I am posting from the UK and he has had a profound effect on our schools. It's not just that the kids have a more nutritional meal now and are open to new foods and tastes, it has also had an effect on behaviour and test scores. Knowing Jamie, you have not seen the back of him

Here are my wife's thoughts on it, which my or less match my own:

http://www.moderncrafter.com/2010/04/jamie-oliverstate-of-american-food-rant.html

Every little battle helps!

Though melodramatic and goofy at times, I loved seeing the effect Jamie had on peoples' lives. The family he worked with was particularly endearing and I hope the best for them.

I'm glad he focused on adults in addition to children and teens. If kids are eating unhealthily, they are not the ones who most desperately need nutritional education -- their parents do. As Jamie said, given the choice between pizza and something healthy, children choose the pizza. That's just how they're hardwired. Adults are there to make food decisions for them until they're old enough to take responsibility. Keep teaching the adults! The kids will follow.

I only saw a couple episodes, but what struck me most was the sheer BUREAUCRACY of school lunch programs. I remember a couple scenes where Jamie was being lectured by a principal who kept insisting that school lunches must have X number of vegetables and Y number of grains - and because his lo mein/vegetable salad had noodles in it, that counted as a grain, so he needed to have another vegetable. Even when he pointed out just how many vegetables were IN the lo mein salad, she still said "no, you need another vegetable dish" and that was that.

I just got the sense that school lunchroom chefs desperately would like to do something different, but their hands are just tied by bureaucracy.

Oh, and a post in here in response to the "Modern Crafter" blog post linked above:

The problem with many of the "food deserts" is that they are also "light deserts" and "resource deserts". Yes, on paper it's possible for someone to grow lettuce in their windowsill or tomatoes on their fire escape -- but, in many urban areas, it's ILLEGAL to put anything on your fire escape (I had to get rid of some lovely porch tomatoes one year because the fire inspector called my landlord). And most windowsills are either too small to fit a pot inside, or you aren't allowed to affix anything to the sill outside. Or, if you're on the third floor and the building next to you is a seven-story building, you're lucky to get 2 hours of direct sun per day -- not great conditions for growing things.

And because of all this, even if you wanted to try anyway, good luck finding somewhere to sell you the dirt, pots, and seeds - because the hardware stores in your area know that if no one's gonna be growing windowboxes, why bother stocking window box supplies?

"But why not go to a big box store, then?" I hear you ask. Well, if they can't get to a supermarket, then how are they gonig to get to a big-box hardware store any easier?

Just pointing out that while you may be correct that just that spark of wanting to make a change is important, implementing that change is really, really not as easy as you'd think, necessarily.

I thought it was a pretty good series, though a little stagey in places (e.g., the 'conflict' with Rod the Radio Guy seemed a little less than genuine, and Rod himself seemed uncomfortable with his role as Devil's Advocate), and to a large degree I thought the television audience was probably already at least partly on board with the whole idea. But I think a few really good ideas got across, especially Jamie's assertion that knowing how to cook a few simple dishes can be the difference between being able to make ends meet and being able to feed your family healthily, even on a small budget.

What I think the show did admirably what illustrate that, although we choose what to eat, we can only choose among that which is available to us, and the food marketing companies take care to ensure that we choose what they market, which is highly processed foods. The more highly processed a food is, the more money it generates. I recently read Michael Pollan's three books about the American food chain, and Jamie's series just reinforced my determination to get out of the middle of the grocery store and into the farmer's market.

I watched every episode on hulu (thanks to someone on AT suggesting it) and I thought it was great. He has a quote in one of the shows that stuck with me and I repeat it in my head when I'm struggling with my own kids eating habits. It was something along the lines of - "serve healthy food. If they don't like it...well...they'll get used to it" I did get caught up in the drama a little and I think I might have cried in the episode when the radio guy finally came around. It was entertaining and educational and eye opening.
I also have to say that I cooked an egg the way he showed David Letterman and it turned out great. I finally know how to fry an egg. Thanks Jamie! :)

@empresscallipygos: I know! I am a school administrator and part of my job duties are to oversee our school's food program which is run (and partially funded) by the USDA.

As much as we would love to take a different direction with the breakfasts and lunches we provide, we simply can't. The meals (which meet the nutrition standards of the USDA) are kid-friendly but certainly not health-friendly. White bread and pasta, fatty meats, high-sugar milks and juices, you name it. If we choose to supplement the menus with healthier options, the cost is 100% out of our school's pocket.

With education budgets as strapped as ever, we just can't afford to do anything except what the USDA demands. With the exception of faculty and staff salary, the food is the biggest budget item and we can't afford to lose our funding.

Our hands are tied by what the folks in Washington choose to do and it's the kids who get the bad end of the deal.

Kay Jay - thank you so much for your perspective! I have been wondering about this since watching the show.

On one hand you have the first lady now promoting this idea of healthy eating along with countless others who are doing the best to get healthy foods into schools, yet the USDA and the government seem to be stabbing progress in the back! Once again, they are tying your hands so that they can give more corn to chickens and make large companies and large scale farms rich! It sound like everything in a school lunch is related to corn in one way or another!

I think the thing on the show that broke my heart was the little girl in the season finale whose parents thought sending her to school with candy and 2 kinds of potato chips was acceptable. I'm aware that times are tight financially for some, but that broke my heart. THOSE are the parents Jamie and other need to be talking to, not any of us reading this.

I applaud the overall idea but miss the days when television didn't have to have a perceived antagonist. It was conflicting between a documentary and a poorly written/created drama. The obviously fictional conflict with radio persona was discrediting to the overall affect the show was supposed to have and caused me to lose heart a bit quickly on in the show.
I took a lot of pause when Jamie showed the children what really went into a chicken nugget and they continued to express a desire to eat them. He was totally shocked and at first I was too. After further consideration, I realized I do the same thing on a daily basis when I pop whatever processed food into my mouth. Without seeing directly what goes into it, I am still not a fool, I know what's in it but why do I continue to act like a fool and eat it?

I want to say I will never eat another chicken nugget, but I know that's not true. I will just have to be more careful about the nuggets I buy. Maybe I'll stick to veggie "chick'n" nuggets.

I'm pissed with all the folks like the wife of poster qhartman who seem to think that JO's motivations are in part financial. The man's worth $750 million dollars. I suspect that a good deal of the sappiness has to do with making this palatable to a network for a prime time audience. (I don't see Michael Pollan being able to get a prime time mini-series on the air! I would also point of the one of the exec producers was Ryan Secrest, of American Idol celebrity, so that might explain the tone, too.) I hope that the show has helped shine a bit of light on the position of folks like Kay_jay. This isn't just about personal responsibility, and it's not just about obesity. It would be great if somehow people could look at this and feel there was something they could do to change things on an institutional level (like USDA rules & regs), but I'm not sure this is the case.

I understand Jamie's passion and genuine in helping people eating healthily but I didn't like him in this series at times. Too much drama...

While he is so natural and at ease in his new programme "Jamie does" (UK production channel 4) .

The biggest impact? His chicken nugget exercise.

And I don't even eat chicken nuggets.

I think that the issues with food and obesity are too complex to be addressed in T.V. programs. It's not about ignorance so much as socio-economic issues. Though he has good intentions, I think JO's activities are a band-aid that will eventually fall off and things will return to the status quo. The problems of the world aren't solved by celebrities or T.V. shows. They just want to make us think things are happening, and we buy it for awhile and are placated. Nothing will really change though.

@empresscallipygos: I'm the writer of the Modern Crafter blog. Thanks for the excellent response. I'm sorry about your tomatoes. I've never had any personal experience with such constraints. Maybe a time will come when public demand will make it profitable for those corner stores to carry grow lights and soil. It sounds like you're one of the first wave who is working to find creative ways around current challenges. When I hear about people actively working to meet those difficulties, it makes me that much sadder for the people who aren't facing any real constraints and just aren't making different choices. I feel like I was missing a lot when I was a passive consumer of whatever the grocery store decided to sell me and am always grateful that my living circumstances allow me so much freedom in that area. I hope that the Food Revolution has awakened more people to what's possible.

I've also got to agree with some of the other posters - any lingering childhood warm fuzzy feelings for processed chicken nuggets were thoroughly quenched by the chicken nugget demonstration. Blech!

I think the biggest effect I have seen is my friends who would passively listen to my rants over the years about what 'really' is in processed food and school lunches. I got most of them to watch Jamie's show and it really opened their eyes.

Overall, I think everyone's heart is in the right place, but it is a system that has just been ignored for decades. Food manufacturers put wolves in sheep's clothing in terms of offering products that on paper appear to be authentic food. At the same time, they used their lobbying efforts to overly subsidizing their products to guarantee a stronghold on the system.

It's a complex system that is not so black and white and difficult to explain where the boundaries of right and wrong are.

Jamie was able to shed light on that entire process in a simple and easily digestible way. It's a reference point, a program that can start a meaningful conversation.

I saw a few of the episodes, and a few of Future Food where Omar Cantu and Ben Roche were working with typically discarded (potato peels) or previously considered unpalatable food (garden trimmings and making it palatable using 'miracle fruit), and my takeaway from Jamie's especially was this - open your mind, make conscious food choices, and don't take no for an answer when it comes to your kids health or your own health. I think it was a big success because a) Jamie will continue and b) he educated enough people to help join his bandwagon and keep the momentum going in the best direction.

Woohoolizzie, I take great exception to you calling Jamie Oliver a "charlatan" on your blog.

Jamie Oliver may be many things, but a charlatan he is not. He started his "food revolution" in Britain a number of years ago, and has made an ENORMOUS difference there in school lunch programs and awareness of healthy eating. I watched "Jamie's School Dinners" in Canada just after it came out in Britain, and was very impressed.

Here are some highlights from that series; check out these links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFkAszCA9dI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkht3noIK0E&NR=1

You describe the American series as a "circus", but the British version cannot be described thus. The American series was tarted up and sensationalized for the American audience because that is what the producers believe appeals to American viewers; it was not Jamie's approach, and the proof is in the British series.

He has fought long and hard to change attitudes and to change the reality of kids he doesn't know; he's no saint, he's an entrepreneur, but I sure don't think he deserves the scorn you heap on him:

"I will give Jamie Oliver's critics full agreement that he's a bit of a prima donna, a posturing drama queen, going teary the moment something doesn't go his way. That's part of what makes him good entertainment - everybody likes feeling a bit superior and there's no guilt involved when you're laughing at a man whose net worth is more than I would make in several lifetimes. America and a lot of the rest of the world is now constantly on the hunt for amusement. He provides that as a remarkable showman. Hundreds of pound of fat? A tarp full of chocolate milk? P.T. Barnum would be so proud."

Maybe look first at America's tv culture -- take a long hard look -- and then try to figure out whether you were really reacting to Jamie Oliver, or to American programming approaches.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/school-dinners

I'm from Finland, and we have sort of "home 101" thing where we learn basics on cooking and cleaning and doing laundry and such. This is mandatory for every student. So everyone gets the basics on how to cook and learns about vegetables etc. Though this doesn't come until students are 13-14 yo.

We also have good free "home cooked" meals everyday in schools, home cooked as in similar meals made at home. Finland has lately topped in PISA scores. It wouldn't be too daring to say that good nutritional food and good test scores have a connection, IMHO.

Hi mschatelaine -
I am totally reacting to American TV approaches. The series was edited to feed into American sensationalism. That said, Jamie chose to go along with this approach for the American audiences. It's an example of his being a good showman (which is not necessarily derogatory if your intention is to put on a show). Knowing that his British approach is different only highlights his apparently excellent adaptability.

A charlatan uses a false pretense or deception to gain confidence, fame, or money. The word is bit strong for what Jamie does but the elements are there. It's the equivalent of a "white lie" verses a hurtful one and I did not mean to give him a "heap of scorn" in the quoted paragraph. He did choose to participate in that circus atmosphere and let the marketing rely on a slightly inaccurate pretense that he's a rebel introducing ideas that are utterly foreign to Americans. In reality, this show is coming a couple of years after the interest in a return to home cooking and more reliance on local food webs has quietly taken root in many places across the country. In a way, his "Revolution" is riding on the coattails of change that was already in the wind.

It does have to be recognized though that this series is the perfect vehicle for opening a much larger portion of the American market up to him; as you said, he's an entrepreneur (and there's nothing wrong with that). He deserves everything he's gained and has been very generous but there is a personal motive there that is (understandably) not acknowledged, since all the good work he's doing is the focus of the series.

It may be for great reasons - like getting more people to watch and understand important issues - but showmanship is showmanship. There's nothing inherently wrong with it and sometimes it's exactly what people need.

I think he'd do a lot more good if he made sure his recipes were actually healthy. And that kids would actually eat them. And that schools can afford them.

We all know where good intentions lead.

As an overweight woman who is fixing her diet following gastric bypass, Jamie Oliver's show seemed to be right up my alley. I love cooking, but I have a lot of interest in cooking healthy, nutritious meals. And because I grew up on exactly the same meals Oliver was condemning, it's certainly a movement I can get behind. I really have to wonder how much I would weigh today had it not been for those horrific school lunches.

But after four episodes, I just couldn't watch anymore. I just started to get the impression that he had a much deeper disgust for fat people than his facade of health. When the students were all cooking dinner and he said that he understood why the fat girl was having trouble (because working one hour for her is like "us" working five hours!), his fake sympathy was just sickening. And when he donned the fat suit, it wasn't to illustrate that fat people were unhealthy. It illustrated that fat people are ugly. His overall concern really doesn't seem to be that my arteries are clogged. It's that I'm ugly, slow, lazy and apparently bumbling.

While I like the premise of the show (believe me, it's a movement I genuinely stand behind), his attitude of fat-shaming was just so disgusting that I couldn't finish the show.

Food Revolution changed my life!! In particular the chicken nugget demo - after seeing that I really started to question what was in ALL the food my family was eating. Thanks to Jamie we have eliminated most of the processed foods from our diet. I've also started doing research on where our food really comes from in books, documentaries, etc. and have not been pleased with the results. Previously I've had the midnset "I don't want to know....", but know that I know, I'm eager to keep shedding light on the subject.

Woohoolizzie --

A "charlatan" is "a person who makes elaborate, fraudulent, and often voluble claims to skill or knowledge; a quack or fraud."

So basically, you are calling Jamie Oliver a quack or fraud.

The guy is a cook, and is passionate about food. He took on British school canteens and the British government, appalled at what sort of meals young people were being fed. He had a huge impact, and of course, American producers wanted to reproduce that effect in the U.S. But just like they "Americanize" tv shows and movies, they dumbed-down the British original and made it screech; presumably in order to catch and keep the attention of viewers.

Far from "riding on the coattails of change that was already in the wind", Jamie Oliver has been one of the most vocal and active advocates in the UK for locally grown food and home cooking for many years now.

He has made a particular issue of battery hens (an issue which I note has not really surfaced in the U.S.), and has supported other animal husbandry issues -- for example, supporting the revival of an interest in rare historical breeds. He provided some start-up funding to his old friend Jimmy Doherty who has set up a rare-breed pig farm, and has become a tv presenter of his own.

So I still can't agree with your jaundiced views of Jamie Oliver. He may be many things, but a fraud or quack or someone riding the coat-tails of the local food revolution he is not.

I think what he's doing is incredible, and should happen all over the country.

However, the TV show seemed a little contrived. I mean, come on, the rival he had with the radio host. Faker than fake.

Everyone keeps saying that as much as we all want change, it's simply out of the question because of USDA regulations. This might be a naive question but... how can we get our government to take notice and change legislation? Michelle Obama's main cause is childhood obesity, and if I'm not mistaken, she LIVES in the White House. There must be a way to implement change.

"Everyone keeps saying that as much as we all want change, it's simply out of the question because of USDA regulations. This might be a naive question but... how can we get our government to take notice and change legislation? "

The same way that we would get our government to do anything.

* Call our congressional representatives and ask them.
* Keep calling them.
* Form a group of people in our communities and contact our congressional representatives AS a group to ask them.
* Keep calling them.
* Tell them that we will consider their actions on this issue when we go into our voting booths next time they're up for re-election.
* Write to Michelle Obama and tell her we're doing this and ask her to chime in.
* Keep calling.

Basically, just keep annoying our congressional representatives until we're satisfied. It'll take a while, but...that's why we elected them, is to represent what we want. And they can't represent what we want unless we TELL them what we want.

Right on, empresscallipygos! I'd just like to add that ultimately, it all comes down to what we feed our kids and teach them about food at home--school lunch is just one meal, five days out of the week (assuming your kids never bring their own). Yes, it's a problem, but I think the bigger problem is that so many families are eating that junk for every meal. That's a huge, multi-faceted problem, and it can be really depressing and demoralizing to even think about tackling it if you look at it as a whole. But if you just look at all the little things you can do to pick away at it, to make a difference one baby step at a time, even if all you're doing is making a change for yourself or your family, it helps, and it adds up.

I'm not sure how much good it will do in the long term but every little bit helps. I don't think the show had a lot of sensationalism. I grew up in Huntington and they gave a pretty accurate picture of a large portion of the population there. The DJ's attitude in the initial episodes is very reflective of the mindset of many, many people in the Huntington area.

I volunteer at my kids school and help his class out during their lunch. I see what these kids eat daily. The school lunch is a horror show. Uncrustables are their pbj sandwiches. Burritos still come in their plastic wraps. A kid favorite is bosco sticks- which is a breadstick with cheese in the middle with tomato dipping sauce. On this months schedule, there is not ONE homemade item on it. It is all processed food.

A majority of his classmates bring home lunch. They are not much better- lunchables, potato chips, sodas, capri suns-one girl had a lunch that was a can of sprite, a cheese stick, a bag of lays and three different kinds of candy.
I have packed my sons lunch every day this year. I'm lucky that he'll eat roasted chicken or pork, cheese, veggies and he loves whole fruit- not just juice. But it's heartbreaking to see what goes into these kids on a daily basis.

I watched both the British and U.S. version of this series. I am a believer. It disgusts me to see children being fed the kind of crap they showed on these programs. It was so exciting to see people become excited about cooking quick and healthy meals (esp. on the British series). Go Jamie Go!

I agree the series was a bit dramatic - definitely story telling for TV and not a documentary. However, I think his purpose is great. Necessary, well meaning, and in many ways well executed.

I believe he began in the right place - both in regards to where (school lunches) AND in the attitude towards food (he does not make diet food to aid weight loss... just REAL food). While it'd be great if all our families were eating organic quinoa and rabe, it's just not going to happen. For most families in america, these foods are scary.

It's important to start small. Eat pasta with a sauce made of olive oil and real vegetables instead of things out of cans. Eat chicken drumsticks instead of nuggets. It might not be the leanest cut of chicken. It's not a 'diet' food. But it's real. When we begin to again understand what we're eating, we can make healthier choices to fit our dietary needs. But I find a real problem with the 'diet' foods in our country (how many lean cuisines can really be good for you... honestly), and think this show encourages both the health and community benefits that can come from cooking and eating 'whole' foods.

@lem326, you took the words right out of my mouth. michelle's let's move program has to be about more than just educating the public, she's gotta be influencing someone who can change the rules!

If I had to be completely frank, I would think to truly change the way the population thinks about food one would either have to survive something traumatic related to food or be groomed from birth to make certain food choices, not to mention groupthink and cultural reality and all of the other factors that come into play regarding the human decision making process. I was lucky enough to have health minded parents who really instilled the importance of a healthy lifestyle to me. I love the awareness Jamie is bringing to the public, but my honest opinion is that the execution could have better strategic objectives. That's robotic thinking though, efficacy over heart and feeling, we can't sit idly by and let the ones who don't fall under the criteria literally eat themselves to demise. So good on Jamie for doing that. I approve and I hope healthy lifestyles saturate the entirety of America's citizenry.