Ann Cooper said the following, "We need to teach children the symbiotic relationship between a healthy planet, healthy food and healthy kids." This is important to me because, we will be very unhealthy and obese in the future without a new plan.
The USDA allows unhealthy food and meals in school. One of the reasons this happens, is because ten companies control 90 percent of the commercially produced seeds in our country. We need to try and eat food within our region and organic food, (meaning no pesticides and antibiotics) which is making kids have diseases such as E. Coli. For example, pesticide usage has doubled in the last twenty years going from 500 million to one billion dollars! People could argue that it costs too much, but research shows that food prices would rise less than one percent if the amount of processed food were cut in half.
This matters to me and many Americans because we need to consume our food in a way that we can "still have a planet." We live in a country where the amount of prisoners outnumbers the number of farmers. Unhealthy eating can lead to chronic and debilitating back and/or limb pain, high blood pressure, and premature death. If we continue to teach kids to eat unhealthy, studies say that diabetes may affect up to 40-45% of children in the U.S.
To be honest, I wasn't one hundred percent sure I would enjoy this TED talk, but it made me think about what I eat on an daily basis. Having things like a salad bar in our school would be amazing. I think we can change this. Ann Cooper's speech is very convincing and I would highly recommend for others to watch.
I believe healthy eating is very important for everyone and that schools have an obligation to provide healthy options for all students. This especially beneficial to students whose only meal may be a school lunch or breakfast.
This is a very inspirational piece and I strongly recommend you watch it. In turn, we could have a healthier world.
Thank You
-Jackson =)