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Another negative unconscious belief that some people have been programmed to believe is
what they eat is not important as long as it tastes good, when the truth of the matter
is that what one eats is very important.
Now let's head to Lansing for the third annual Everybody Eats Conference where that belief
is being challenged, where people are being taught the importance of growing food, eating
healthy and engaging in good nutrition.
Well, everybody eats so it's kind of a common denominator. We're all impacted by the food
system, and so we have the opportunity for people from all segments of society to work
together for their mutual benefit. And so that's one of the good things about being
involved in food system reform: that it cuts across all the typical boundaries.
It's for everyone. This event is for everyone to come to and learn about, even if you don't
grow anything and you don't have a school garden or you're not doing an incubator farm.
It's still something that you can come and learn about your food system and be closer
to the people that grow your food.
It's something that I guess I didn't really have growing up. It was kind of just like,
you know, we buy this food and we eat it. But seeing... meeting people who are actually
growing your food is just really exciting. And like, I'm not a farmer, but I still think
growing food is really cool.
We could simply just go into classrooms and say, "Here. Here's a healthy food sample."
And kids will be like, "Ew. I don't like spinach!" And they just won't want nothing to do with
it. So we found if they grow the spinach seed, water the spinach, harvest the spinach and
then prepare the food as well, then they're all excited about it and they're more willing
to try it.
So we found that gardening is the best way to get kids, rather than just handing them
something and then them having the choice to say yes or no. They're a lot more likely
to say yes if they're the one that made it themselves.
Well one of the things that people can do is gardening, even if it's on a small level
doing small container gardens. And just introducing new foods into their diet: fresh, healthy
foods as opposed to just eating fast foods or packaged foods or frozen foods. There's
ways to slowly begin to change your diet.
But again, the main thing is once your thinking changes, you know, your outer reality also
begins to change.
One hour of gardening is like walking two miles. It's the equivalent. Just standard
gardening. And then if you're doing heavier gardening like shoveling, then it's a much
higher steps per minute ratio. So there's a lot of physical activity.
This conference I think is a symbol of many, many people working for many years because
they get it. Food is so important to our communities and building places people want to live.