watch this...

...no, I'm not going to do tricks.

And neither is Jamie Oliver, but here's a raw, impassioned plea for the United States (and the rest of the west) to do something about what we eat.

It's not the best talk you will ever see or hear, but it's real, it's from experience and I don't think it's about self-promotion. While there's bound to be plenty of people who will say that he's not got all his facts right, you can't miss that there's truth in what he says.

Oh, and he tells it with brutal honesty. I love that.

What do you think?

So All May Eat Cafe

I've been catching up on the 1000+ items not read on my RSS reader.  

Came across this from Seth Godin.  I hope you are inspired by this (and the previous post...)

Here's a sample from Bonnie:

www.soallmayeat.org is truly remarkable. Imagine going into a restaurant and seeing no prices on the menu. You might think that the food was really expensive, but that's not the case at the So All May Eat (SAME) Cafe in Denver, CO. The fact is that there are no prices on the menu because everyone pays what they can, many people pay more. There's no cash register, just an envelope that patrons get with their meal. In that envelope goes a few dollars, a fair price for the meal, a hearty donation or nothing at all. The envelope then goes into a simple wooden box. Everyone gets a great home made meal at a price they can afford. If someone can't pay anything at all they are asked to help out in the kitchen, serve some soup or clean up for an hour or so...and they are willing and happy to help out. It's not a free ride or a handout, it's honest work for an terrific hot meal. Founders Brad & Libby Birky not only make a difference by providing a free meal but they have also created thriving community of people who care and are cared for.

dinner. from a factory?

Since being on a few distillery tours when on holiday, I've had the thought of *industrialisation* of our food on my mind.  Many of the places I visited dented (if not shattered) the feelings I had that our Whisky industry in Scotland was a boutique, or cottage thing.  Still using the same tools that were used 150 years ago when things really started.  But no, in order to make the product (that's what it is, right) there's a certain amount of mechanisation required.

I guess that's inevitable with success, but it tends to take some of the *magic* out of it.  Albeit that some bright people worked hard to develop systems and machinery that can produce the quality product in the same way (even if it's not all done by a hand!).

Thinking about the industrialisation (that I recognise revolutionised the world beyond recognition and that the developing world is trying it's best to play catch-up in), this didn't help much.  (but the next post provided some hope!)

Might not see this in the UK cinemas, but I imagine it's a story we could all learn something from!  Gets me thinking about stewardship of resources and stuff like that.  And makes me want to cry about our lack of respect for life.