In a bid to combat childhood obesity, Jamie Oliver has launched a global petition on Change.org to introduce compulsory food education in schools.
The abolition of Home Economics has had disastrous effects on diets. For many children around the world, this generation is now the third one that won’t know how to cook, relying instead on processed food. Food education is paramount to our children’s health, wellbeing and future. It is an essential skill that should be included (as it was in the past) in all school curriculums.
Jamie Oliver’s petition went live on March 29th and has so far gathered over 600,000 signatures. Launching the petition at Sydney Opera House, Jamie said: “I’ve been campaigning in different countries for a while now and we’ve begun to see real change in some countries with cooking lessons in schools but now I’m taking it global.
“According to the World Health Organisation, 42 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese around the world in 2013 and, worldwide, obesity has more than doubled since 1980. These figures are shocking and we need everyone – governments, businesses, families – to do something about it.
“Obesity more often than not leads to diet-related diseases like type-2 diabetes which can increase the risk of developing a number of serious health problems and decrease the life expectancy of many people. But obesity is preventable and I believe that by educating our children about food and where it comes from and how to cook it and how to shop, we can turn the tide on the obesity epidemic that affects most of the world in 2015.
“This change.org petition is a way to give a voice to everyone who cares about the future health of our children.”
Sign it. Share it. Support @JamieOliver on #FoodRevolutionDay
Other things you might like to read
Leave a Reply