Celebrate National School Lunch Week with a FREE Nourish DVD

This week is National School Lunch Week, to celebrate we’re asking you, “How can we can we create a better school food system?” Answer to win a free copy of Nourish Short Films: 54 Bite-Sized Videos About the Story of Your Food.

This week, October 10-14th, is National School Lunch Week, a time to raise awareness about the importance of school meals in children’s health and our food system.

This month, Nourish, an educational initiative designed to open a meaningful conversation about food and sustainability, particularly in schools and communities, is showcasing perspectives on school lunch, from farm to school programs to parent activism. In this new video from Nourish Short Films: 54 Bite-Sized Videos About the Story of Your Food, food journalist Michael Pollan advocates for a better menu for America’s children.

In addition to Michael Pollan, the Nourish short films features segments with Jamie Oliver, Alice Waters, Bryant Terry, and other voices of the food movement, and such topics as “Edible Education,” “Grow, Cook, Learn,” and “Youth Making Change.” Our own Josh Viertel remarked that, “These short films bring to life a vision of a world where food is good for the people who eat it, good for the people who grow and pick it, and good for the planet.”

To celebrate National School Lunch Week, we’re giving away one of these free Nourish Short Films DVDs! But we want to hear from you first. Leave a comment below in answer to the question, How can we can we create a better school food system? We will select a winner at random, so there are no right answers, but send us your answers now – the contest will close on Sunday October 16th.

The Harvest: Child Labor on US Farms

The new documentary The Harvest sheds light on the seldom discussed issue of child labor in U.S. conventional agriculture.

by interns Kelsey Wickel and Sasha Hippard

The Harvest/La Cosecha, a new film by Robert Romano, tells the story of three children, ranging from 12 to 16, who migrate seasonally with their families in order to harvest fruits and vegetables. Over the summer, these migrant children and their families travel throughout the country, from Florida to Michigan, finding work picking the produce that we eat.

Child labor in the conventional agricultural system has remained the exception to the already established child labor laws. Throughout the film, we experience the harvest through the children’s eyes as they work 10 or more hours a day, seven days a week. The cruel irony is, while almost 400,000 children work in American produce fields every year, in hot, back-breaking conditions, those same children and their families are unable to afford the very food that they harvest. Each child only makes roughly $60 a week during the harvest season (assuming they can find work at all). In the fields, there is little to no protection against constant exposure to the harsh temperatures or the pesticides which are used liberally in conventional agriculture and often while the harvesters are present.

The Harvest sheds light on the seldom discussed issue of child labor in U.S. conventional agriculture. While the film does not site specific action that the viewers may take to stop or prevent these labor practices, during the post-screening Q&A, the film’s director supported the DREAM Act as one avenue to help migrant workers and their families. Similarly, the New York Times reported last year that the Obama Administration had begun a campaign against farmers who use child labor and underpay their workers (read the article here).

For more information on the issue of child agricultural labor in general, the MSNBC piece from last year entitled America Now: Children of the Harvest is a good resource. The film’s facebook page also links related articles.

The film premieres in New York on July 29, 2011 at Quad Cinema...and hopefully at other theatres around the country soon.

What film’s getting all the buzz? Vanishing of the Bees.

In recent months over 50 chapters have organized screenings of the documentary Vanishing of the Bees.  We asked Slow Food DC member Kate Hill to reflect on the experience of hosting a screening.

by Slow Food DC member Kate Hill

Watching Vanishing of the Bees reminds me how much of our existence we take for granted. Like walking through life with blinders on, so caught up in the here and now of self that we pay little attention to the beauty and the mystery that make the journey possible.

My family has been lucky over the years to have hands-on experience with honeybees.  A good friend has kept several hives and has enlisted my sons to help him extract the honey every year since they were old enough to understand the process. Even still, I think we all fail to acknowledge what an intrinsic part of the food chain, what an immeasurable service to our own life the bee is. Painfully revealed in the film is our own complicity in allowing the toxic process that is endangering not only the bees but the planet and our own health.

Why aren’t we angrier? At stake is life itself.  Society seems willing to go along and not question (with apologies to Al Gore) the “inconvenient truth” of agribusiness,  choosing not to see the reality of the cost of “progress.” Towards the end of the film Bill Maher makes a brief quip on honeybee die-offs serving as “Mother Nature’s wake up call” and it struck a chord—but do we really take the warnings to heart?  With colony collapse disorder the bees are forcing us to take a hard look again at how we do things. We need to be the change we wish to see to save not only the bees but ourselves.

More after the jump

Nourish launches video encyclopedia

Nourish, a national educational initiative designed to open a meaningful conversation about food and sustainability, particularly in schools and communities, has launched their Video Encyclopedia.

Nourish, a national educational initiative designed to open a meaningful conversation about food and sustainability, particularly in schools and communities, has launched their Video Encyclopedia, a collection of short films that explore the story of our food. In the above clip, author Michael Pollan describes how the simple act of eating offers us an intimate connection with the soil. From supporting organic farms to gardening and composting, we can nourish the Earth through our everyday food choices and practices.

The Dirt on Soil
Fertile soil is essential to food production. Soil consists of minerals, water, air, and living and dead organic matter, which are all needed to support healthy plants. Through natural processes, it can take hundreds to thousands of years to form one inch of nutrient-rich, organic topsoil.

It is estimated that a cup of fertile topsoil contains more than 6 billion organisms, or as many people as there are on Earth. Five to 10 tons of animal life inhabit an acre of soil, including bacteria, fungi, protozoa, earthworms, mice, moles, and other creatures.

Soil depletion, or loss of fertility, occurs when nutrients are taken from the soil but not replaced. Over-tilling, monocrop farming, and use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides deplete the soil, leading to a loss of organic matter and soil structure. According to the United Nations, we lose about 75 tons of soil each year. Loss of soil means less food.

More after the jump

Got a truck? You can help the “coolest urban ag project around.”

After months of planning and planting, a fleet of 25 Truck Farmers across the country are about to take to the road. One snag! Not enough trucks.

by Hnin Hnin

Some farmers have thousands of acres of land. Some farmers have a few. Truck Farmers have a pile of dirt in the back of a pickup truck.  Truck Farm is a simple concept with a big impact. It’s a mini-mobile farm, an edible exhibit, and the focus of a documentary coming out this winter. What exactly can you do with a 4x8 bed of soil and seeds on wheels? Add an ambitious farmer with the passion to teach kids about growing and eating healthy food, and you’ve got one of the coolest urban agriculture projects around.  That’s why Slow Food USA has partnered up with Truck Farm to recruit some of the freshest new urban farmers in town.

After months of planning and planting, a fleet of 25 Truck Farmers across the country are about to take to the road, popping up at schools, camps, street fairs, outdoor concerts, and anywhere else large groups of youth congregate.  They’re revved up and ready to go…

BUT there’s one snag—7 of the 25 farmers don’t have a truck!  Meet Cate Brennan, a student and leader of Slow Food University of Rhode Island.  With your help, she and her group can become some of the youngest Truck Farmers on the fleet. 

More after the jump

Bees feed us: now they need our help

Honeybees are under attack but despite years of research the culprit for colony collapse disorder (CCD) has yet to be identified.

Click here to sign our bee petition.

Honeybees are under attack but despite years of research the culprit for colony collapse disorder (CCD) has yet to be identified.

What we do know is that there’s probably not just one thing causing the massive die-offs, but several factors interacting to cause a perfect, lethal storm.

What difference does it make?

 
• Roughly 30% of our food gets brought into the world by honeybee pollination
 
• The increased yield and quality of crops that have been visited by honeybees adds $15 billion to the annual US agricultural economy.
 
• The impact of another year of 40% losses of honeybee populations will be devastating to food production, food prices, and biodiversity. 

How can I help?
LEARN more about CCD by: 1)  hosting a screening of Vanishing of the Bees. The filmmakers of this award-winning documentary, narrated by Ellen Page, have offered significant discounts on screening licenses to Slow Food members.  Email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for more information.  2) Download this one-page information sheet on the importance of bees to our food system. Also, you can download a screening guide for the film by clicking here.
 
SIGN the petition. The EPA recently pledged to take a closer look at one of the factors that watchdog organizations like Beyond Pesticides and Pesticide Action Network believe to be a contributing cause of CCD. Together we can hold the EPA accountable to its promise to dig deeper into some of the likeliest causes of CCD, like a new class of agricultural pesticides. If you’d like to gather petition signatures on your own—at a screening, or outside your supermarket—and send them to us, you can download a petition sheet by clicking here.
 
PLANT a bee friendly habitat in your garden or windowsill with pollen- and nectar-rich flowering plants like sunflowers, berries, gourds, and most herbs.
 
REDUCE your usage of insecticides and herbicides around the home. They may get rid of pests, but they can also harm “non-target” insects such as honeybees.
 
SUPPORT your local beekeepers, and producers of rare honey. Learn about honey varieties in your area and those on the US Ark of Taste.

The threat that this phenomenon poses to our food security and our economy is grave.  We can’t just swat this problem away.

Thanks for being a part of the solution. And if you haven’t yet signed our petition to the EPA, click here.  
 

Watch Slow Food USA President Josh Viertel on TedX

Watch the live steam of the TedX Manhattan event, where over 20 high-profile speakers, including Slow Food USA’s President Josh Viertel, are discussing how we can improve food and farming for everyone.

Looking for the live steam of the TedX Manhattan event, “Changing the Way We Eat”? Watch it here:

https://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5986/news_item/TEDx

Froot Loops vs. Real Fruit: for Real Change Don’t Look to Obama

Slow Food USA President Josh Viertel asked President Obama why it is cheaper to feed our kids Froot Loops than it is to feed them fruit, and what he was doing to reverse it. His response? He talked about Walmart.

by Slow Food USA President Josh Viertel

Last week, we all had the chance to submit a question to President Obama for a YouTube World View interview following the State of the Union address. Questions could be posted online, and people voted for their favorites. The most popular questions would be chosen, and the president would be asked to respond.

I posted a question. I asked President Obama why it is cheaper to feed our kids Froot Loops than it is to feed them fruit, and what he was doing to reverse it. I had been disappointed that he failed to talk at all about America’s broken food and farming system during his State of the Union, and I hoped my question would give him an opportunity to address it.

With 142,649 questions posted, it was going to be a long shot. Then, I got a text message: 1,279 people voted for my question and it was selected. People wanted to hear our leader talk about what needs to be changed when it comes to food and farming in our country. We had the president’s ear. I felt like I had won the lottery! That is, until I had a chance to listen to his answer.

President Obama didn’t use the opportunity to answer our concerns, nor did he speak to our hopes. He didn’t talk about how he was going to make it easier to access fruit than Froot Loops. He didn’t talk about how he was going to reduce federal support for the crops that are most damaging to our health and environment, and he didn’t talk about what he was going to do to increase support for a sustainable food system. The president didn’t talk about taking on the massive consolidation in agribusiness that makes it cheaper and easier to get unhealthy processed food than it is to buy whole ingredients. Though he touched on it, he didn’t talk about addressing food insecurity in any meaningful way and he didn’t talk about the power of citizens as shoppers ... or as voters.

Instead, he talked about Walmart.

To read the full article, click here to go to The Atlantic Food Channel

The Food and Climate Connection - New Video

An amazing new video from WHY Hunger exploring the links between climate change and the global food system.

How we farm and eat is simultaneously one of the greatest contributors to climate change and one of its greatest potential solutions. The same global food system that is making us sick, increasing food insecurity, and polluting the environment is also contributing to climate change.  Climate change, in turn, is contributing to rising rates of hunger and food insecurity. As much as 1/3 of greenhouse gas emissions come from the food system. 

Want to know more about that?

WHY Hunger has released a brand new online film called “The Food and Climate Connection: From Heating the Planet to Healing It,” that highlights the impact of today’s global food system on the climate and how a community-based food movement around the world is bringing to life a way of farming and eating that’s better for our bodies and the planet. Featuring interviews with farmers, community leaders, and sustainability advocates, the film highlights how the industrial food system is among the greatest contributors to global warming and how sustainable farming practices can pose a powerful solution to the crisis.

The movie was done in collaboration with Anna Lappe, author of the recently released “Diet for a Hot Planet,” which also explores this crucial intersection between how we grow and transport our food and how that affects the planet—not to mention how the changes in our environment willl affect the way we grow and transport our food moving forward.

Three people signed up to UFW’s “Take Our Jobs”

by Julia Landau

Arturo Rodríguez of the United Farm Workers of America appeared on the Colbert Report last night, urging Americans to give farm work a try through the UFW’s Take Our Jobs campaign.

Now, according to Rodríguez, after thousands of online registrations, only three people have turned up to their newfound workplaces. Hmm, make that soon-to-be four, now that Colbert is jumping in, too.

You might be wondering,  “Who are these three people?”

Well, I don’t know! Are they out to call the UFW’s bluff? Or join the UFW in solidarity? Are they folks genuinely looking for employment? If you know, please clue me in. 

And click here to learn more about the campaign if this is the first time you’re reading about it!