The Story Of Food
USC Canada’s new short, animated film will get you thinking about our broken food system. It identifies what’s gone wrong, and what we can do to rebuild it.
What Can You Do?
Think about how our food is produced and where it comes from.- Buy local, organic, and fair trade whenever you can.
- Support small scale farmers who grow healthy food around the world.
- Make your voice heard by joining the worldwide movement to change our food system.
Together, we can build a healthy food system…for everyone! Stay tuned for more resources, information, and action alerts.
To start you thinking, here is a quote from Canadian writer and journalist Thomas Pawlick:
“Right now, if you go to the produce section of any supermarket – anyone at all – and buy fruit or vegetables, or cottage cheese, or meat, you would have to eat something like five times as much of that food to get the same amount of vitamins and minerals as your parents or grandparents got in the 1950s.”
Having trouple viewing the video through YouTube or Vimeo? You can download a low-resolution, 30 MB, .flv version of the film that will play with free programs like Winamp, VLC player, RealPlayer, or on Windows Media Player. Simply right click on this link then select “Save target as…” and save the file to your computer before playing the file.
[...] The Story of Food By artangardens http://usc-canada.org/storyoffood/ [...]
This is an excellent video, especially for people who do not stop to think where their food comes from and what they are really eating. I get most of my food locally and grow as much as possible. However, the young adult population in particular, who are busy working and raising families,very often do not think about the origins and nutritional value of what their families are eating. It is so fast and easy to go to the supermarket and you can get such a large selection of fruit and vegetables, so surely that must be healthy! This short video is so informative and can really change what people believe.
Our small community is setting up a seed bank of locally grown seeds that do well in this climate. We have a growing interest in locally grown food and our farmers market. We have recently formed a transition towns society. However we do need to get more young people involved. So yes, there is hope and it is possible to change things
Thank you!
The video is good, and very artistically done. But there are still very many – most- farmers, even “small”, who use chemicals in their fields and are still very good farmers, very conservation minded and concerned about the future of farming. The message of the video: chemical=bad, is a bit too simplistic and I think might turn these people off. Also, consumers should not be persuaded to see them as “bad”.
Thank you for taking the time to register your comments, Alison. We reviewed the video again with your comments in mind. We do refer to how the use of “too much chemical fertilizers and pesticides” is undermining soil fertitliy. We also recommend that people purchase local, organic, or fair trade whenever possible. Still, we do know that local produce is not always chemical-free. Our intent is to draw attention to these issues and encourage public debate. We also hope this short film draws overdue attention to the important role of small-scale farmers.
Thank you! Thank you!
This great little video is making the rounds. I had four e-mails from friends telling me about it yesterday.
We’ll be using it to generate discussion at some meetings. Do we need permission to play it for a group? Is it available on a DVD?
I really like the revised version and will happily promote it. Any chance of adding a link to Food Secure Canada as the way you can connect to the food movement in Canada?
Fabulous and educational short! Would you have by any chance a French version;I know this is a costly proposition but it would be another very good way to get the message across to my students, if it is legally possible.
I am definitely forwarding this to others.
Thank you for the compliments. We’re very happy that you’re sharing the video. We are currently working on producing a French version of the film. It’s been translated and the voice work is done. At this point we’re just waiting for the animators to put the finishing touches on the video and then we will post it on our website.
We will send out a notice once it’s posted – both through our website RSS feed as well as through our E-newsletter, so make sure to sign up for one (or both) of those to be notified when it’s ready.
This vidoe is an excellent educational tool with clear message about the importance of knowing the source of our food. I am so pleased to be able to incorporate this video as an introduction to a presentation for my Grad Program in Ecosystem Restoration. I hope to demonstrate to my class through this vidoe and my own gardening experiences that even small scale potted gardens are an easy supplement that anyone can grow. Signed: A gardener just getting into heirloom vegetables.
We’re working on building a mini-website for this video that will feature more resources and delve more into actions people can take to affect positive change. We hope to have the site running by the end of March. You will still be able to access it via our regular website, or through StoryOfFood.ca.