Author Archive
Posted on April 22, 2011 - by Ana Joanes
New Directions for FRESH
I can’t barely believe it’s been almost two years since I completed FRESH and released it with an impromptu tour of 9 cities. I was 8 months pregnant, a distribution deal had just fallen through, and I knew that if I didn’t want FRESH to be buried before it could see the light of day, I had to distribute it myself.
So I borrowed some more money and, on a friend’s recommendation, I hired Lisa Madison, part-time, and set up to self-distribute FRESH. And man was that good advice! You’ve all gotten to know Lisa really well in the past two years. Lisa became FRESH. With the birth of my daughter so soon after we launched our distribution, Lisa found herself in charge of developing and implementing our plans. She organized community screenings (and helped you organize yours), answered your inquiries, and kept you informed and active through her posts and campaigns.
FRESH is truly the expression of the incredible people who participated in its creation. The farmers and thinkers portrayed in the movie, of course. But also the cinematographer, editor, composer, sound mixer, etc. whose crafts and talents shaped the movie. Lisa joined this amazing group of people and her many incredible qualities ensured that FRESH would be forging new grounds in activist distribution.
Lisa is now moving on start a new business StoryKeep, with Jamie Yuenger, who also previously worked for FRESH. StoryKeep creates intimate audio and visual portraits for families and businesses, helping to preserve life stories as heirlooms. Jamie and Lisa are both trained documentarians and will no doubt create beautiful stories together. Check them out at www.StoryKeep.org. Lisa will also continue to support filmmakers who wish to develop a grassroots distribution strategy for their movie.
And although I am sad to see Lisa leave, I’m really excited to welcome Crystal Cun to the FRESH team. Crystal was an obvious choice: she had been blogging for FRESH already for a while and her passion about good food shined through her writing. With Crystal on board, we’re hoping to continue to serve, support, and grow the good food movement. Toward this goal, we’re developing some new projects. For instance, we’re developing our blog to provide you with FRESH perspectives on what’s happening in our food system, including tips for a healthier and more sustainable life. We’re also looking to support regional campaigns. It’s our belief that our impact can be most meaningful and significant on the local level. Last but not least, we’re looking to expand our platform by offering a great activist documentary the opportunity to partner up with us.
Crystal and I are eager to hear your feedback and ideas, so please email us with ideas for FRESH tips, issues you’re confused about or would like us to campaign around, information about what’s going on in your city, state, or region and how we can help, and last but not least, good documentaries you think we should consider partnering up with!
Posted on September 23, 2010 - by Ana Joanes
Is retiring Ronald a waste of time?
Is retiring Ronald a waste of time?
from Ana Joanes, Director FRESH
Quick answer: Absolutely Not!
There’s lots of reason why we think retiring the clown is a worthwhile efforts. But perhaps the best reason is that retiring Ronald is fighting McDonald’s, and fighting McDonald’s is fighting an unsustainable food system. And you’re right, retiring Ronald is not the same as requiring McDonald’s to have its “happy meals” meet basic nutritional standards, or, imagine!, sourcing locally and sustainably. But doing so would signal that our culture has finally come to realize the threat industrial food poses to our health, our environment, our community. Most importantly for us at FRESH, our “Retire the Clown” campaign will turn many of us into activists.
Our campaigns (from Genetically Modified Salmon to pesticides on our strawberries) are chosen for the importance of the issues they raise and for their potential in affecting change. But they are also chosen as means to mobilize more and more people. Our goal is to play a part in raising awareness and motivate action until our small but vibrant movement can reach a tipping point. Many of you (over 10,000!) got their blood boiling when we shared that the FDA was about to approve GE salmon. Your signatures and comments contributed to shake up the FDA’s complacency! Perhaps just as meaningfully, it contributed to more people becoming cognizant of the threat posed by GMOs, and, as a result, changing their purchasing decisions. Similarly, our “Retire the Clown” campaign could contribute to changing McDonald’s MO while getting many more of us involved. Our involvement will ripple through our communities, bringing always more and new people into the movement.
I deeply believe that, as we need diversity in the fields to grow healthy and delicious food, we need a diversity of ways to mobilize people to take action, to start working toward a better food system. Toward this goal, we will continue to try different things and to partner up with new and wonderful people and organizations. And we, of course, will continue to welcome your thoughts and opinions, in all their honesty and passion — we expect nothing less from such a great community!
Eat well,
Ana Joanes
Director, FRESH
PS – you can read more about why retiring Ronald is a good thing here! Click on image to view online, or download PDF here: http://www.freshthemovie.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Retire-Ronald-2-pager.pdf
Posted on November 19, 2009 - by Ana Joanes
FRESH Heroes: Trina Paulus
Age is a state of mind folks! Or it sure is for Trina.
I’m not sure I could keep up with this amazing, energetic, passionate, creative (I could go on with the list of adjectives!) woman. Trina claim to fame is a beautiful children (and adult) book called HOPE FOR THE FLOWERS.
http://www.hopefortheflowers.org/
She’s working on a sequel while all-heartedly promoting a REALLY important document: the IAASTD Global Report, Agriculture at the Crossroads. Over 400 experts from over 100 countries worked for 4 years on this report which concluded that is will be small scale organic agriculture that will feed the world. Surprise???!! This report was funded by the World Bank, facilitated by all the UN agencies, and pushed by Monsanto, Sygenta, and big Ag until they saw that the conclusion was not going in their favor.
For the full report: agassessment.org
hopefortheflowers.org
Trina Paulus from ana joanes on Vimeo.
Remember! We want to feature your FRESH Heroes here too! Please send us your videos! See our requirements here: http://www.freshthemovie.com/2009/11/12/share-your-hero/
Best,
ana
Posted on November 16, 2009 - by Ana Joanes
12 Things Kids Should Learn on their Own about Food
By: Orren Fox
Guest Blogger: Orren Fox is 12 years old and lives in NoBo (North of Boston). He goes to school where there is a greenhouse and a bee hive! Orren has 24 chickens and four ducks (three Call Ducks and one beautiful Mandarin). He is really interested in farming and the ethical treatment of animals. Orren would love to change the way egg layers and meat birds are raised. He says he has a lot to learn. He blogs and tweets about these issues.
There are all sorts of really interesting things to learn about food, actually I imagine you might not have really THOUGHT about food. Maybe someone hasn’t taught you about food. Most kids would rather think about other stuff.
But just for a minute, right now, stop and ask yourself – What did I have for breakfast? Ok now, think – Where did all those ingredients come from? Who made that bagel? What time did they have to get up? Where did that egg come from? Where did the chicken live and how did it live? If you knew the animal was poorly treated would that make a difference? Or not? Where did the orange juice travel from? Florida? California? Have you ever traveled to those states? Is it a long way from California or Florida to your house? How much gas did it use to ship the OJ that far?
All really interesting questions I think.
1. Vegetables taste great with butter and cheese
Honestly, what doesn’t. Even asparagus, really even asparagus. I know there are some people who will say butter and cheese aren’t healthy, but hey I’m a kid and actually I think these are true foods or “real foods.” They aren’t chemically made in a laboratory. They come from recipes not chemical compounds or lab experiments. Maybe that is too harsh. But I understand eggs and cheese, I know where they come from. I don’t know what SODIUM TRIPOLYPHOSPHATE is, so I Googled it (here is what Wikipedia says – Polyphosphates are moderately irritating to skin and mucous membrane because of their alkalinity). Hmm. Not really interested in eating that.
Actually most veggies that you grow yourself or that come from your neighborhood farm taste completely different than those from the buckets in the supermarket. I actually think the veggies in the supermarket don’t really taste like much. A carrot that was harvested yesterday tastes very different from one that was harvested a few weeks ago, then spent the next few days on a truck, then the next few days sitting in the supermarket. I think the flavor must just drain out of everything as time passes. Also in the supermarket there are very few types of veggies or fruits. Very rarely would you see a Green Zebra or a Brandywine, and those are just tomato variations! Each of these variations tastes completely different, we are only really offered one or two types of tomatoes at the supermarket. These two types of tomatoes are the kinds that travel well and that are easiest to ripen or harvest. I actually don’t like the kind in the supermarket, I like Brandywines. They are sweeter.
I think kids might like veggies if they could choose the varieties they like, but they can’t because the choice is so small. I wouldn’t eat tomatoes if I could only eat the kind in the supermarket.
2. Food taste better when you grow it yourself
Food tastes better because your work is in it. I am an impatient gardener, so for me the food tastes great because I have had to wait for it to go from seeds to seedlings to flowers to fruit to ripe fruit. Somehow that makes it taste like you did it. So i guess there is a little bit of pride in those vegetables.
(more…)
Posted on November 12, 2009 - by Ana Joanes
Share your Hero
By: ana Sofia joanes, Director, FRESH
FRESH has launched a blog! We’ll be sharing everything from FRESH Recipes to News From The Field which highlights the incredible experiences that we hear from our supporters when they bring FRESH to their communities.
In this blog we will highlight FRESH Heroes, the people who we encounter in our journey toward a more sustainable food system. I was inspired to share these stories after hearing a speech by Julia Butterfly Hill. Julia is best known for living in a 180-foot-tall, roughly 1500-year-old California Redwood tree for two years to prevent loggers of the Pacific Lumber Company from cutting it down. Talk about commitment! I felt very small.
Julia, as if reading my mind, told the audience that we shouldn’t look at the speakers and think “I couldn’t be up there speaking, I’m not as smart, I can’t do what they’re doing.” She reminded us that each of us need to find our place, our role in the world and this was the most meaningful contribution we could offer. I felt tremendously inspired to acknowledge my qualities and strengths and to find ways to use them to participate in creating change. This feeling sustained me throughout the making of FRESH.
FRESH has now been screened to thousands of people through our activist-supported distribution model and I continue to meet many more amazing people who inspire and motivate me. These people should be celebrated! I decided to share all these great encounters so you too can learn about all the amazing work that’s being done around the country. You can view my first FRESH Hero video here.
Please share your OWN local heroes with me and the FRESH community. Send us your videos! Here are the rules:
- Make a video. Keep it short (no longer than 3min)
- Ask three questions: What’s your name and project? What brings you to this work or what motivates you? and What makes your work so gratifying? Feel free to improvise!
- Upload to Vimeo or YouTube
- Send Lisa@freshthemovie.com the link and a one paragraph description with the link to your hero’s website if there’s on
- You’ll get a message from us if your video is posted on the FRESH website so you can share with everyone!
Best,
ana
Director, FRESH
www.FRESHthemovie.com
PS: Host a screening! It’s the best way to start the conversation about sustainable food in your community and you can gather all your FRESH Heroes in one place!
Posted on June 4, 2009 - by Ana Joanes
MPR: A great harvest of food movies screening in Minneapolis
FRESH was featured along with Birchwood Cafe in Minneapolis in a great piece by Minnesota Public Radio!
Hundreds of people are expected tonight and tomorrow at Minneapolis screenings of a new movie called “Fresh.” It’s the first of a string of movies due for release this summer about food, and the debate over its place in our lives.
Read the rest below the fold, or on the Minnesota Public Radio website.
Posted on May 29, 2009 - by Ana Joanes
Ana Joanes Interviewed on Huffington Post
Ana Joanes was interviewed by Kerry Truman, Co-Founder of EatingLiberally.org on the Huffington Post recently.
The front yard farming phenomenon is so hot now that People magazine recently did a story on it, “From Lawn to Lunch.” But when Michelle Obama tore up a patch of the White House lawn to plant a kitchen garden, she inadvertently fertilized another growing movement: a flourishing Agribiz campaign to portray kitchen gardeners and ‘good food movement’ advocates as dangerous zealots out to shove fresh, untainted, ie. aggressively wholesome foods down America’s collective throat and force us all to grow our own veggies–all without benefit of pesticides or chemicals.
Read the rest at Huffington Post or scroll down to read the whole interview here.
