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Watch: Locavore matriarch Alice Waters discusses her next big food revolution

Alice Waters, the mother of the locavore movement, hopes to revolutionize the national school curriculum with her edible schoolyard project

The woman described as the 'mother of the locavore movement' and chef célèbre of California's Chez Panisse celebrates the restaurant's 40th anniversary with a festival that highlights another project which aims to transform people's connection to food: edible education.

Alice Waters, a decorated chef who's been named the best in the US by the James Beard Awards Foundation, is widely credited for launching a movement that champions eating seasonal and local ingredients -- a philosophy that was at the center of Chez Panisse when it opened in 1971.

In a short video posted by blog Nowness Wednesday, Waters explains the principles behind The Edible Schoolyard, another project she hopes will change the way the next generation approaches food.

Under Waters' lead, what used to be a vacant lot at a middle school in Berkeley, California in 1995, is today a lush, green island of trees, fruits and vegetables where kids grow their own lunches and learn where their food comes from.

This fall, the Chez Panisse Foundation relaunches as the Edible Schoolyard Project which hopes to build a national curriculum for school systems across the US.

The pioneering project has been replicated across the country in cities like Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York and San Francisco.

Waters' locavore philosophy has become the centerpiece for many restaurateurs and chefs. In its list of top 10 farm-to-table restaurants in the US, Epicurious.com includes restaurants like the Woodfire Grill in Atlanta, GA, which features wood-grilled duck breast with grilled Georgia peaches, and Tupelo Honey Café in Asheville, NC, which grows their own organic produce on a 10-acre (4 hectare) farm.

Watch the video here: http://www.nowness.com/day/2011/8/24/1596/alice-waters-edible-education

Chez Panisse celebrates its 40th anniversary August 26-28 with a series of events that will benefit the Edible Schoolyard. For more info, visit  http://edibleschoolyard.org/berkeley/.

http://www.chezpanisse.com/intro.php