Jamie Oliver Debuts New Reality Series in America
British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver recently debuted his first American network TV show titled Food Revolution, a reality series that brings his penchant for school lunch reform and theatrical interventions to cafeterias and homes in Huntington, West Virginia. A health food evangelist, Oliver has drawn both praise and criticism in the United Kingdom for his efforts to harness government power and money for anti-obesity programs. But his latest incursion into American media has apparently attracted the ire of outlets as diverse as AlterNet and Reason, the latter of which has equated the show with several of the entrepreneur’s more “dubious endeavors.”
According to Reason, Oliver received the 2010 TED Prize for his work as “a standard bearer in the fight against obesity” and hopes that Food Revolution will secure him an invitation from the White House to contribute to the nation’s childhood obesity initiative. “[It] would be a serious mistake to underestimate Oliver’s present and potential influence here in America,” the article concludes. “Thanks to TED, Oliver already has the ears of heavyweights at Google, YouTube and Amazon.” See Reason, March 25, 2010.
Meanwhile, AlterNet writer Arun Gupta has also criticized Food Revolution for failing to deal with “complexities or systemic issues.” Gupta reports that Oliver’s attempts to reform the school lunch program in Huntington have resulted in fewer participants in the program, a drop in milk consumption and staggering food costs. Moreover, the show does not mitigate what Gupta sees as the true cause of America’s “ever expanding waistline”: “widespread poverty, sedentary lifestyles, junk-food advertising, a lack of health care, corporate control of the food system, the prevalence of cheap fast food, food designed to be addictive, and subsidies and policies that make meats and sugars cheaper than whole fruits and vegetables.” As Gupta opines, “If Jamie and Co. wanted to make a real difference, they should go after the fast-food industry . . But this would require a real revolution, not one manufactured for television.”
