TuttleJPFilm7

John Peter Tuttle Film Annotation #7 – What’s On Your Plate? 11/10/2011 Word Count: 1,007 1. Title, director and release year? “What’s On Your Plate?” is a 2009 documentary directed by Catherine Gund. 2. What is the central argument or narrative of the film? The film focuses on issues with food – how healthy it is, how food production affects the environment, the effects bad food has on people, and how people can eat healthier. 3. How is the argument or narrative made and sustained? How much scientific information is provided, for example? Does the film have emotional appeal? The movie is presented from the perspective of two eleven-year-old girls as they interview various people – chefs, people who work at CSAs (community supported agriculture programs), farmers, etc. There is not too much scientific information presented, at least by the narrators; there is more presented by the people they interview. The film does tend to have emotional appeal; having it narrated and led by children makes it more emotionally appealing, as they are dealing with issues that most people tend to gloss over during their everyday lives, and are asking questions that matter to most people, but most people do not usually think to ask. It is also kind of funny how blunt they are at times with their questions, which gives them impact that someone older probably would not manage to do. 4. What sustainability problems does the film draw out? Political? Legal? Economic? Technological? Media and Informational? Organizational? Educational? Behavioral? Cultural? Ecological? The film focuses on a wide variety of issues. It discusses the cultural, behavioral, and economic reasons behind why people end up eating unhealthy food – it is often cheaper and more convenient to buy prepared food, or it may simply be more prevalent in a particular area. In other cases, it may be educational – people may not know how to cook healthier foods, or may not know where they can get the ingredients. The film brings up some political issues – certain cities having more or less farmer’s markets, for example, which makes it much harder to eat healthier, as transportation costs have to be taken into account, or political reasons why schools cannot have healthier food. The film discusses some technological issues with packaging and shipping food, and how some foods are easier to grow in bulk than others, and how this ends up affecting foods at schools – in many cases, the ideal healthy sorts of meals one would want served at school just are not practical given the local agriculture and what sources of food the school is using, and the fact that it is being prepared in bulk makes complex food preparation even harder. 5. What parts of the film did you find most persuasive and compelling? Why? The information about school lunches was particularly interesting, as I have found pretty much every school tends to claim they offer “tasty and nutritional lunches” or something similar, when in many cases, these claims are stretching the truth. The parts about the CSA were also particularly fascinating; they seem like a great solution to providing healthier food, while also bringing communities together, and potentially educating people about new foods and cooking methods they did not know about. The discussions of how different cities culture tends to affect availability of food was fascinating as well. 6. What parts of the film were you not compelled or convinced by? Why? <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">There were not too many parts of the film I was not convinced by. It got a bit boring at times when the narrative got caught up in the politics of food distribution, etc, but it usually picked up the pace shortly afterwards. <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">7. What audiences does the film best address? Why? <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">The film has a wider audience than most of the films we have seen – it still addresses most people in the general public, but is also particularly interesting to kids, who would not normally watch educational movies about environmental topics (likely due to them being boring). It would also appeal to anyone who is interested in where their food comes from, or eating healthier. <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">8. What could have been added to this film to enhance its environmental educational value? <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">More scientific information may have helped in terms of actual education, though the casual nature of the film, it would likely end up educating more people even if there was //not// more scientific information provided. <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">9. What kinds of action and points of intervention are suggested by the film? If the film itself does not suggest corrective action, describe actions that you can imagine being effective. <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">The film suggests trying to cook more organic foods, taking advantage of CSAs, farmer’s markets, and other sources of local food. It also discusses trying to get schools to provide healthier lunches, get rid of soda machines, etc. <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">10. What additional information has this film compelled you to seek out? (Provide at least two supporting references.) <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">I was curious about CSAs – community supported agriculture programs – so I looked for information on them, and found a page about CSAs on a site called LocalHarvest. It seems to do a good job of explaining the advantages of CSA programs, and the advantages for both farmers and members of the CSA. <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">“Community Supported Agriculture – LocalHarvest”. http://www.localharvest.org/csa/ <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">I was also curious to see what people were doing about school lunches. I, luckily, never had to suffer through the usual horrible school lunches, as I brought my own, but I certainly sympathize with those who have had to eat them. This led me to a site called “Healthy School Lunches,” which provides information about what sorts of changes schools can make to their menus and practices to provide students with healthier lunches. It has a good section explaining the national school lunch program and the issues with it. <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">It also has a “Report Card” section where they show how the quality of school lunches has changed each year. <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. “Healthy School Lunches / a Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) site”. http://www.healthyschoollunches.org/