Foodies and activists know all that. But most children sure don’t.
A documentary in production called “What’s On Your Plate?” follows the inquiry of two 11-year-old Manhattan girls as they start asking questions about the food all around them. On summer vacation together in Ohio, best friends Sadie and Safiyah taste a cherry tomato that was so good, they accepted Sadie’s mom’s invitation to search out the farmer who grew it. A tour of the farm leads to hanging out at the local farmer’s market, which leads to an exploration of a supermarket back in New York City with longtime food activist Kate Adamick (who led an effort to improve public school lunch ingredients), interviewing the Department of Education’s school lunch chiefs, and more.
“They ask questions that I think we all have,” says Catherine Gund, the film’s director and Sadie’s mother. Based on a short trailer for the project, it seems that observing the education of these two bright and engaging young people serves to enliven the subject matter – to make it new, perhaps even for members of the film’s star-studded advisory council, which includes celebrated chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill restaurant and noted ecology writer Michael Pollan. Gund has made a number of documentaries that have aired on PBS, earned an Emmy nomination and screened at festivals, and is hoping to premiere this production early next year.
Although these girls are hardly afraid of vegetables and appear to be advancing down the politically correct route of nutritional consciousness-raising, they still betray signs of unrepentant youth. When it comes to one example of what some would consider over-processing and over-packaging, for example, “They think it’s really cool that the apples are sliced and put in bags,” says Gund.
Jacquie Berger, executive director of the city nonprofit Just Food, which promotes “a holistic approach to food, hunger and agriculture issues,” attended a recent fundraiser for “What’s On Your Plate?” and thinks the kids’ involvement in "food justice" issues both reflects and restates a vastly greater understanding among the general public. “The person on the street knows so much more about these issues,” Berger says, than when she first got involved in the late 1990s. With kids as narrators, “it takes away anything so preachy about it – makes it so genuine and easy to hear.”
Berger easily can tick off other indicators of progress in recent years. Not only do more people grasp the complexity of the agriculture system (and its connection to things like higher food and fuel costs) and feel frustrated that good food isn’t available everywhere, “there’s a real increase in demand for good quality local food,” she says.
