Saturday, June 14th
Sustainable Juneau: Energy, Eating, and More
Sustainable Juneau
is getting the community thinking and working on issues including climate change, making energy security affordable and permanent, better public transportation, phasing out plastics and eating locally. The Commission on Sustainability is sponsoring a Farmer's Market and Food Festival (probably their first ever) to support and celebrate local food production. They want to encourage local sustainability through backyard gardening, local food resources and small business initiatives. Screening Eating Alaska is one of the events they hope to make part of the celebration.
Ellen Frankenstein, on 06.14.08 @ 21:59AKT [link]
Tuesday, June 10th
Tomatoes, Choices and More News
Today in the news there are stories of warnings to stay away from certain kinds of tomatoes, due to a salmonella outbreak. Rising food prices have led to riots and a global crisis. Reasons? Climate change, food aid policies and the way we eat. Billions of people are buying more food especially in China and India, where many have stopped growing their own food and are buying a lot more of it.
Meanwhile, we continue to edit in hopes that this film will add a bit more to the conversation about what we eat and where it comes from and inspire communities and individuals thinking about what they can do, whether it is promoting kitchen gardens and eating traditional foods or reading labels. A student in an anthropology class at the University of Alaska Fairbanks recently wrote on a rough-cut feedback form:
I'm an average 21 year old white girl, but the film really makes me ask why I chose quick, ready made foods, when it is bad for me and sustainability. I will think more about living somewhere that I could grow a garden during the summer.Since she lives in a place where getting your own wild meat is part of local food ways, the student also said she'd like to try caribou hunting this fall.
Also in Fairbanks, the opening of Eating Alaska is part of an installation in an exhibition called Hunting and Trapping In Alaska's Interior Our Stories, Our Lives at the University of Alaska's Museum of the North, from May through November.
Ellen Frankenstein, on 06.10.08 @ 16:35AKT [link]
Friday, June 6th
Progress!
We've set up this blog to post updates with the film and to add and connect to the conversation on sustainable eating, food security and more.
On the film end, Eating Alaska recently got a grant from the Sitka, Alaska Charitable Trust. Ellen, the director, received an award for her work in nutrition from a local health summit. Full Circle Farm, a certified organic farm located in Carnation Washington, put a great blurb about the film in their "Fresh Sheet" and put the sheet with the blurb in 2000 boxes of fruits and veggies they ship to Alaska.
We're editing, fundraising to cover the last stages of post -production and outreach, and aiming to have the film out by Fall. Three communities in Alaska, have started planning screenings and we're open to more in state and beyond.
Ellen Frankenstein, on 06.06.08 @ 12:56AKT [link]
