Six months ago I sat in the office of an oil and gas industry leader and listened as he marveled at the technological innovations that were responsible for the worst oil spill in US history.

“You’re sitting up on the surface and drilling at the sea floor a mile away. And you’re doing it all with little robots, and the guy with a joystick is making it happen,” he explained. “The industry’s technological capability in doing what it did is absolutely mind-boggling. It’s just like going to the moon. It’s that sophisticated.”

We encountered the limits of sophistication when the Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in April of 2010. The blowout reminded the country, albeit fleetingly, of how dangerous our addiction to fossil fuels is, whether we pump oil into our cars or spill it in the ocean. The vastness of the BP disaster clarified the cost of using deepwater drilling to get cheap fuel, but that practice is not the only form of energy adventurism that threatens our health and security.

Imagine that you reach for the faucet one morning—but instead of clean water a brown stream spews out, heavy with the smell of chemicals. You light a match and hold it up to the water, and a fireball erupts, engulfing the sink. Sound implausible? So did the notion that a blown-out deepwater well could gush for months, foiling our best attempts to cap it.

Widespread cases of water contamination have been reported in regards to hydraulic fracturing (also referred to as ‘hydrofracking,’ or simply ‘fracking’), a process used to release methane gas from hard shale rocks thousands of miles below the earth’s surface. Across the country, families are contending that their water has been irreparably damaged from natural gas drilling.

The hunt for domestic sources of alternative energy awoke a slumbering natural gas industry, which increased production globally by 40 percent between 1999 and 2010. Utility companies are attracted to natural gas because of new emissions regulations that make coal expensive, and safety concerns that cloud the future of nuclear power. Hard times in agricultural communities have made the idea of leasing land to energy companies increasingly attractive to landowners. Many communities have placed their bet on the hope that drilling can bring jobs and investment back to rural areas.

There’s lots of natural gas beneath US soil, but until recently much of it was trapped in shale rock formations thousands of miles beneath the surface. Now, technical advances have unlocked many of the reserves, kicking off the nation-wide hydrofracking boom.

The process involves drilling a horizontal well at a depth of up to 8,000 feet, and pumping in water, sand, and toxic chemicals. The pressure creates fissures in the shale, a sedimentary rock containing high concentrations of organic material including natural gas, which is released into the tiny cracks and pumped to the surface.

Hydrofracking uses over 500 chemicals, between 80 and 300 tons per frack. The drilling process produces millions of gallons of polluted wastewater, which can contain corrosive salts, carcinogens like benzene, and radioactive elements like radium. Those compounds occur naturally belowground and so can be released along with natural gas by the high pressure.

Industry officials insist that fracking occurs thousands of miles below drinking-water aquifers, and that the distance is too great for contamination. Some of the controversy is simply about a subtle difference between fracking and drilling. Natural gas drilling practices have been clearly linked to numerous cases of water contamination that have resulted in fines and penalties for shale drilling companies; however, as the New York Times reports the industry position that “fracking” refers specifically to the injection of chemicals into the shale forms the foundation for claims that fracking, specifically, has never been proven to contaminate groundwater.

Semantic squabbles aside, the fact is that polluted water and other health concerns increasingly appear in shale drilling hotspots throughout the country. Foul-smelling and discolored water, respiratory and skin infections, and explosive gas build-ups originating in waterlines are just part of the toll natural gas drilling has taken on nearby communities.

An investigation by ProPublica revealed that environmental health cases related to emissions and waste from hydrologic fracking go back a decade in Wyoming and Colorado, where drilling has long been underway. Cases are emerging now in Pennsylania, where the fracking craze exploded when energy companies began targeting the Marcellus Shale formation in 2008.

Neither the federal government nor states have a system for tracking reports about water contamination. Nor have they pursued a full investigation into the human health risks of natural gas drilling.

Federal oversight is hogtied by an exemption known as the Halliburton Loophole, which was built into President Bush’s 2005 energy bill. The loophole excuses natural gas drilling from the Safe Water Act and from disclosing chemicals used during fracking. That means that it’s up to states to police the practice.

Establishing effective regulation is complicated by the fact that very little comprehensive research has been done. Officials often struggle to investigate suspected cases of groundwater contamination, because energy companies legally seal the details of complaints through legal settlements with landowners.

It all sounds too familiar. I spent several weeks reporting on the aftermath of the BP disaster in Louisiana communities, and I saw how much the rush into deep water had crippled the coastal economy. Rural America needs diversified investment, true support for small and mid-size farmers, better healthcare and education opportunities, and a comprehensive energy policy—not explosive tap water and corporate control. Hydraulic fracturing is not a solution for our economic and energy problems. It’s a symptom of them.

The EPA is currently weighing public comments on hydraulic fracturing. If fracking is truly as safe as energy companies claim, research and regulation by the EPA won’t get in the way of production. But it’s crazy to resign ourselves to fumbling about in the dark, 8,000 miles below the surface, putting our health and our land at risk. Sign now to tell the EPA: conduct a thorough review of fracking and hold corporations accountable for polluting our water. It’s a resource too precious to barter in exchange for short-term solutions.

Photo: Flickr/PJ Ray

zoe@freshthemovie.com

There are two clear signs of summer in the air: the heat wave sweeping across the country, and the barbeque smoke drifting on the afternoon breeze. I imagine that most of us are a good deal more excited about the latter. Before you throw a pack of hotdogs on the grill, however, it’s worth checking out the new Meat Eater’s Guide from the Environmental Working Group.

The guide is based on an assessment of the environmental and health effects of various forms of protein, including meat, dairy, and legumes. Using a lifecycle analysis that followed twenty types of animal and vegetable products through the entire process of production—including the chemicals used to grow grain for livestock feed, the life of the animal, butchering, processing, transportation, cooking, and waste—the EWG, in conjunction with the environmental consulting firm CleanMetrics, was able to determine the total carbon footprint of our most popular forms of protein.

While it’s no secret that meat and dairy production is a significant contributor to rising levels of greenhouse gasses, the report details the products that may be particularly implicated in this sweltering summer. The EWG found that while all meat arrives on the plate with environmental side effects, some forms of protein are more destructive than others.

Lamb, beef, pork, cheese, and farmed salmon are the greatest polluters in terms of carbon and manure. Lamb generates 50 percent more carbon than beef, which itself emits twice as many greenhouse gases as pork, four times as many as chicken, and thirteen times as many as vegetable proteins such as lentils and soy. Cheese comes in a surprisingly high third place in emissions output. That’s because making cheese requires milk, which in turn requires cows and lots of feed. These foods (with the exception of salmon) are also heavily resource-intensive, meaning they require large quantities of fertilizer, feed, and water, and so tend to have the worst environmental impacts as well.

The EWG found that most of the greenhouse gas emissions from animal proteins are generated during the production phase, when the animals are still on the farm. Livestock and fish feed, digestion, and manure all contribute to production emissions. Emissions from plant proteins, by contrast, largely come from post-farmgate processing, transportation, and cooking.

The good news is that more ecologically sound forms of protein tend to be healthier choices for people as well. Being picky about your protein isn’t just for carbon crusaders: recent research suggests that it’s an important key to your own longevity and wellbeing. The use of antibiotics and hormones to promote livestock growth, and the concentration of toxins in conventionally produced meat present risks to consumers. Several epidemiological studies have found associations between high levels of meat consumption and being overweight, while the American Dietetic Association suggests that vegetarians have lower rates of obesity and chronic illness than meat eaters[1]. The consumption of red and processed meats, in particular, has been linked repeatedly to chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. So, there are clear signs that eating meat in moderation, and using some vegetable sources for protein is the way to go.[2]

Climate change and cancer may seem like unrelated issues, but our best science demonstrates again and again that our ecological and physical health are intimately entwined. Given the rising costs of healthcare and the growing burden of chronic disease, it makes sense to practice preventative medicine at the supermarket and the dinner table. While simply eating, producing, and wasting less meat and dairy is the most effective way to make our food work for, not against, us, the EWG analysis suggests how to consume meat in a healthier way.

Eat less meat and dairy: Buying less meat overall makes it easier to afford healthier meat when you do buy it.  Most Americans exceed the government’s recommended daily allowance for protein, while only 1 percent of children and 4 percent of adults eat the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables. Furthermore, Americans eat 60 percent more meat than Europeans. Try going meatless on Mondays, making meat a side dish instead of a main dish, or experimenting with plant-based proteins like lentils.

Choose local, certified organic, grass-fed meat: It reduces your exposure to antibiotics and hormones, supports your local or regional economy, requires fewer resources to produce, and pollutes less. In some cases, meat from grass fed animals is lower in fat and higher in nutrients than meat from conventionally raised livestock.

Avoid processed meats: Often loaded with sodium and nitrates, products like hot dogs, lunch meats, and chicken nuggets are energy-intensive to produce and have been linked with a variety of chronic illnesses.

Reduce waste: About 20% of edible meat gets thrown out. Buy appropriate portion sizes and use what you purchase.

Find out more: check out the EWG Eat Smart graphic, and find your local producers with the Eat Well Guide or the Eat Wild farm directory.

zoe@freshthemovie.com

Pignoscenti nationwide, rejoice!

After months of research and testing, Swine and Dine, Inc. has finally announced the availability of pig’s milk for commercial sale.

It is notoriously difficult to extract milk from sows, which have an average of 14 teats, far more than their bovine counterparts. In addition, the duration of milk flow is only 10 to 20 seconds, which means the yield from a pig is often low and unpredictable.

Swine and Dine’s innovative pig milking machine, dubbed the “Super Suckler,” harnesses the full milking potential of pigs through a patented harness system that attaches to pigs and stimulates them to lactate more frequently. The lightweight harness does not impede the pig’s range or otherwise constrict its movements.

Marc Dalaker, a pig farmer from Pennsylvania, responded with excitement to the news: “I’ve been waiting for this for years! I mean, we all know that bacon, sausage and pork belly are some of the greatest gifts to man. Imagine just how great milk from a pig would be!”

Indeed, analysis of pig’s milk reveals that it typically has a fat content of 8.5%, compared to 3.5% for cow’s milk and 5-6% for goats. Initial reactions from a panel of taste testers were positive. “It’s rich but not overly cloying, and it has a pleasant, fresh aroma with a hint of sweet corn and maple syrup,” said Rebecca Demaris. “I think it’d be a great addition to your morning coffee or breakfast cereal.”

The pig milk will be rolled out over the next week at select specialty shops and farmer’s markets in the Northeast corridor. A quart-size container will be sold for $5.95. Additional plans are in the works for a line of pig’s milk products, including porcorino cheese, porchata (a cinnamon and swine-spiced variant on horchata), porkgurt (yogurt), and pig’s milk butter.

In related news, Smithfield Farms, the largest producer of pork products in the world, announced that it would halt the use of prophylactic antibiotics in their factory farms, as there was a verified report of a pig flying.

The Perennial Plate Episode 52: Real Food Road Trip from Daniel Klein on Vimeo.

What do spear fishing, a picnic operetta, and an epic road trip have in common? These are all topics covered by The Perennial Plate, a video series by Daniel Klein devoted to local and sustainable food. From its beginnings as a small Minnesota-based series, the show has developed a national following and received accolades from thousands of fans.

Recently, Klein announced that The Perennial Plate would be hitting the road, with plans for a cross country series beginning this spring! We’ve given him an opportunity to introduce his project to you here, and hope that you will follow his adventures as he travels around the country. In addition, if you happen to live along his travel route and have a sustainable food story to tell, you can submit your idea to Perennial Plate.

Starting as a small Minnesota-based series, The Perennial Plate has grown into a nationally watched show with over 12,000 weekly views, and the series is syndicated on Huffington Post, Grist, Cooking Up A Story and Serious Eats. Each week Daniel Klein (former Chef: Bouchon (Thomas Keller), Fat Duck (Heston Blumenthal), Craft (Tom Collichio)) covers topics as diverse as Squirrel hunting, community gardens, wild winter teas and harvesting road kill. With 52 Episodes under its belt, all taking place in Minnesota (and a few in Wisconsin), the show is a unique accomplishment in bringing Minnesota culinary, agricultural and outdoorsmanship to viewers around the country.

Building off the first season’s success, the obvious next step is to move beyond Minnesota to the great stories around the country. For this six month journey, Daniel Klein and his cameraman (and vegetarian) Mirra Fine, will be continuing their ambitious weekly video format from state to state. They will be farming, hunting, cooking and eating with food heroes from Minnesota to Louisiana, Oregon, New York and Maine. The “Good Food” road trip will begin on May 9th, but not before collecting a big bag of morels for the journey.

Daniel Klein
The Perennial Plate
www.theperennialplate.com

Good luck to Klein on his travels; we’ll be eagerly following from our armchairs!

Please consider donating to OSBG – you can do so directly from their front page. :)

www.ourschoolatblairgrocery.org

-Lisa Madison, FRESH

Take a walk down our street and the complex, intersecting challenges to resilience are impossible to ignore. Education, food security, safe spaces for after-school learning, meaningful employment opportunities, decent affordable housing and health care for folks who are themselves trying to lead a healthy lifestyle – none of these are in place in our neighborhood, and many individuals can’t quite seem to plug into the limited systems that are in place to make it work out for themselves. There remains a great deal of work to be done.

Amongst this landscape appears an oasis. Tall banana trees tower and lean into the street, a golden sun made of plywood scraps hangs on the fence. Flowers and green edibles abound. In the face of neglect, a handful of teachers and students have constructed beauty, growth, and potential. Our School at Blair Grocery (OSBG) is an independent community school, sustainability education center, and food producing urban farm. Our mission is to create a resource-rich safe space for youth empowerment and sustainable community development. We envision a community where empowered youth work together in a reflective practice to actualize local, environmental justice based solutions to global challenges.

Our School at Blair Grocery (OSBG), founded in 2008 by Nat Turner, is located in the old Blair Family Grocery. Turner came to the neighborhood with a black dog, a blue bus, and $12 in his pocket. He saw a need for a safe learning environment in a unique neighborhood that had one of the highest poverty and highest homeowner rates in New Orleans.

Our students, ages 13-19 are young people who have not found success in traditional public education, but need and deserve a supportive environment to learn and grow. They face serious life challenges, learning difficulties, and other educational obstacles, and if it weren’t for OSBG, most would not be in school otherwise. Despite the challenges our students and community face, together we are learning, growing and taking leadership in the development of sustainable community food enterprise.

We apply personalized learning strategies, and hands-on approaches to helping students connect to the curriculum while building real-life skills and developing the knowledge, capacity and agency to achieve their goals. Local challenges become the lens through which we work with students to understand larger lessons about education, society, environment, and economy. On any given day at OSBG it is possible to see students planning, planting and harvesting sprouts and micro-greens, analyzing the racial and economic history of New Orleans and its relationship to current challenges to food access, composting, learning construction skills to build a greenhouse or plumbing for aquaponics or water catchment, building vocabulary through studying hip-hop lyrics, researching ideal conditions for worms to redesign our vermicomposting system, or meeting with one of New Orleans top chefs to talk about their work at OSBG and sell them food they grew to sustain their school.

Despite the difficulties we have faced, and continue to face in our work, we have a lot to be proud of right now:

* During the Summer of 2010, Our School at Blair Grocery hosted nearly 500 high school and college students from around the country for 12-day intensive service-learning experiences as part of “Food Justice Summer”;
* We are in the final stages of renovating our building for final inspection, the old Blair Family Grocery Store, which sustained the damage of 15+ feet of water;
* We are growing and selling nearly $1500 per week of sprouts and microgreens to local restaurants and projecting $3000 per week by January, getting us closer to financial sustainability;
* We are providing meaningful and educational employment opportunities on the OSBG farm to 10 local youth, who work with us after-school and on weekends;
* We recently received notice that our grant proposal to the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA was approved providing us with support “Toward a Viable and Sustainable Community Food Economy”;
* We will be participating in and hosting many elements of the 2010 Community Food Security Coalition’s conference in New Orleans this weekend;
* We hare begun our 2010-2011 school year with 5 full-time students, and anticipate 15 by Thanksgiving;
* and we are very proud to have won the national online vote for the FRESH 1% grant thanks to all of our supporters who helped spread the word about the contest, and the movie.

As we continue to push forward in our struggle for economic justice, food justice and educational justice for our community, we continue to need support in many ways. Make a donation by credit card on our blog at www.ourschoolatblairgrocery.org. Donations of equipment and materials for both the farming and educational aspects of our work are always welcomed and appreciated too. We could always use more shovels, pitchforks and wheelbarrows. Classroom supplies like notebooks, computers, printers, books and other resources that our students can take advantage of to learn and grow are wonderful. Dedicated interns and volunteers are always welcomed. Services like printing, website development, etc. could be helpful. Vehicles that aren’t in constant need of repair would be great….but anyways, we could go on and on. When you are building something like we are, there is always more things you could use, and more work to do. Without all of the support we have received so far from those that believe in our work, we would never have made as much progress as we have.

What we really need are mass-based political movements calling citizens of this nation to uphold democracy and basic human rights for everyone to be educated and have enough good food to eat, and to work on behalf of ending subordination and domination in all its forms – to work for justice, transforming our educational and food systems. In Will Allen’s Good Food Manifesto for America, he challenged us all to “demand [and take] action… [so that collectively], we can move along a continuum to make sure that all of citizens have access to the same fresh, safe, affordable good food regardless of their cultural, social or economic situation.” Our School at Blair Grocery will continue to take up that challenge in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans and beyond.

These kids totally inspire me! Are you doing something similar to this? What do you think about Akamai? Do you have any questions for them?

To learn more about this 7th grade group of wondrous kids, go to www.akamaibackyard.com.

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.

St. Paul, Minn. — Michael Pollan has been advocating a re-examination of our food system for years in his books such as “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “In Defense of Food.” But he said things are about to move to another level – or at least the local movie house with a slew of films.

Some of the films listed by Pollan were “Food Incorporated” which is coming out in June, “Fresh” which is about the foods system, and “Nourish” which is going to be on public television in the fall. Pollan said he thinks that these films are going to expand the conversation quite a bit.

Kasper and Pollan

So why all this interest in food all of a sudden? Filmmaker Ana Joanes thinks there are many reasons.

“Food is incredibly intimate,” Joanes said. “I mean some of our strongest childhood memories are about food. It’s so much part of our culture and family life.”

The New York-based filmmaker directed “Fresh,” which is being screened tonight at the Bryant Lake Bowl in Minneapolis and then across town tomorrow at the Riverview Theatre. “Fresh” is the result of two years of work, talking to advocates from the real food movement. Joanes said industrialized food production poses a threat to food safety and community health.

“I mean my business is up significantly over last year.There’s not a lot of restaurants can say that and I think it’s a testament to the interest in local foods and people paying attention to what they are eating.”

- Tracy Singleton

“We have an obesity crisis. We have a diabetes crisis,” she said. “Apparently one in three children are going to develop type II diabetes and in some communities it’s one in two children.”

Joanes said food has become a social justice issue. Her film features Will Allen, a former pro basketball player who now runs a farm in the middle of Milwaukee. In the film Allen states his goals. “That everybody has access to healthy sustainable food, that we don’t say that only rich people can afford it,” he says.

Fresh is being screened in the Twin Cities at least in part because of Allen. He runs seminars as part of his operation. Tracy Singleton, owner of the the Birchwood Cafe in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis, heard him speak. She was so inspired she is sponsoring the screenings at the Riverview. She said it fits right in with her restaurant’s mission.

“Our tagline for the Birchwood is good real food,” Singleton said.

The Birchwood works with local organic farmers and cooks all its food from scratch. Singleton said she does it because she believes the food is better, and wants to build a sense of connection between the people who supply her cafe and the people who eat there. She said it’s clear the community wants it too, even in the economic downturn.

“I mean my business is up significantly over last year,” she said. “There’s not a lot of restaurants can say that and I think it’s a testament to the interest in local foods and people paying attention to what they are eating.”

Will Allen

Singleton has been running the Birchwood for almost a decade and a half, and she says all the people in the local food movement are reporting real change going on around them.

“Where the sentiment and the movement and the energy is at now in the Twin Cities, I think a movie like this could be a real jumping off point to the next level,” she said.

Singleton admits the food issue is actually so complicated she’s not sure what that next level would look like.

Splendid Table host Lynne Rossetto Kasper said while there’s always been a cyclical interest in food films, the times do seem to be creating extra interest at present.

“Food’s always political” Kasper said. “It always has been political.”

Kasper said that’s particularly true with the bad economy.

“All of our antennae are up right now,” she said. “Money is of prime concern, security is a prime concern, we no longer trust our government, we no longer feel protected in terms of the safety of our food.”

But Kasper said people should understand there was never a time when food was entirely safe.

Kasper said she hopes the films will encourage a true debate about an immense subject involving everything from culinary custom to agricultural policy.

“I think there will be a dialogue,” she said. “I want to see it encouraged though. I want to hear from the people who believe those pesticides and those fertilizers are necessary. Whether or not you believe in it is one thing. But understanding it is another. There was a time when those pesticides and fertilizers were the greatest blessing those farmers ever had.”

That discussion may begin tonight and tomorrow with the panel discussions after the screenings of “Fresh.”

And if documentaries aren’t your thing consider the much anticipated “Julie and Julia.” It’s got Meryl Streep playing Julia Child in a film about the young woman who tried to cook every recipe in one of Child’s books in a year.

//

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.

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.

Why? Because the rising influence of folks like Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle, and other high profile “food cops,” to quote the uber-astroturf (i.e. fake grassroots) Center For Consumer Freedom, is bad for Agribiz’s bottom line. The more people know about how our food’s grown and produced, the more likely they are to demand better, healthier–i.e. less profitable–food.

And now, Monsanto, Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, and their Big Food buddies have to contend with a whole flurry of food documentaries that reveal just how screwed up our food chain’s become over the past half-century. On June 12th, Participant Media will release Food, Inc., which they hope will be the “Inconvenient Truth” of our food system.

Monsanto, not surprisingly, is one of the villains in Food, Inc., so it’s launched a pr offensive dismissing the documentary as pure propaganda that “demonizes American farmers.” The only problem with this line of attack is that it’s blatantly false, and there’s no better proof of that than another outstanding food documentary, FRESH, which premieres this week in New York, Boston and DC. As FRESH director Ana Joanes says, her film “celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system.”

Food, Inc. and FRESH both feature Joel Salatin, the Virginia farmer profiled in Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, and Pollan himself appears in both films as well. But despite the apparent overlap, the two films are very different.

Each provides a much-needed public service, but where Food, Inc. airs a laundry list of factory farming’s dirty secrets, Fresh makes a beeline past the manure lagoons, veal crates, contaminated food and monoculture madness to land us in truly greener pastures, whether it’s in rural Virginia with Salatin or in urban Milwaukee at McArthur genius Will Allen’s farm, Growing Power.

I’ve been excited about FRESH ever since my colleague Kate Croft, one of the prime movers and shakers behind New York University’s Sustainability Task Force and a consultant/blogger (as am I) for the Eat Well Guide, told me about it a couple of months ago, and introduced me to Ana.

Ana grew up in Switzerland, but she’s been living in the U.S. for more than 15 years. Her interest in the cultural and environmental impact of globalization drew her here to earn her BA in political science from Barnard college, followed by a degree from Columbia Law School. Before dedicating herself to film making, Ana founded Reel Youth, Inc., a video production program for youth coming out of detention, and other under-served youth.

Now, after making FRESH, she’s become, like myself, a kind of accidental sustainable agtivist:

KT: Fresh is an essential companion piece to Food, Inc., but while both films expose the fundamental flaws in our food chain, your documentary focuses on folks who are committed to sustainable food production, whereas Food, Inc.’s primary purpose is to expose the horrors of Agribiz. At what point during the filming of Fresh did you become aware of Food, Inc.? And did it affect your decisions as a director?

AJ: Robert Kenner, the director of Food, Inc., contacted me sometime during the fall of 2007. Robbie had gotten my info from Joel when he was filming there (at Polyface Farm). We talked for a long time and have been in touch since. Learning about Food, Inc. did not affect any of my decisions, besides perhaps some strategical concerns with regard to a release date. But the structure and focus of my movie was in no way influenced by my conversation with Robert. Also, I only got to see his movie recently and so did not really know so much what to expect (although I knew our movies would be very different.)

KT: You first started working on Fresh in late 2005, before Omnivore’s Dilemma came out, “locavore” entered the lexicon, and Wal-Mart became the nation’s leading seller of “organic” milk. Did you sense back then that you were documenting a growing movement?

AJ: yes. When I started thinking about making this documentary, my focus was much broader. I thought to look at people and initiatives not only in farming but energy, architecture, technology, etc., and although I was finding out about amazing people and stories through my research, it became clear, almost from the start, that what was going on at the food level was the most exciting.

One thing in particular struck me: I was finding programs, initiatives, people ALL OVER the world, in apparently completely different environmental, cultural, and political environments, and yet they all shared key attributes: they all had a grassroots, bottom-up quality, as well as an incredibly integrated approach to the work they were doing.

“Yes, it’s about food,” these initiatives seemed to say, “but it’s really about education, health, quality of work, environmental preservation, our spiritual well-being…” Food, I started to realize, was both a microcosm of the problems (economic consolidation, environmental destruction, exploitation of workers, oil crisis, etc.) and of the solutions. And because food plays such an intimate and immediate role in our everyday lives, it’s a powerful entry point to discuss and address these challenges.

Food is a central part of our social and cultural fabric and we can instantly observe the consequences when we change our eating habits–not only in our pleasure and health, but on the vitality of our local economy, on our community and environment.

KT: You grew up in Switzerland and came to the U.S. as a student. There’s a perception, validated by recent studies, that Europeans and Americans have very different eating habits. Did you notice this when you first arrived in the U.S.?

AJ: I think that what I noticed the most was how I missed the fresh products I grew up taking for granted. Tomatoes that actually have taste. Great salads. Yogurt and cheeses (it’s much easier now to get great yogurt and cheese than it was when I first got here.) And being in New York, it didn’t take long before I found myself eating all my meals out. It’s hard to resist the “convenience” ethos that’s so pervasive in New York and perhaps around the country.

I also came to realize that the price of food was much cheaper in the US, at least compared to Switzerland. Not only are restaurants very expensive back home–and therefore a much less regular occurrence–but food purchased at the supermarket is expensive, as well. People back home don’t have the expectation that food should be cheap, so they spend a much larger portion of their income on food. Also, although we have amazing farmers’ markets, the quality of food in the supermarket was always great and I never had to think about where to go to buy food. In New York, depending on your neighborhood, the difference in quality can be dramatic.

KT: Do you find that your own relationship to food has changed since you made FRESH?

AJ: When I started making FRESH, my main relationship with food was one of dieting and guilt. I would choose food based on calories, mostly. I think I always had a fairly healthy diet, to the extent that I never ate much junk, and always enjoyed vegetables and fruits, but I never thought of the quality of the meat, vegetables, or fruits that I was eating, or the impact that it has on my health, my community, and the environment.

To be honest, it never really crossed my mind to think of the way that food was raised/produced, or to worry about it. It also never crossed my mind that the food I was eating might be contributing to my not feeling good, having low energy, gaining weight, and possibly to my long-term well-being.

As I started making the documentary, my food anxiety mostly increased: I was still mostly concerned about calories, but I also started wondering about the pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics that might be in the food I was eating. I started thinking of all the “health snacks” I was eating that contained GMOs and the unknown health risk attached to that food.

But my habits didn’t change much at first. The change happened slowly and with a general change in my outlook and lifestyle. It was as if my inquiry into our food system helped me realize not only our communal dysfunctions and misplaced priorities, but mine as well.

I started to try to find more balance in my life, to find or look for pleasure in daily activities, in the “process” of life, rather than constantly running after the next “thing” that was going to make me happier, better, more something or the other. Eating well was no longer about (or only about) improving my health or not gaining weight, it was about pleasure: taking care of myself and the folks that I love and taking the time to do so.

I also came to realize how important it was for me to align my actions with my heart and mind. I have always been concerned with the destruction of the environment and the exploitation of people. But I did not always align my actions with my belief. Once I started living a more aware/conscious life, I felt great pleasure and satisfaction in acting in ways that support my beliefs. It was not a sacrifice–which is how I had always thought about it–but a relief.

KT: You’re about to become a mother (congratulations!) Have you figured out how you’ll equip your child to cope with a culinary culture where cheap, fast and toxic is the norm and fresh, untainted produce is seen as a luxury for an elite few?

AJ: No, I have no idea. I mean, I’ll certainly feed him/her great food and hope to introduce him/her to the pleasures of gardening and cooking, and thereby influence his/her tastebuds for life. But I have no doubt my kid is going to get exposed to foods that will taste absolutely wonderful to him/her and that he/she will want more of them…and I have no idea how I’ll deal with that. I do think celebrating food and making shopping and cooking a joy, as well as the sharing around a table on a daily basis, will go a long way–at least I hope!

KT: What’s the most drastic change you’ve witnessed on the real food front in the years since you began this project? What gives you the greatest hope that we can really transform the way we eat and grow food in this country?

AJ: It seems to me that food has become a substantial focus for Americans. The mainstream news and cyberspace are filled with information and discussion ranging from concern about the latest food scare to a favorite recipe. This shift in American’s awareness is both dramatic and fills me with great hope.

The sustainable food movement is, in essence, a grassroots movement advocating for a change in awareness, a shift in our relationship with each other and with our environment, a new social and economic paradigm. Like any deep cultural change, it starts small and slowly grows, then accelerates as it reaches a critical mass. Michelle Obama’s garden is a reflection on how far and wide “real food” ideas have reached. More than a reflection, though, Michelle’s garden will be a catalyst for raising awareness even further, and is evidence of our government’s receptivity to the concerns and demands of sustainable food advocates.

It is this, and the amazing people that I encounter through my work, their energy and dedication, that keep me hopeful. Hopefulness is simply the knowledge that change is possible and that we can participate in it. Lin Yutang said that “Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.”

“I appreciated the emphasis on biodiversity and the discussion of the negative impact of monocultured plants and animals in Fresh..but I REALLY loved all the characters!”

“I hope all our readers interested in environmental and food issues take the time to watch it. It’s a great conversation starter on so many of the problems we face — and so many of the things that need to be tackled on a much larger scale, including the political influence involved in all of these things that makes change so difficult to achieve.
Thanks for the enormous amount of hard work that must have gone into this film.”

Full post & discussion can be read here.

Do you THINK about what your eat? If not, this movie will make you think twice about what you put in your mouth and where it comes from. Ana Sofia Joanes, director of Fresh, has made one of the most important movies I have seen in some time. Her film chronicles where our food comes from, how it affects our environment, animal life, and economy. She also features several well-know stars of sustainable agriculture including Michael Pollan, Will Allen, and Joel Salatin.

Listen to the entire interview here: