The 24th October was Global Food Day. I think every day should be global food day, don’t you? In the 3 presidential debates in the US this year, food was not mentioned once, yet to some of their debate questions such as healthcare reform and funding for the sick, real food is actually so much of the answer – and waaaaay cheaper than chemo, heart bypass and gastric bypass surgery which in so many cases real food can help to prevent or certainly indeed lessen severity and cost of major disease. Sad that this isn’t at the forefront of the health focus.
We’ve lost our way as a world in the face what what real food actually is, and the best news is? It’s so easy to find our way back. Change is going to have to come from us. It’s a grass roots mission. Many are already on the journey, as we are. I am 100% blissfully positive and optimistic, that in my life time, real food / whole food, will no longer be weird, hippy nor extremist. How can I back that up? The niche and often quite exclusive communities trying to cultivate real food recruits, are sometimes counter productive, through no fault of their own, with rather extreme or black and white “this is EVIL and this is angelic” professing. The ‘eat bread and you’re out’ vibe scares people away. There are many shades of real food that work for different peeps and ditching the weirdness and stopping the normalisation and glorification of processed foods is where we can ALL come together.
Educators and influencers unite – and that’s all of you! It could be a friend, a family, a school or a country. However many people are in your circle of influence, just teach something that you know or learn. It’s up to us to masterfully share inclusively, not exclusively and keep this ‘club’ to ourselves. A wonderful pioneer of this methodology is the beautiful Jamie Oliver with the Food Revolution, for which I am a proud ambassador. If you want to learn more about the Food Revolution you can head here.
To celebrate this lil’ baby steps to real food idea, I decided to create a manifesto. We’re all always learning. Some of us will extend a hand up to be helped up to the next level of consciousness and understanding, while we extend our hand down to lift someone else up. No judgement. Your pace. Your way.
I shared the manifesto on facebook on Wednesday night and it’s been travelling around the world ever since. So far it’s at 12,213 shares. Isn’t that nuts? It’s testament to how many people want this. I’ve since had a wonderful designer make it even prettier than my initial home job. Hasn’t he done a beautiful job!?
If you’re interested in buying the manifesto in a high res download to get it printed on canvas or big paper to frame it, I’ve decided to donate all proceeds from the sale of the manifesto to OzHarvest as at 16th August 2016.
Real Food. Happy Bodies. Happy Planet.
