It seems fitting to begin this blog with a discussion of food, as it is a primary resident in the hearts and minds of the Big Bang Strategy team. We’re intensely interested in the origin and impact of the food that we put into our bodies. We spend a lot of time devising plans that we think will improve the health of the planet and its people and often find ourselves pondering one big, gnarly question: How do we make people understand the importance of their food decisions?

One recent solution caught our eye.  Jamie Oliver (the hip UK chef) is moving to Huntington, West Virginia (named the unhealthiest town in America) to start a Food Revolution, which will be the name of his anti-obesity campaign and reality TV show airing late March.

The dire lack of nutritional knowledge in Huntington is readily apparent when Jamie shows a tomato to an elementary school class and none of them know what it is. In fact, they could not name any of the vegetables that Jamie presented to them.  Wow. This detachment from food and lack of consumer education is a significant root of the obesity problem in America. It also provides a troubling glimpse into the future of this planet’s agricultural systems. The residents of Huntington probably eat a very large portion of highly processed foods, which usually look nothing like the plants they came from and have little nutritional value. Also, they are usually produced by a heavily industrialized agricultural system that carries widespread environmental repercussions.

Why is Oliver’s approach so interesting? Two reasons. First, he’s not just telling people how to eat, he’s teaching them how to do it (you can teach a man to fish…).  Education is great, but it must be married with example and action. Second, he’s working with kids. Before you know it, these kids will be adults and then they will truly change the world.

For us, Jamie’s mission reminded us that no matter how much work we do trying to make the supply side of agriculture more sustainable, success will only come when we have the interest, engagement and passion of the people who eat the food.

Jamie is one of our new heroes here at Big Bang—we can’t wait to see the impact of his efforts.