Chelsea Clinton touts her book, calls on kids to eat right
PORTLAND — Visiting this foodie city to promote her book and to learn about food system changes, Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of one president and potentially a second, declined to delve into her mom’s ideas on agriculture.
Clinton, daughter of Bill Clinton, the 42nd U.S. president and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who seeks the 2016 Democratic Party’s nomination, suggested people visit her mother’s website for her views on agriculture. Hillary Clinton, the former senator and Secretary of State, has been spending time in Iowa, a key primary state and where farming is “hugely important,” Chelsea Clinton noted.
She said her mother helped start a micro-financing program in Arkansas when Bill Clinton was governor, and the first clients were small farmers.
Chelsea Clinton didn’t mention it, but her mother has another agricultural connection in Iowa. In August, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. Vilsack has been mentioned as a possible vice president pick, but downplayed that during a visit to Portland in August. Vilsack said he simply believed Clinton is the best candidate.
The younger Clinton, who spent her teenage years in the White House, is 35 now, married and has a 13-month-old daughter. It was while pregnant that she became more acutely aware of the world her daughter and other children will inherit.
Clinton said proper nutrition and exercise are crucial for young people.
“When I was in public school in Little Rock (Arkansas), we had P.E. every single day,” Clinton said. Now, fewer than 10 percent of school children have gym every day, she said, and recess has “largely gone away.”
Clinton’s book, “It’s Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going!” details some of the world’s problems and shares stories of young people who are helping their communities find solutions.
Clinton said her first turn as an activist came when she was a youngster and learned wildlife sometimes choked on discarded plastic beverage container rings. She began “obsessively” cutting them up — “Which I still do,” she said — and convinced her classmates to do the same.
Clinton spoke Nov. 5 at Ecotrust, a Portland nonprofit that researches and seeks sustainable solutions in farming, forestry and economics. Among other things, the organization produced a report this year on problems hindering “Ag of the Middle,” the small- to mid-size producers and processors who are too big to survive by selling at farmers’ markets but too small to compete in the commodities markets.
At Ecotrust, Clinton heard a three-member panel detail work they’re doing to ensure nutritious local food finds its way to schools and to programs that serve needy populations. About two dozen children were in the audience, in addition to adults.
Clinton was introduced by Amanda Oborne, Ecotrust’s vice president of food and farms, who told students in the audience that the “food system riddle” would be theirs to solve.
“The food system you’re inheriting is kind of a mess,” she said.
Children today, when they become adults, will figure out how to feed 9 billion people, adapt to a changing climate and engage in farming, ranching and fishing techniques that replenish natural resources, Oborne said.