TED Talks: Chew On This (2011)

Various food, sustainability, and nutrition experts in a series of TED talks about humans' most basic need... the food we eat.

If you're not familiar with TED talks, then this review might go right over your head, but basically this Netflix collection is a series of lectures by experts.  They are almost always thought-provoking or amusing or both.  This series of fourteen lectures of varying lengths center around food... what we eat, how we eat it, how we produce it, and/or our relationship with it.

It's probably no secret that one of my passions is a belief that we need to return to a more simple, less processed way of preparing and eating our food.  I think that the phasing out of teaching Home Ec in schools, particularly the kitchen and sewing sections, was a death-blow to our children.  I once had a male friend I met online admit to me that he spent over $2,000 a month eating out because he didn't know how to cook.  For someone who doesn't even make that much money a month, I found that figure to be staggering.  And the economics of it isn't even the worst part.

The top three disease killers in America are completely preventable through dietary changes.

I won't go into the details of all the lectures here.  They can say it far better than I can.  But if you're a crafter who likes to have something thought-provoking and informative to listen to while you're knitting or whatever, this series is perfect for that, and you can concentrate your vision on your work while listening.

I highly recommend this series.  Even if you have no interest in cooking for yourself, improving the environment or the biodiversity of our ecosystem, the idea of how interconnected the way we live our lives is with the health and welfare of ourselves and others is an idea worth listening to.

Give it a try.