as opposed to this -- is what we try and serve.

We really need to change this whole paradigm with kids and food. We really have to teach children that chicken is not a giraffe. You know, that vegetables are actually colorful -- that they have flavor, that carrots grow in the ground, that strawberries grow in the ground. There's not a strawberry tree or a carrot bush. You know, we have to change the way we teach kids about these things. There's a lot of stuff we can do. There's a lot of schools doing farm-to-school programs. There's a lot of schools actually getting fresh food into schools.

Now in Berkeley, we've gone totally fresh. We have no high-fructose corn syrup, no trans fats, no processed foods. We're cooking from scratch every day. We have 25 percent of our -- (Applause) thank you -- 25 percent of our stuff is organic and local. We cook. Those are my hands. I get up at 4 a.m. every day and go cook the food for the kids, because this is what we need to do. We can't keep serving kids processed crap, full of chemicals, and expect these are going to be healthy citizens. You're not going to get the next generation or the generation after to be able to think like this if they're not nourished. If they're eating chemicals all the time, they're not going to be able to think. They're not going to be smart. You know what? They're just going to be sick.

Now one of the things that -- what happened when I went into Berkeley is I realized that, you know, this was all pretty amazing to people -- very, very different -- and I needed to market it. I came up with these calendars that I sent home to every parent. And these calendars really started to lay out my program. Now I'm in charge of all the cooking classes and all the gardening classes in our school district. So this is a typical menu -- this is what we're serving this week at the schools. And you see these recipes on the side? Those are the recipes that the kids learn in my cooking classes. They do tastings of these ingredients in the gardening classes. They also may be growing them. And we serve them in the cafeterias. If we're going to change children's relationship to food, it's delicious, nutritious food in the cafeterias. Hands-on experience -- you're looking in cooking and gardening classes -- and academic curriculum to tie it all together.

Now you've probably garnered that I don't love the USDA, and I don't have any idea what to do with their pyramid -- this upside down pyramid with a rainbow over the top, I don't know. You know, run up in to the end of the rainbow, I don't know what you do with it. So, I came up with my own. This is available on my website in English and Spanish, and it's a visual way to talk to kids about food. The really tiny hamburger, the really big vegetables. We have to start changing this. We have to make kids understand that their food choices make a big difference. We have cooking classes -- we have cooking classrooms in our schools, and why this is so important is that we now have grown a generation, maybe two, of kids where one out of every four meals is eaten in fast food, one of every four meals is eaten in a car and one out of every last four meals is eaten in front of a TV or computer. What are kids learning? Where is the family time? Where is socialization? Where is discussion? Where is learning to talk? You know, we have to change it.

I work with kids a lot. These are kids I work with in Harlem. EATWISE -- Enlightened and Aware Teens Who Inspire Smart Eating. We have to teach kids that Coke and Pop Tarts aren't breakfast. We have to teach kids that if they're on a diet of refined sugar, they go up and down, just like if they're on a diet of crack. And we have to pull it all together. We have composting in all of our schools. We have recycling in all of our schools. You know, the things that we maybe do at home and think are so important, we have to teach kids about in school. It has to be so much a part of them that they really get it. Because you know what, many of us are sort of at the end of our careers, and we need to be giving these kids -- these young kids, the next generation -- the tools to save themselves and save the planet.

One of the things I do a lot is public-private partnerships. I work with private companies who are willing to do R&D with me, who are willing to do distribution for me, who are really willing to work to go into schools. Schools are underfunded. Most schools in America spend less than 7,500 dollars a year teaching a child. That comes down to under five dollars an hour. Most of you spend 10, 15 dollars an hour for babysitters when you have them. So we're spending less than 5 dollars an hour on the educational system. And if we're going to change it, and change how we feed kids, we really have to rethink that. So, public and private partnerships, advocacy groups, working with foundations. In our school district, the way we afford this is our school district allocates .03 percent of the general fund towards nutrition services. And I think if every school district allocated a half to one percent, we could start to really fix this program.

We really need to change it. It's going to take more money. Of course it's not all about food -- it's also about kids getting exercise. And one of the simple things we can do is put recess before lunch. It's sort of this "duh" thing. You know, if you have kids coming into lunch and all they're going to do when they get out of lunch is go to have recess, you see them just throw away their lunch so they can run outside. And then at one in the afternoon, they're totally crashing. These are your children and grandchildren that are totally melting down when you pick them up because they haven't had lunch. So if the only thing they'd have to do after lunch is go to class, believe me, they're going to sit there and eat their lunch.

We need to -- we need to educate. We need to educate the kids. We need to educate the staff. I had 90 employees. Two were supposed to be cooks -- none could. And, you know, I'm not that better off now. But we really have to educate. We have to get academic institutions to start thinking about ways to teach people how to cook again, because, of course, they don't -- because we've had this processed food in schools and institutions for so long. We need 40-minute lunches -- most schools have 20-minute lunches -- and lunches that are time-appropriate. There was just a big study done, and so many schools are starting lunch at nine and 10 in the morning -- that is not lunchtime.

You know, it's crazy, it's crazy what we're doing. And just remember, at very least tacitly, this is what we're teaching children as what they should be doing. I think if we're going to fix this, one of the things we have to do is really change how we have oversight over the National School Lunch Program. Instead of the National School Lunch Program being under the USDA, I think it should be under CDC. If we started to think about food and how we feed our kids as a health initiative, and we started thinking about food as health, then I think we wouldn't have corn dogs as lunch.

Okay, Finance 101 on this, and this -- I'm sort of wrapping it up with this finance piece, because I think this is something we all have to understand. The National School Lunch Program spends 8 billion dollars feeding 30 million children a year. That number probably needs to double. People say, "Oh my God, where are we going to get 8 billion?" In this country, we're spending 110 billion dollars a year on fast food. We spend 100 billion dollars a year on diet aids. We spend 50 billion dollars on vegetables, which is why we need all the diet aids. We spend 200 billion dollars a year on diet-related illness today, with nine percent of our kids having type 2 diabetes -- 200 billion.

So you know what, when we talk about needing 8 billion more, it's not a lot. That 8 billion comes down to two dollars and 49 cents -- that's what the government allocates for lunch. Most school districts spend two-thirds of that on payroll and overhead. That means we spend less than a dollar a day on food for kids in schools -- most schools 80 to 90 cents. In LA, it's 56 cents. So we're spending less than a dollar, OK, on lunch. Now I don't know about you, but I go to Starbucks and Pete's and places like that, and Venti latte in San Francisco is five dollars. One gourmet coffee, one, is more -- we spend more on than we are spending to feed kids for an entire week in our schools.

You know what? We should be ashamed. We, as a country, should be ashamed at that -- the richest country. In our country, it's the kids that need it the most, who get this really, really lousy food. It's the kids who have parents and grandparents and uncles and aunts that can't even afford to pay for school lunch that gets this food. And those are the same kids who are going to be getting sick. Those are the same kids who we should be taking care of.

We can all make a difference -- that every single one of us, whether we have children, whether we care about children, whether we have nieces or nephews, or anything -- that we can make a difference. Whether you sit down and eat a meal with your kids, whether you take your kids, or grandchildren, or nieces and nephews shopping to a farmers' market -- just do tastings with them. Sit down and care. And on the macro level, we're in what seems to be a 19-month presidential campaign, and of all the things we're asking all of these potential leaders, what about asking for the health of our children? Thank you. Thank you.