He’s not vegetarian, vegan, or raw, however Jamie Oliver advocates something extremely important. He is campaigning and calling attention to the unhealthy plight of school meals in the American school system. Jamie is no stranger to fighting for healthy meal for school systems. He began campaigning in his native country, England, to ban the junk in British schools and get kids eating fresh, tasty nutritious food.

Watching this video reminds me that there is plenty of resistance simply toward the idea of healthy eating. Children depend on and learn from us. They are the future. If these children are fed devalued junk “food”, and as a result are undernourished and sickly, what will their future be as the next generation of a nation of people? Imagine.

Baby-shaped pears, aren’t these cute? They are too cute to eat if you ask me. Imagine standing in an orchard of pear trees eyeing these fruits, which look more like tranquil zen babies delicately suspended by branches. I bet it is an amazing sight. I discovered these pears and the story behind their existence from Reuters article Pear-shaped business plan reaps fruit of success.

Hao Xianzhang, a farmer and owner of the pear orchard, who lives in Northern China, was looking for a way to attract more business. One day he saw jelly shaped into different forms at a local grocery store. Seeing this inspired him to try growing his pear into various shapes. It took six years of trial and error before his vision was realized. I love success stories like this. His tenacity paid off and now the world has the cutest little novelty pears.

You can read the story and watch a brief video interview of the man behind the idea. I couldn’t help but notice there was some spraying action going on at the end of the clip. I suspect that might have been pesticides used. Sigh. I wonder if he could possibly be one of the tiny percent of certified organic farmers in his country. Organic farming practices in China is a topic I don’t know much about but I did find this encouraging article Organic Farming Set to Boom in China.

Inspiration and ideas come to us in many ways. He had a vision but as you will read in the article people called him crazy, said it was impossible, and told him to stop wasting his time and money. What if he listened to their dream squelching advice? Those amazing baby-shaped pears probably wouldn’t exisit. In my opinion, this is an excellent example why it is good not to listen to naysayers. Follow your heart and explore your ideas, they might serve up the delicious realization of your dreams. I can’t wait to see Charlie Chaplin as a pear.

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