Convincing an entire town to change its eating habits may be a herculean feat, but British chef Jamie Oliver never wanted to be perceived as a nutritional superhero.

“I’m not trying to pretend I’m bloody Superman or something like that because it’s just not the case,” says Oliver, whose Food Revolution finale airs tonight (9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC). “But I have a very strange job. I have this wonderful opportunity—a lifetime opportunity to help a country that I care about.” 

As a father of three, Oliver has an emotional connection to the show. 

“Kids are so open-minded, and they’re so up for the challenge of trying things,” he says. “Often, it’s the parents that ruin the kids’ opportunities. Everyone always blames the kids, but it’s really not the kids; it’s the adults.” 

Food manufacturers, school districts and parents are in positions of power, Oliver says, and they’ve made “lots of bad decisions” over the last three generations. In both the United States and Britain, obesity rates have produced “the first generation of kids expected not to outlive their parents,” he notes. 

“It’s that kind of stuff that gets me upset and always will,” he says. 

The most important step in correcting poor dietary habits is learning how to cook, Oliver maintains. 

“If you know how to cook four, five or 10 simple dishes that are affordable and nutritious, then you’ve got choices,” he says. “And if you can’t cook, you haven’t got choices.”

Tonight on “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” 

Oliver’s efforts have borne fruit, but now what? 

 In the final episode, everything he has accomplished unravels when he leaves Huntington, WV. School food personnel are planning to reintroduce processed food to use up the mountain of surplus foods previously ordered. Children’s parents are also pulling them out of Oliver’s lunch program, and most of the school cooks remain untrained and unwilling to learn. 

With the media hounding him at every step and a city that’s revolting against his message, Oliver returns to pull off his most powerful demonstration yet. Is he too late? 

Photo: Holly Farrell/ABC

When the community of Huntington, WV, watched the season premiere of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, they had mixed feelings about how the British chef would interact with their friends and neighbors. 

As resident Amy Gannon, a registered dietitian, told the town’s Herald-Dispatch newspaper: “Basically, Jamie Oliver has picked up on the obesity epidemic. I’m sure that he has good intentions for Huntington, but I know this is a reality show. He will show people that are resistant to change. I believe the idea is for Jamie to ride in on his white horse and save us all from ourselves.” 

For Oliver, Huntington is representative of many U.S. and British towns, where radical shifts have occurred in the food industry. 

“[We’ve] gone from an army of mom-and-pop restaurants and real signature dishes of [these areas] to largely only fast-food chains,” he says. And West Virginia, he notes, “has more small farms than any other state in America,” yet produce seems limited. 

Oliver, who has focused primarily on school nutrition, remains passionate about revamping cafeteria menus. 

“You put those beautiful little kids in school 180 days of the year, from [ages] 4 to 18, and nearly every choice is still a version of junk food,” he says. 

Ultimately, it will be up to Huntington’s leaders to decide whether they want to implement Oliver’s changes. 

“You’ll see, as the show unravels, it’s not a show that ends with a happy ending, but more of a passing over of the baton,” he says. 

“It’s for them to make it,” he adds. “It was always about finding local ambassadors of change and really embedding high hopes for everyone.”

Tonight on “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” (9 p.m. ET/PT, ABC) 

In Episode 5 of 6, Oliver places the burden of change squarely on the shoulders of Huntington High School students by asking them to choose between a lunch menu of processed junk food or fresh fare—and he’s shocked by their response. 

His faith is shaken when he is forced to rely on the testimony of his biggest adversary, elementary school head cook Alice Gue, to help convince local hospital administrators to fund training for school cooks and provide sustainable resources to roll out the food revolution in Huntington. 

Photo: Holly Farrell/ABC

Mountaintop mining involves blasting off the top of a mountain so excess rock can be pushed to a neighboring valley. This allows miners to more easily reach coal. 

The eco-obnoxious practice, which has doubled in the last 8 years, has buried more than 1,000 miles of Appalachian streams over the last 20 years. 

Now, residents in states like West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky are finding huge numbers of dead and deformed fish, a result of toxic selenium that leaches into rivers and streams. 

High selenium levels threaten fish survival and reproduction, and contaminated fish have offspring with serious birth defects—from crooked spines to deformed heads. Ultimately, the fish population could be wiped out. 

Selenium pollution affects fish first, so they serve as a barometer for future damage to ecosystems and human health. 

“Once in the aquatic environment, waterborne selenium can enter the food chain and reach levels that are toxic to fish and wildlife,” says Dennis Lemly, PhD, a research professor of biology at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC. 

“The threat is expanding as use of this destructive process expands,” he adds. “Once these ecosystems are polluted, damage to the environment is permanent.” 

Taking It to Washington, DC

Dr. Lemly, who supports tougher regulations on the disposal of coal waste, was part of a 12-member team of ecologists and engineers who provided the first comprehensive analysis of damage caused by mountaintop removal mining. He and his colleagues shared their scientific findings in February with representatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the President’s Council on Environmental Quality. 

Dr. Lemly has studied West Virginia’s Mud River Reservoir, which was polluted with selenium released from a mountaintop mining operation. Between 50% and 60% of young fish were deformed because of high selenium concentrations.

Not Fit for Human Consumption 

Selenium levels in fish caught in some of West Virginia’s rivers are more than twice what is considered safe for human consumption. 

Humans need to absorb certain amounts of selenium daily, but extremely high concentrations can cause reproductive failure and birth defects. 

“I specialize in fish, but that is only one part of the overall picture,” Dr. Lemly says. “Public health is also an issue with mountaintop removal mining.” 

For Your Organic Bookshelf: Coal Country: Rising Up Against Mountaintop Removal Mining 

Photo: nrdc_media | Creative Commons