Green Options » grow

What’s on Your Plate?

Rhonda Winter — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:52:34 +0000

“What’s on Your Plate?” is a compelling new documentary that follows two eleven year old African American city kids, Sadie and Safiyah, as they explore their local New York food systems over the course of a year. The film accompanies the two girls as they embark upon a quest to learn more about food politics and the origins of what they are eating.

Catherine Gund, filmmaker and co-founder of the feminist Third Wave Foundation, chronicles Sadie and Safiyah’s journey as they talk to chefs, farmers and food activists, as well as their own friends, about all manner of food policy and health issues. The girls educate themselves and the audience as they start asking very intelligent and probing questions about their own school lunches, how their food is grown, how far it has traveled, how it is packaged and prepared, food access, farmers markets and what healthy, sustainable options exist where they live. Director Catherine Gund explains that helping to teach her daughter Sadie how to make healthy food choices and to feel a connection to her food was part of her motivation for making the film:

Kids need to know the full benefits of local food: more energy-efficient production, more prosperous farmers, healthier communities, longer lasting and better tasting fruits and veggies. Kids need to know that their food doesn’t only come from the supermarket or the factory, but from nearby farms, trees and the ground.

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Click here to find an upcoming screening of the film near you.

It was an amazing experience to hear kids talking about these issues. This movie can have a real impact on the way we think about what we’re eating.

—Alice Waters, chef, author and founder of the Edible Schoolyard

Michelle Obama’s Victory Garden Is Helping to Reshape Our Nation’s Food Policy

Rhonda Winter — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:31:19 +0000

The White House has just released a new official video which profiles Michelle Obama’s hugely successful organic vegetable garden. The First Lady talks about the process of creating the victory garden, as well as the importance of shared family meals, making healthy choices, cooking fresh local food, and the need to change how our nation eats. In the short film Obama explains what she hopes that her example will help to accomplish:

We were a busy working family, and I would find it difficult to feed my family in a healthy way - quickly. So I decided to change our diet, and this happened throughout the course of the campaign, with simple things. I started adding more fruits and vegetables, trying to sit down and prepare a meal as a family a couple times a week, and eating out a little bit less. Trying to eliminate processed and sugary foods as much as possible. And I saw some really immediate results with just those minor changes. I thought well, if I could help other families learn these small changes in my role as first lady, that would be a good thing.

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Walking Around Oakland

Rhonda Winter — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:42:13 +0000

Last Sunday we were walking around sunny downtown Oakland, California, before my friend C. Ryder Cooley’s most excellent Animalia performance. I came across this storefront installation of plants growing in used nylons. Genius.

Plants don’t ever care if they have a run in their stockings.

Victory Garden Love Letter

Rhonda Winter — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:09:28 +0000

Last week I rode my bike to San Francisco’s City Hall to see Bill Basquin’s art show at Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi’s office; as I pedaled up through Civic Center Plaza my gut wrenched as I saw the large empty space where the beautiful City Hall Victory Garden used to be. All that is left where the native flowers, organic fruits and vegetables recently flourished is a lonely Christmas tree.

“Grow” on Sundance’s “The Green”… and Don’t Miss Your Chance to Win Cool Green Prizes

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:41:57 +0000

It’s Tuesday again, and for many of us, that means another night of great television on the Sundance Channel’s The Green. Rather than trying to fake it, I’ll readily admit I haven’t gotten a chance to watch tonight’s episode of Big Ideas for a Small Planet in advance… given the quality of previous episodes, though, I’m willing to bank that “Grow,” which will focus on green spaces in urban and suburban environments, will be well worth watching. Following “Grow,” the Sundance Channel will air the documentary Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa.