Birke Baehr: What's Wrong With Our Food System

I had been trying to come up with an idea of what my first official blog post should be about, when a friend of mine posted this video on Facebook. Suddenly it was clear that this 11 year-old boy would be it.


For starters, he's speaking at a TED conference (which for those who have never heard of before, is basically where the great minds of the world meet. Check them out here!) He only talks for five minutes but he uses each and every one of them so perfectly in order to get his point across. Since I can go on and on in detail about all the different topics he spoke about, I will simply highlight what I consider to be the most important parts.

• He starts out by explaining that he grew up like most children in this country; believing that his food came from this happy place called a "farm". He was taught that there were these pastoral places where cows graze in open fields and pigs squeal happily as they roll in the mud while the chickens cluck around their coop. Yet what he discovered was that this type of farm hardly exists anymore. What was once a farm is now a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation), where the animals are factory-produced and the only thing that matters is a bottom line.
• How does he say he learned all of this? From the internet, books and documentary films - the same way I did, only I was in my late 20's! He's got this all figured out and he's only 11! He is way ahead of me. This gives me hope...
• He mentions GMO's (genetically modified organisms). Yes, they're in almost everything and no, it's not a good thing. Say no to GMOs
• He also mentions how genetically-modified corn is in everything. He's not kidding. It's in soda, ketchup, Cheez Whiz, cake mixes, frostings, soups, breads, cereals, frozen waffles, mayonnaise, margarine, mustard, beer, Twinkies, Chicken McNuggets (13 of its 38 ingredients are derived from corn), candies, frozen yogurt, salad dressings, etc. And that's just the food items! It's also in trash bags, disposable diapers, batteries, aspirin, toothpaste, chewing gum, cosmetics, charcoal briquettes, matches, windshield washer fluid - the lists are endless. It is easily estimated that over one-quarter of all the items in a supermarket contain corn in some way, shape, or form. That's a lot of corn...
• He explains that good farming does exist but is very few and far between. You'd have to seek them out and purchase from them directly since they almost never sell their products to the large supermarkets most of us shop in. The crazy farmer he talks about, Joel Salatin, does in fact go against the grain (pardon the expression) by employing a much more natural approach to his farming. Author Michael Pollan spent time with Salatin on his farm as part of research for his book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. And while I have mixed feelings about both Michael Pollan and his book, I do agree with him that there should be more farmers like Salatin out there.
• How does he think we can make a difference? One kid at at time! Look at him - he said he used to want to be a football player in the NFL and now he wants to an organic farmer. That's incredible! All because he learned about where his food came from and "the dark side of the industrialized food system."

And that's what I'm hoping for everyone reading this blog. I believe that everyone has the right to choose for themselves what they put in their bodies. But I also believe that everyone should know what it is, where it came from and everything it took to get that food on their plate.