Samuel Levie is both an experienced chef, as well as a food fighter. Last year, Samuel walked his talk at TEDxAmsterdam, since he both catered the delicious organic lunch, whereas he also took the stage for a 3-minute talk.
I meet Samuel on a sunny Friday morning, just before he’s about to share his experience on catering with a wannabe-entrepreneur. Recalling the day, he remembers it to be “super exciting”, and when he viewed his talk online, he heard his voice tremble at the moment he looked into the eyes of the 1000 attendees. “That’s when you realize that it only requires one person to be impressed by your idea, to turn it into reality”. As the day went by, he was so busy guaranteeing the lunch was organized accordingly, he later wondered: “Why didn’t I take my business cards?”
As the founder of the Youth Food Movement, Samuel is passionate about bringing producers and consumers together in his battle for a more equitable food provision system. At TEDxAmsterdam 2010, he shared his vision with fellow YFM-member Linda Vermaat. They presented the Youth Food Movement Academy. The Academy educates young people about the goods and the bads of our current global, and local food systems, enabling them to become change agents in their own field of expertise.
Samuel Levie
At that day, Samuel was still trying to secure the financial resources for the Academy. He succeeded, so now he focuses on new initiatives, whilst running a strategic food consultancy (The Green Peas) and an artisan sausage-making company (Brandt & Levie) with long-time friends Jiri and Geert.
Samuel’s next project is to raise awareness about CAP, the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union, which represents almost half of its total budget. Samuel: “The CAP will be reformed in 2013, and this offers possibilities to relocate fundings to those areas necessary to turn the European agricultural system towards providing healthy and fair food. On the 14th of May we will launch an international campaign to inform citizens about this window of opportunity.” Although he is a strong believer in consumer buying power as a means to affect policy, you need more to make a lasting change. So, how can the TEDx community support this campaign?
“To make this happen, we need people experienced in campaigning, but also the financial resources, business contacts and skills to design and convey a strong message through a range of media outlets, which can function as a blueprint for other EU-countries”.
Samuel welcomes help of any kind at yfm@slowfood.nl. Here at TEDxAmsterdam we can’t wait to see yet another idea to be turned into real-world change!
Further reading:
http://www.tedxamsterdam.com/2010/samuel-levie-and-linda-vermaat/)
http://www.tedxamsterdam.com/2010/food-for-thought-2/)
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