I never used to like Jamie Oliver’s TV programs. I thought he was a pompous git. I warmed up to him, however, with his Jamie at Home series, with all its home cooking and gardening.
Then, Tuesday night, came his latest big idea, Jamie’s Ministry of Food. It was some of the most intriguing political documentary I’ve seen on British TV: a millionaire cook from London in his expensive Jeep bumping up against the grinding reality of British people in poverty and their diets.
It seems to have everybody talking. Unfortunately, from my discussions with people, the Thatcherite/Blairite idea that it’s all about choice is alive and kicking. Not only does this belie the hard facts and statistics about been born into poverty, but it’s also not even necessarily rational (make sure to read the whole piece):
Elizabeth Dowler, professor of food and social policy at Warwick University who was recently involved in the government’s Low Income Diet and Nutrition survey, says the class differences are stark but complicated. “If you live for more than six months on the minimum wage or on benefits there is growing evidence you cannot afford to buy the food you need for health. It is still to do with class but it’s complex to unpick. Food is the flexible area that you cut back on when you are on a low income. Unlike council tax or utility bills, no one fines you if you don’t spend on food and no one takes your children away, so that’s what you cut, and you have a fag because that takes the hunger away.”
When you are on a low income you buy the kind of food that fills you up most cheaply. What may seem ignorant choices to others are in fact quite rational. Lobstein has calculated the cost of 100 calories of food energy from different types of food. The cheapest way to get your 100 calories is to buy fats, processed starches and sugars. A hundred calories of broccoli costs 51p, but 100 calories of frozen chips only cost 2p. Good-quality sausages that are high in meat but low in fat cost 22p per 100 calories, but “value” fatty ones are only 4p per 100 calories. Poor quality-fish fingers are 12p per 100 calories compared with 29p for ones made with fish fillet that are higher in nutrients. Fresh orange juice costs 38p per 100 calories, while the same dose of energy from sugary orange squash costs 5p.
Something that’s fascinated me as I’ve earned increasingly more over the years is how it gets more and more difficult to remember what it’s like not to earn money. You start doing things you swore you’d never do, such as forget that some of those you’ve got out for dinner with don’t necessarily have the same budget as you.
It will interesting to see where this program goes. Will it turn into a nasty reality TV show or will Oliver continue his journey towards the understanding that it’s not simply about “choice.”
External links:
- Jamie Oliver is blaming the wrong people | 3 October 2008
- Man in the news: Jamie Oliver | 3 October 2008
Update, 4 October 2008: External links added.
I also had grave misgivings about Jamie. I now only have misgivings. But to be fair, his earlier series: Jamie’s School dinners did, despite politicians’ assertions that they were already addressing the issue, bring to the fore the debate over the crap our children are fed, as our school canteens have, since the late 70’s, become yet another arena for the furtherance of the food industry’s profits and control over the nation’s diet - and, by extension, physical and mental health.
Yeah, I forgot to mention the school dinners series. You could say he’s done more than Blair ever did for the health of the nation.