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11-Year-Old Describes Broken Food System in Five Minutes
Last month, an 11-year-old had much to say about the perils of the American food system. Speaking at a TED conference for young people called TEDx in Asheville, North Carolina, Birke Baehr discussed food irradiation, GMOs, CAFOs, farm run-off, the problem with marketing food to kids and more, all in five minutes. On the subject of paying more for better quality food, Baehr said, “With all the things I’m learning about the food system, it seems to me that we can either pay the farmer or pay the hospital.”
He also talked about his future aspirations. “Awhile back I wanted to be an NFL football player. Now, I’ve decided I’d rather be an organic farmer instead,” he said to the cheering audience. “That way I can have a greater impact on the world.”
Watch it here:
23 Comments so far
Show AllVery impressive performance by this youngster. Kudos to his parents for raising a bright, open-minded son.
I sincerely hope that this thread does not fill up with whines by the usual cranks that the boy did not mention or give enough time to their pet topic - especially Building 7.
q
LOL
Joe
amen.
Incredible kid! Loved every second of it! Had me clapping in my living room.
The future, hopefully.
He will never be in politics' he's too smart and moral.
don't this kid's PARENTS teach him that talking like THAT ....he and his family will be set upon by the FBI, CIA , NSA ....at the behest of the Corporations....that own the USA ....for TERRORISM and THREAT to National Security and national interest?.
geeezzzzz...don't they KNOW this is AMERICA? things like THAT should't be TAUGHT to KIDS...they might begin to have "ideas"!!!! dammit!!
The farmer he mentions, Joel Salatin, is a libertarian. He says big government and government regulation is one of the main obstacles to a farmer trying to be ethical.
Libertarians blame "big government" and "government regulation" on everything. Butc absolutely every time I've asked the Libertarian to cite the specific agency and regulation that is giving them so much trouble, they just look at me blankly.
European countries have even bigger government and even more regulation, yet they have far more small farmers and far more small farmers producing organic stuff.
But, the US and US States are peculiar in that its regulations tend to fall much more heavily on small family businesses. The regulations are selectively enforced because inspectors learn early on that citing a big corporation or being too bureaucratic with a permit application will get a army of lawyers knocking on the agencies door the next day, while this won't happen with a smaller violator. Then costs and labor of meeting the requirements of the regulations - the lab testing, documentation, special equipment, etc., falls more heavily on small businesses.
I knew of a small time organic sprout producer - he produced sprouts in a space in the old Duquesne Brewery in Pittsburgh. But a couple years ago, he closed the business after new regulations, in response to the e-coli-in-spinach incident, supposedly would have required him to "hire a full-time microbiologist". I suspect this was probably hyperbole, but apparently the burden was too much and he closed the business.
Simply doing away with regulation would be awful. Read Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle", but regulations need to be written in a way that don't give large firms more of an unfair advantage than they already have over small businesses. If necessary, every agency should provide free compliance assistance services.
as far as I am concerned..."libertarians" are an American Concoction. sure there are likely, everywhere in the world something called "libertarian" in the sense of wanting personal liberties - as can likely be found in china or russia or elsewhere as easily as anywhere...simply put: people who don't like any "governance" to interfere with their personal affairs. in a sense that is what human beings probably would wish so long as things go THEIR WAY.
but Libertarians as a POLITICAL and ideological "movement" or philosophy is, i think a particularly American concoction coming out of the same capitalist exploitativeness of everything one can get one's hands on and is capable of exploiting...using "personal freedom" as an excuse , elaborately argued as a political thought, for nothing more than
SELFISHNESS.
I have absolutely no fascination with their "ideology".
the funniest thing I find about libertarians is : how they conveniently seldom , if ever, focus on corporatism which is just a monstrous growth coming FROM the libertarian ideology of "self and don't regulate ME" .
some - i have read - say "libertarianism is to be free to do what you want without government interference SO LONG as you don't harm anyone else"..
but then -- MUCH of what IS harmful to SOMEONE ELSE , and in just about every conceivable way , to the common welfare , IS an outgrowth of the "libertarian self" left "unregulated" ...whose end result is the growth of the gigantic "self" --
called the Corporate Person. which THEN is the Giant REGULATOR of "everyone else".
so - to put it short, imo -- "libertarianism" is really a POOR EXCUSE for capitalism and its corporatist regulation of human activity that we call "freedom", PERIOD!
it's a poor excuse , engaging in fancy arguments about "liberty" and "no regulation" of GREED or selfishness, for INDIVIDUALS who imagine they are SO special that their "personal liberties" (which really are another excuse to grab whatever they want if given the opportunity) outweigh the common welfare consisting of other Individuals.
Beautiful! Please publish this far and wide. I hope to see it again elsewhere, and to be able to find it for reference.
Teddy,
Well said!
It is the end of Democrats vs Republicans Vs Libertarians in the political relm...It is now the people vs Corporations!!!
This 11 year old just gave a more coherent and meaningful speech, apparently WITHOUT a teleprompter, than our president, widely regarded as a good orator, is capable of delivering WITH a teleprompter.
I can hardly type through tears of joy.
The kid pulled it off. We should all be proud of him. Grace under pressure.
It is amazing what kids can learn (although I am NOT someone who thinks home schooling is a good idea necessarily) when the class sizes are small enough that kids and teachers actually have conversations about science, history, math, and obviously, public speaking. Kids really do love learning and "being smart" and having a grown up who also loves learning be the person who helps them get that way.
Right on to his parents for having the smarts and the patience to teach him from the heart.
I agree. Also children need the interaction with others from different backgrounds, different languages, different races etc. You do not get that with most home schooling.
In response to Will C.
I think most farmers are libertarians, though not of the tea-party sort.
Read Wendell Berry's essay "sanitation and the small farm' in his book of collected essays "Gift of good land". He basically makes the same point as Joel.
I must admit I would rather have farmers like Joel and Wendell to buy food from than a stack of federal regulations determining what I can and can't buy.
oops guess I'm a libertarian after all...
Hmmm, if small farmers grow better food (I agree), but regulations are needed because agribusiness grows crappy food, maybe the answer is to get rid of agribusiness - i.e. if we didn't have conditions that required regulation then we wouldn't need the regulation and everyone, including the small farmer, would be better off. Of course one regulation we would need is the one that prevents the development of "agribusiness" .....
Beautiful presentation of important material. Birke and his family are an inspiration.
To our younger posters:
Want to have kids who are open-minded and can reason and question? Home school them as young Mr. Baehr is.
Teach them before the system gets its hooks in 'em!
Do the followup --- look at http://www.tedxnextgenerationasheville.com/
it's worth it. and look at the speech on education with computer gaming: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auP-eq17U1g
Thanks for the link. It makes sense to learn from game media when many are so inspired to study in that mode.
Now, consider real-world problem solving via gaming:
Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world
http://www.tedxnextgenerationasheville.com/media
I have never invested any time or energy in high tech/electrical/computer gaming, and I am skeptical, but what she unveils is inspiring me to consider participating. Maybe gaming is simply a communication transform. There are teachers on one side and learners on the other. For whatever reasons, the learners need to spin through the algorithms every which way and experience it all to come to understand the material. Think of climate change doubters coming to understand the problems, and then to explore solutions. Think of people learning how to share resources and all thriving. Think of people learning to treasure diversity, to build community, to work through their fears, and not hate.
The world could use many, many more like him! Bravo!