172: Ocean Robbins on Changing our Food Future

Finding the motivation to make changes in our diets.

At 15, Ocean was a co-founder of the Creating Our Future environmental speaking tour, on which he and three other participants spoke in person to more than 30,000 students, presented for 2,000 people at the United Nations, and opened for the Jerry Garcia band in San Francisco.
In 1990 at age 16, Ocean founded YES!, an organization he directed for the next 20 years with the goal of connecting, inspiring and mobilizing visionary young leaders worldwide.  He has since spoken to hundreds of thousands of people, led hundreds of retreats, workshops and Jams for leaders in over 65 nations, written books, mentored (and learned from) changemakers, and been a creative partner and lead editor for several bestsellers.
In 2012 Ocean founded the Food Revolution Network, which now has more than 350,000 members working for healthy, sustainable, humane and delicious food.  He currently serves as adjunct professor in the Peace Studies department at Chapman University.  Ocean has personally spoken and facilitated leadership gatherings in Jordan, Israel/Palestine, Singapore, Costa Rica, Russia, Finland, Canada, the Netherlands, India, Peru, and across the USA.
All this and he is also an active and proud father of special needs twins, a lover of life, and a human being who is trying to live in a good way on this earth.

In This Podcast: Greg chats with Ocean Robbins of the Food Revolution Network to talk about changing our food future and how important it is to make a change in today’s diets.  Starting at a very young age, Ocean had been motivated and inspired to help others eat better for their own health.  Now as an adult and father, his drive has only grown stronger and deeper to spread a message of education on the food choices being made today.

Listen in and learn about:

• Growing up in the Robbins family of ice cream royalty
  
• His father’s course away from the family ice cream dynasty and choosing a healthier lifestyle path
• How Ocean was motivated to make a difference by all the thank you letters his father was getting
• Starting a non-profit organization at age 16 to help young people to stand up for healthy people and a healthy planet
• Touring the United States and 65 countries working with young changemakers
• Partnering up with his father to create the Food Revolution Network (FRN)
• The structure of the FRN including The Food Revolution Summit and newsletters, and other campaigns
• The current campaign to help educate student doctors on nutrition
• The food platform and why food is so important
• Why what you eat is so political and can have affects from globally all the way down to individually internally
• How 90% of cancer cases are caused by some combination of diet and lifestyle factors
• The National Institute of Health Metrics’ study on causes of death and their conclusion that diet specifically caused 672,000 deaths in the United States in 2015
• How REAL healthcare is not getting sick in the first place
• What real food is according to Ocean
• How our bodies know that they are full, but with the processed chemicals in foods they are not getting the proper signals
• The number one nutrient that Americans are deficient in
• How to reduce the risk of getting breast cancer by 90%
• How to reduce prostate cancer risk by 45%
• The connection of processed foods to increased food consumption
• That monosodium glutamate does to our hunger and thirst
• How we as consumers can select, purchase and grow food to make a difference
• Ocean’s diet is plant based and why
• His recommendations of items to reduce: pesticides, processed junk, added sugars, bottled oils, animal products, and processed meats,
• Eat more real, whole, natural, plant based, local, fair trade and organic foods
• What a blue zone is and what we need to learn from the people who live in these zones
• The difference between 95 and 100% vegan and when that difference counts
• Why he thinks the balance needs to make sense to the person
• How others can make change in the world – starting by thinking about what moves you
• Look at: What the world needs, what we love and what we are good at
• When it comes to food: Change what you buy, grow food if you can, be an influence on the people you love
• Tips to influence others: respect them, speak your truth, listen and ask questions, love people, walk your talk

As well as:

• His failure – When he tried to convince his classmates to change their diet by letting them know eating meat was murder, at age eight and realizing that he needed to change his way of communicating
• His success – all the stories he gets from people who have changed their diets and had successes in their lives, and the concept that each one of those people are not going to die prematurely from diet related health issues
• His drive – he is outraged at the status quo around food, that the food system has become toxic in many ways, and that low-income people and communities of color are most devastated by these norms today, and that the medical community ignores nutrition. Knowing the gap between what is normal and possible can be bridged and change lives in the process
• His advice – “who you are matters…. you don’t have to change the whole world all at once, you don’t have to change your whole life around all at once.  Wherever you are, take a look at where you are and where you want to be and see if there is a step you can take to get you in the right direction.”

Ocean’s Book recommendations:    

Diet for a New America: How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness and the Future of Life on Earth Second Edition by John Robbins

The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World by John Robbins 

How to reach Ocean:

Website: Foodrevolution.org

UrbanFarm.org/ocean