Ellen Gustafson: Obesity + hunger = 1 global food issue

Translator: Jenifer Rey Reviewer: Serv. de Norm. Lingüística U. de Santiago de Compostela

I'm Ellen and I'm totally obsessed with food.

Son Ellen e estou totalmente obsesionada coa comida.

But I didn't start out obsessed with food.

Pero iso non foi o primeiro co que me obsesionei.

I started out obsessed with global security policy,

Empecei coas políticas de seguridade global,

porque vivía en NY durante o 11/9, o que tivo moito que ver.

because I lived in New York during 9/11 and it was a very relevant thing.

Logo pasei da seguridade global aos alimentos

I got from global security policy to food

ao decatarme de que a fame vólveme moi irritable.

because I realized when I'm hungry, I'm really pissed off,

Supoño que ao resto do mundo tamén lle pasa.

and I'm assuming the rest of the world is too.

Especialmente se tes fame ti, e os teus fillos, e os do veciño,

Especially if you and your kids are hungry and your neighbor's kids are hungry

e o barrio enteiro. Cabréaste bastante.

and your whole neighborhood is hungry.

En realidade, parece que as áreas do mundo que teñen fame

And actually, it looks like the areas of the world that are hungry

are also the areas of the world that are pretty insecure.

son tamén as áreas do mundo máis inseguras.

Fun traballar ao Programa Mundial de Alimentos

So I took a job at the United Nations World Food Programme

as a way to try to address these security issues

da ONU para abordar estes aspectos da seguridade

a través da seguridade alimentaria.

through food security issues.

There, I came across what I think is the most brilliant of their programs.

Alí atopeime co que creo é o máis sobresaliente dos seus programas.

Chamase Alimentación Escolar, unha idea realmente sinxela

It's called School Feeding and it's a really simple idea

to get in the middle of the cycle of poverty and hunger

para penetrar no ciclo da pobreza e da fame,

que afecta a moita xente ao redor do mundo, e detelo.

that continues for a lot of people around the world, and stop it.

Unha comida gratis atrae aos nenos á escola,

A free school meal gets kids into school,

which is education, the first step out of poverty,

e isto é educación, o primeiro paso para saír da pobreza.

but it also gives them the micronutrients and the macronutrients they need

Pero tamén lles proporciona os micro e macronutrientes que precisan

to develop mentally and physically.

para desenvolverse física e mentalmente.

While I was working at the UN, I met this girl. Her name is Lauren Bush.

Mentres estiven a traballar na ONU, coñecín a Lauren Bush.

E ela tivo esta brillante idea de vender a bolsa chamada "Feed Bag”,

And she had this really awesome idea to sell the bag, called the "Feed Bag" --

como na frase “strap on the feed bag”, [poñer o morral = comer]

which is really beautifully ironic because you can strap on the Feed Bag.

Cada bolsa que vendésemos achegaría

But each bag we'd sell would provide

o valor dun ano de comidas para un neno

a year's worth of school meals for one kid.

It's so simple, and we thought, OK,

É simple, así que pensamos: adiante.

it costs between 20 and 50 bucks to provide school feeding for a year.

Custa entre 20 e 50 dólares dar de comer a un escolar un ano.

We could sell these bags and raise a ton of money and awareness

Podemos vender estas bolsas e xuntar moito diñeiro e espertar conciencias

for the World Food Programme.

a prol do Programa Mundial.

But at the UN, sometimes things move slowly

Pero na ONU, as cousas ás veces van lentas

e eles basicamente dixeron que non.

and they basically said no.

And we thought, this is such a good idea, it's going to raise so much money.

Entón pensamos: é unha idea moi boa e xuntaremos moito diñeiro.

E dixemos: poñamos en marcha a nosa empresa.

So we said screw it, we'll start our own company,

E fixémolo hai tres anos

which we did, three years ago.

That was my first dream, to start this company called FEED,

Así foi o soño inicial de empezar esta compañía chamada FEED.

E aquí está en pantalla o noso sitio web.

and here's a screenshot of our website.

We did a bag for Haiti just a month after the earthquake

Fixemos esta bolsa para Haití un mes despois do terremoto

para darlles comidas na escola aos nenos.

to provide school meals for kids in Haiti.

So FEED's doing great.

FEED estao facendo moi ben.

We've so far provided 55 million meals to kids around the world

Entregamos xa 55 millóns de comidas a nenos de todo o mundo,

by selling now 550,000 bags, a ton of bags, a lot of bags.

vendendo ata agora 555.000 bolsas, unha tonelada de bolsas.

All this time you're really --

Todo este tempo...

hunger is a hard thing to think about,

é difícil pensar na fame,

because what we think about is eating.

xa que no que pensamos é en comer.

I think about eating a lot and I really love it.

Penso moito en comer e encántame.

E o máis raro da fame mundial

And the thing that's strange about international hunger

e de falar acerca de problemas internacionais

and talking about international issues

é que a maioría da xente pregunta:

is that most people want to know:

“Que estades a facer polos nenos de EE. UU.?”

"What are you doing for America's kids?"

There's definitely hunger in America:

Certamente hai fame en EE. UU.,

49 million people and almost 16.7 million children.

49 millóns de persoas e case 16,7 millóns de nenos.

I mean that's pretty dramatic for our own country.

Quero dicir que é terrible no noso propio país.

Hunger definitely means something different in America

A fame definitivamente significa algo moi distinto

en EE. UU. que noutros lugares,

than it does internationally,

but it's incredibly important to address hunger in our own country.

pero é realmente importante que lle fagamos fronte no noso país.

But the bigger problem that we all know about is obesity,

Pero o maior problema que todos coñecemos é a obesidade

and it's dramatic.

e é moi grave.

The other thing that's dramatic

O que tamén é grave

é que tanto a fame como a obesidade aumentaron nos últimos 30 anos.

is that both hunger and obesity have really risen in the last 30 years.

Por desgraza, a obesidade non é só problema de EE. UU.

Unfortunately, obesity's not only an American problem.

Foise expandindo por todo o mundo

It's actually been spreading all around the world

and mainly through our kind of food systems that we're exporting.

e principalmente a través do tipo de alimentos que exportamos.

The numbers are pretty crazy.

As cifras son moi preocupantes.

Hai mil millóns de persoas obesas ou con sobrepeso

There's a billion people obese or overweight

and a billion people hungry.

e mil millóns con fame.

So those seem like two bifurcated problems,

Parecen dous problemas opostos,

but I kind of started to think about, you know,

pero empecei a pensar

what is obesity and hunger?

en que é obesidade e a fame?

What are both those things about?

De que tratan as dúas?

Well, they're both about food.

Pois as dúas tratan de alimentos.

And when you think about food,

E cando se pensa en alimentos

the underpinning of food in both cases is potentially problematic agriculture.

a base fundamental nos dous casos radica na problemática da agricultura.

And agriculture is where food comes from.

E da agricultura proveñen os alimentos.

Agriculture in America's very interesting.

A agricultura en EE. UU. é moi interesante.

It's very consolidated

Está moi consolidada.

and the foods that are produced lead to the foods that we eat.

E os alimentos que se producen son os que inxerimos.

Os alimentos que se producen son máis ou menos, millo, soia e trigo.

The foods that are produced are, more or less, corn, soy and wheat.

E iso son as 3/4 partes dos alimentos que consumimos

And that's three-quarters of the food that we're eating:

e na maioría son procesados e comida rápida.

processed foods and fast foods.

Unfortunately, in our agricultural system,

Por desgraza, nos nosos sistemas agrícolas

we haven't done a good job in the last three decades

non o fixemos moi ben as últimas tres décadas

ao exportar esas tecnoloxías ao redor do mundo.

of exporting those technologies around the world.

A agricultura de África, o lugar con máis fame no mundo,

So African agriculture, which is the place of most hunger in the world,

has actually fallen precipitously as hunger has risen.

decreceu espectacularmente mentres que a fame aumentou.

So somehow we're not making the connect

Entón, dalgún modo non estamos a establecer a conexión

between exporting a good agricultural system

entre exportar un bo sistema agrícola

that will help feed people all around the world.

e axudar así a alimentar á poboación do mundo.

Who is farming? That's what I was wondering.

Quen cultiva a terra?, preguntábame eu.

So I went and stood on a big grain bin in the Midwest,

E entón fun e subín a un gran silo no Medio Oeste,

and that really didn't help me understand farming,

pero non me axudou a entender a agricultura,

but I think it's a really cool picture.

aínda que creo que tirei unha boa foto.

And the reality is that between farmers in America --

E a realidade é que entre os agricultores de EE. UU.,

who actually, quite frankly, when I spend time in the Midwest,

que verdadeiramente, cando paso un tempo no Medio Oeste,

are pretty large in general.

son moi corpulentos en xeral,

e as súas facendas son moi grandes tamén.

And their farms are also large.

Mentres que os agricultores do resto do mundo son moi delgados,

But farmers in the rest of the world are actually quite skinny,

e iso é porque teñen fame.

and that's because they're starving.

Most hungry people in the world are subsistence farmers.

A maioría da xente con fame no mundo son agricultores de subsistencia.

And most of those people are women --

E a maioría son mulleres,

which is a totally other topic that I won't get on right now,

un tema diferente que non abordarei agora,

pero que me gustaría tratar algunha vez cun enfoque feminista.

but I'd love to do the feminist thing at some point.

I think it's really interesting to look at agriculture from these two sides.

Creo que é moi interesante mirar a agricultura desde estes dous lados.

Temos esta agricultura grande, consolidada que deu lugar ao que comemos en EE. UU.

There's this large, consolidated farming that's led to what we eat in America,

e que existe desde 1980, despois da crise do petróleo,

and it's really been since around 1980, after the oil crisis,

durante a consolidación masiva,

when, you know -- mass consolidation,

mass exodus of small farmers in this country.

o éxodo masivo de pequenos agricultores neste país.

And then in the same time period,

E entón no mesmo período,

we've kind of left Africa's farmers to do their own thing.

deixamos aos agricultores de África facer o propio.

Unfortunately, what is farmed ends up as what we eat.

Por desgraza, comemos o que se cultiva.

And in America, a lot of what we eat has led to obesity

E en EE. UU. moito do que comemos levounos á obesidade

and has led to a real change

e cara a un cambio real

in sort of what our diet is, in the last 30 years.

da nosa dieta nos últimos 30 anos.

It's crazy.

É unha tolemia.

Un quinto dos menores de dous anos beben refrescos.

A fifth of kids under two drinks soda.

Eh!. Non lles boten refresco aos biberóns.

Hello! You don't put soda in bottles.

Pero a xente faino porque é barato.

But people do, because it's so cheap,

E así o noso sistema alimentario nos últimos 30 anos cambiou totalmente.

and so our whole food system in the last 30 years has really shifted.

I mean, you know, it's not just in our own country,

Creo que non só no noso propio país,

senón que en realidade estamos a exportar o sistema a todo o mundo.

but really we're exporting the system around the world,

and when you look at the data of least developed countries --

E cando se analizan os datos dos países menos desenvolvidos,

especially in cities, which are growing really rapidly --

especialmente nas cidades, que están a crecer rapidamente,

people are eating American processed foods.

as persoas comen alimentos procesados estadounidenses.

And in one generation, they're going from hunger

E nunha xeración, van desde a fame,

e todo o seu efecto prexudicial sobre a saúde, ata a obesidade,

and all of the detrimental health effects of hunger

to obesity and things like diabetes and heart disease in one generation.

a diabetes e as doenzas cardíacas nunha soa xeración.

So the problematic food system is affecting both hunger and obesity.

Así o problemático sistema alimentario afecta á fame e á obesidade

Not to beat a dead horse, but this is a global food system

Volvo insistir no mesmo, pero isto é un sistema alimentario global

where there's a billion people hungry and a billion people obese.

onde hai mil millóns de persoas con fame e mil millóns de persoas obesas.

I think that's the only way to look at it.

Creo que é a única maneira de velo.

And instead of taking these two things

E no canto de atender aos dous aspectos

as bifurcated problems that are very separate,

como problemas separados,

it's really important to look at them as one system.

é moi importante velos como un sistema.

We get a lot of our food from all around the world

Traemos moitos dos nosos alimentos de todo o mundo

and people from all around the world are importing our food system,

e noutras partes do mundo importan o noso sistema alimentario.

so it's incredibly relevant to start a new way of looking at it.

Polo que é bastante importante empezar a velo doutra maneira.

I've learned -- and the technology people here,

Aprendín dos tecnólogos aquí presentes,

which I'm totally not one of --

aos cales eu obviamente non pertenzo,

but apparently, it really takes 30 years

que, en principio, precísanse 30 anos

for a lot of technologies to become really endemic to us,

para que moitas tecnoloxías se asenten entre nós,

like the mouse and the Internet and Windows.

como o rato, internet e Windows.

You know, there's 30-year cycles.

Saben? Existen ciclos de 30 anos.

I think 2010 can be a really interesting year

Creo que o 2010 pode ser realmente un ano interesante,

because it is the end of the 30-year cycle,

porque remata o ciclo de 30 anos,

and it's the birthday of the global food system.

e é o aniversario do sistema alimentario global.

That's the first birthday I want to talk about.

É o primeiro do que quero falar.

If we really think that this is something that's happened in the last 30 years,

Creo que se de verdade pensamos que é algo que pasou nos últimos 30 anos,

hai esperanza.

there's hope in that.

É o trixésimo aniversario dos cultivos transxénicos,

It's the 30th anniversary of GMO crops

and the Big Gulp, Chicken McNuggets, high-fructose corn syrup,

das grandes racións, dos nuggets de polo, do xarope de millo rico en frutosa,

the farm crisis in America

da crise agrícola en EE. UU.

and the change in how we've addressed agriculture internationally.

e do cambio internacional de enfoque da agricultura.

Por tanto, hai moitas razóns para entender estes 30 anos

So there's a lot of reasons to take this 30-year time period

como a creación do novo sistema alimentario.

as sort of the creation of this new food system.

I'm not the only one who's obsessed with this whole 30-year thing.

Non son a única que esta obsesionada con isto dos 30 anos.

The icons like Michael Pollan and Jamie Oliver in his TED Prize wish

Iconas como Michael Pollan e Jamie Oliver no seu desexo do Premio TED

both addressed this last three-decade time period

referíronse a estas últimas tres décadas

as incredibly relevant for food system change.

como un período moi importante para cambiar o sistema alimentario.

Well, I really care about 1980

En realidade, impórtame desde 1980

porque é tamén o meu trixésimo aniversario este ano.

because it's also the 30th anniversary of me this year.

And so in my lifetime,

E, por tanto, durante a miña vida,

a lot of what's happened in the world --

moito do que pasou no mundo,

and being a person obsessed with food --

como persoa obsesionada coa comida,

a lot of this has really changed.

moito disto cambiou.

So my second dream is that I think we can look to the next 30 years

Así que o meu segundo soño é que creo que podemos mirar os próximos 30 anos

as a time to change the food system again.

como un prazo para cambiar outra vez o sistema alimentario.

And we know what's happened in the past,

E sabemos o que pasou no pasado,

so if we start now and we look at technologies

así que se empezamos agora e miramos as tecnoloxías

and improvements to the food system long-term,

e as melloras do sistema alimentario

we might be able to recreate the food system

podemos ser quen de recrear o sistema alimentario,

so when I give my next talk and I'm 60 years old,

de modo que cando dea a miña seguinte charla aos 60,

I'll be able to say that it's been a success.

poida dicir que foi un éxito.

So I'm announcing today the start of a new organization,

Entón, anuncio hoxe o comezo dunha nova organización

or a new fund within the FEED Foundation, called the 30 Project.

ou un novo fondo dentro da fundación FEED chamada o Proxecto 30.

And the 30 Project is really focused

O Proxecto 30 en realidade está enfocado

on these long-term ideas for food system change.

nestas ideas a longo prazo para o cambio do sistema alimentario.

And I think by aligning international advocates that are addressing hunger

E creo que aliñando defensores internacionais que se ocupen da fame

and domestic advocates that are addressing obesity,

e defensores locais que se ocupen da obesidade,

we might actually look for long-term solutions

poderemos verdadeiramente buscar solucións a longo prazo

that will make the food system better for everyone.

que mellorarán o sistema alimentario para todos.

We all tend to think that these systems are quite different

Tendemos a pensar que estes sistemas son moi diferentes

and people argue whether or not organic can feed the world,

e a xente discute se o orgánico pode alimentar ao mundo.

but if we take a 30-year view, there's more hope in collaborative ideas.

Pero a 30 anos vista, hai máis esperanza en ideas colaborativas.

So I'm hoping that by connecting really disparate organizations

Entón, espero que conectando organizacións moi diferentes

like the ONE campaign and Slow Food,

como a campaña ONE e Slow Food,

which don't seem right now to have much in common,

que non parecen agora ter moito en común,

podemos falar de solucións holísticas, a longo prazo e sistémicas,

we can talk about holistic, long-term, systemic solutions

that will improve food for everyone.

que mellorarán a alimentación para todos.

Some ideas I've had is like, look, the reality is --

Algunhas ideas que tiven, mirade, a realidade é que

kids in the South Bronx need apples and carrots

os nenos do Sur do Bronx necesitan mazás e cenorias

and so do kids in Botswana.

igual ca os nenos de Botswana.

And how are we going to get those kids those nutritious foods?

E como lles conseguiremos esas comidas nutritivas?

Another thing that's become incredibly global is production of meat and fish.

Tamén se volveu incriblemente global a produción de carne e peixe.

Entender como producir proteínas

Understanding how to produce protein

de forma sa para o medio ambiente

in a way that's healthy for the environment

and healthy for people

e para as persoas

will be incredibly important to address things like climate change

será moi importante para abordar temas como o cambio climático

and how we use petrochemical fertilizers.

e o uso de fertilizantes petroquímicos.

And, you know, these are really relevant topics

Estes son temas moi relevantes

that are long-term and important

a longo prazo e importantes

for both people in Africa who are small farmers

para os pequenos agricultores de África

e para os agricultores e consumidores dos EE. UU.

and people in America who are farmers and eaters.

And I also think that thinking about processed foods in a new way,

E tamén creo que hai que pensar nos alimentos procesados doutro xeito,

where we actually price the negative externalities

onde se paguen as consecuencias negativas como

like petrochemicals and like fertilizer runoff

o arrastre de produtos químicos e fertilizantes aos ríos

into the price of a bag of chips --

no prezo dunha bolsa de patacas fritas.

Well, if that bag of chips then becomes inherently more expensive than an apple,

E se esa bolsa se converte entón en máis cara ca unha mazá,

chegou a hora de cambiar o sentido da responsabilidade persoal

then maybe it's time for a different sense of personal responsibility in food choice

na elección dos alimentos, porque hai eleccións,

because the choices are actually choices

instead of three-quarters of the products being made just from corn, soy and wheat.

no canto de que tres cuartos dos produtos se fagan só de millo, soia e trigo.

O 30Proyect.org xa está en marcha

The 30Project.org is launched

and I've gathered a coalition of a few organizations to start.

e xuntei unha coalición dunhas poucas organizacións para empezar.

And it'll be growing over the next few months.

E irá crecendo nos próximos meses.

But I really hope that you will all think of ways

Realmente espero que todos pensemos en formas

de mirar a longo prazo temas como o sistema alimentario

that you can look long-term at things like the food system

and make change.

e facer cambios.

(Aplausos)

(Applause)