Face your Food

A fellow food and sustainability blogger Organic Nation recently wrote about an event that I want to share. Fair Food International, a non-profit working to advance the cause of healthy and sustainable food globally, has initiated a campaign called "Face your Food."

The campaign recognizes that to enact change, especially in an industry so heavily lobbied by corporations, public support must be impossible to miss. So, Fair Food has invited people to make a video of themselves eating. The video will be slowed down and reversed, with the intended consequence of getting people to think about where their food comes from. 

Dorothee from Organic Nation writes:


"I think this is a great opportunity for folks in the U.S. to show their support not only for this organization, but for the concept of sustainable and fair trade food. I like how easy they make it to participate, you can simply use your computer's web cam to film yourself eating something and the site will turn it backwards and share it on Facebook with all the other entries."

As a huge food advocate myself, I absolutely agree that the premise behind this campaign (rallying public support around healthy food by creating a viral video campaign to which it is easy to contribute) is really good. The drive to bring out people's opinions around healthy food to show to the government and the food producers is hugely important.

Filming yourself while eating? The mere thought makes me uncomfortable. Watching up close other people eating, even in reverse? Not really an appetizing activity...

Unfortunately (or maybe not) the culmination of this campaign was about a week ago, so I missed my chance to put myself chowing down on Facebook (where they want me to post the video). In a way, it is campaigns like these that make me wonder... who thought this up? did they really think that this would encourage people to think about food sustainability? or about where the piece of broccoli in that blond guy's teeth came from? Honestly, it didn't me.

I am really glad to have encountered this post on Organic Nation, as it inspires me to think of how this kind of campaign (easily accessible, showing of public support for healthy food, directed to the decision-makers) can be otherwise structured to better guide people's minds to food sustainability.

A question to my readers: What kind of similar campaign (perhaps viral and video-based) could bring people together to voice their concern for healthy foods/lands/farms?

If I get some good suggestions, I may even take them to completion as part of a class I'm taking right now. So you never know, you might find that an idea you sprout here may become nationally fruitful!