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Food and Society Policy Fellows and Media That Matters: Good Food

Published on April 17, 2007

To get you inspired for the seventh annual Media That Matters Film Festival, launching this May, I would like to share my experiences screening the festival's most recent collection, Media That Matters: Good Food with the Food & Society Policy Fellows in St. Charles, Missouri. The Fellows are a group of ten leaders in food and agriculture from across the US that put forth innovative messages that advocate for sustainable food and farming systems. This was their first opportunity to meet with each other to talk about their projects in person.

The Food & Society Policy Fellows convened in St. Charles, Missouri to discuss their work and watch Media That Matters: Good Food.

In a time when mass media seems to greatly influence trends and behaviors, it is no surprise that the Fellows are exploring dynamic ways to further the impact of their work. Media That Matters: Good Food, a collection of shorts on food and sustainability, was used as a catalyst for discussion. The focus was changing young minds, creating paradigm shifts and impacting policy.

The fifth class of Fellows includes individuals from eight states with professions ranging from doctor, to nonprofit director, from farmer to "fish guy." (The fish guy happens to be ex-Arts Engine staffer and talented writer, Paul Greenberg.) The Fellows discussed an array of topics from genetically-modified organisms to immigration reform to upcoming Farm Bill legislation. A lively and energetic group, the Fellows were an ideal audience for Media That Matters: Good Food.

We started off by screening Jim Hightower's video introduction to the collection, which got everyone chuckling. I kept the ball rolling with one of my favorite films from the series, Don't Worry, a puppet exposé by director Emily James. The film takes a remarkably smart and funny look at the world of advertising, branding, and rebranding by tracing Sunny Delight's (aka Sunny D's) ad campaign in Great Britain from the late nineties to the present. After the film, the Fellows discussed the issue of advertising to kids and how it has changed in recent decades. We brainstormed ways in which the film offers people (be they students, teachers, parents or policymakers) a bit of media literacy education alongside a lighthearted, yet informative, exposé on an important issue.

Watch Don't Worry and see how "that purple stuff" is marketed to children as young as three.

After our discussion of Don't Worry, I screened the animated short, Profit Cola, another film about junk food and advertising to kids. This piece takes on the issue of sodas in schools. The serious topic is approached with humor and a dose of sarcasm, showing how corporations make a fortune on junk food sales in schools, while over-consumption of sugar, fat and caffeine is making kids sick and affecting both their behavior and academic performance.

This two-minute short packs a wallop, and is an effective tool for anyone interested in presenting these issues to a parent-teacher organization, school board, or a group of policymakers. With a federal mandate in 2005 to revamp school wellness policies, many districts are struggling to influence the debate. This film is a timely addition to the conversation.

The screening ended with an engaging discussion on the use of Media That Matters: Good Food films in their daily work. Some of the ideas that stood out were using the film in presentations, at meetings with policymakers, at school boards, community meetings, or even as part of a conference plenary session. All in all, the Fellows decided that these films were a vital tool in contextualizing these issues and committed themselves to integrating the pieces into their board rooms, as well as into their living rooms.

Next stop: Childhood Obesity. Watch Profit Cola and prevent the ride!

Three Fellows expressed interest in partnering with Arts Engine (the nonprofit that produces the Media That Matters Film Festival and MediaRights.org). Stay tuned for info on screenings to be held by Fellows in their home communities of Portland, Oregon; Abingdon, Virginia; and Fresno, California.

Inspired? The seventh annual Media That Matters Film Festival launches May 30th in New York City at the IFC Center. Visit the festival site in coming weeks to get your ticketes. If you can't make it, watch the films online after the launch, check back for screenings in your community or host your own screening.

Johanna Divine is the Outreach Coordinator for Media That Matters: Good Food and was a Food & Society Policy Fellow. She first got involved with Arts Engine after her film, Young Agrarians was included in the fifth annual Media That Matters Film Festival.

To learn more about the Food & Society Policy Fellows program, visit www.foodandsocietyfellows.org.

To view the Good Food films, check out www.mediathatmattersfest.org/goodfood.

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