“…if you eat rubbish, your life becomes rubbish”¹. Claus Meyer is the Danish food entrepreneur who uttered these enlightened words; a partner of OPUS, the world’s largest research project into children’s health. Meyer’s mission is to change Danish food culture and create a healthy Nordic ‘eating concept’ to improve the way children perform at school. In essence, he wants to protect them from eating rubbish.
It’s not rocket science that healthy eating equals healthy learning, and therefore, healthy living and earning. But more and more, we are starting to realize this is ‘crucial and central’ to the upbringing of future generations rather than a side factor to consider when packing their lunchbox.
In a similar stride, Sarah Elizabeth Ippel founded a school in Chicago’s Southside that focuses on nutrition, community development, and environmental sustainability. “Serving organic meals sourced from local farms, the school has its own vegetable garden, rainwater collection system and a lab for learning about solar power.”
“I want to use our model as a learning labratory to foster broader systematic change,”² Ippel says.
When we consider education systems and the security of our children’s future, why do we often forget that learning, just like living, is a wholesome concept? You cannot ensure happiness by wealth alone; just as you cannot ensure intelligence by enrolling in the best schools.
It’s a hopeful thought there are efforts like those of Meyer’s and Ippel’s to bring this concept to the forefront of education. And although not always the biggest fan of Prince Charles, I also found comfort (and slight fear) in his efforts yesterday; in his first speech as new President of WWF UK in which he emphasized the necessity of “surviving ourselves” or else risking the danger of becoming an endangered species.
“History will not judge us by how much economic growth we achieve in the immediate years ahead, nor by how much we expand material consumption, but by the legacy for our grandchildren and their grandchildren,” he said. “We are consuming what is rightfully theirs by sacrificing long-term progress on the altar of immediate satisfaction. That is hardly responsible behaviour.”³
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Notes:
¹,² “Class Acts–Global” Monocle: A briefing on global affairs, business, culture & design. Volume 5, Issue 46. September 2011
³”Prince Charles warns of sixth extinction event.” The Telegraph. September 8, 2011. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/8749863/Prince-Charles-warns-of-sixth-extinction-event.html)
