Jamie Oliver teams up with Hugh Jackman, Paul McCartney for food anthem

• Jamie Oliver brings his healthy food revolution to Australia

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has teamed up with singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran to record a song for his latest project: a campaign to get tens of millions of children around the world eating healthy food.

The song, released on Oliver's Facebook page on Thursday morning, urges people to sign up to the campaign and includes Australian actor Hugh Jackman, former Beatle Paul McCartney, British rapper Professor Green, and YouTube star Carissa Alvarado.

A portion rapped by the British chef declares: "Half the world is starving with too little to eat, and the other half died from being obese. How people live the longest is they grow and they cook. Learn recipes from your parents and books."

Oliver, who rose to fame with cooking shows on the BBC, has focused on healthy eating over the past decade by travelling to schools in the US and UK and making them new lunch menus as part of television programs Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and Jamie's School Dinners.

His latest attempt at tackling the "obesity epidemic" comes through a petition on change.org asking members of international forum the G20 to commit to healthy eating programs.

He hasn't started small - G20 members include Australia, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Britain, the US, the European Union and others, which make up a large portion of the world's population.

The petition asks the G20 to "promise and commit" to making "compulsory practical food education" part of the school curriculum around the world.

"I believe that it's a child's human right to be taught how to grow and cook fresh, nutritious food at school. By fighting for every child's right for quality food education, we can help reverse the global rise of obesity and diet-related disease," Oliver says in a statement with his petition.

"Together we can force governments around the world to stop ignoring this issue."

Oliver targeted the G20 after its response to the global financial crisis, which he says is a testament to the power of G20 members when they work together.

Other celebrities such as Kylie Minogue, athlete Usain Bolt, and actors Ryan Reynolds and Matthew McConaughey have expressed their support for the campaign on social media site Twitter.

The chef aims to get one million signatures on his petition by Friday, which he has named "Food Revolution Day". On Thursday afternoon, it had notched up almost 900,000.