art,feminism, black rights,South Africa ,womens rights, peace, environmental issues
Living in a sunshine state of mind
observations and thoughts may not define a man, but they do help us define life
They said I should talk more, what a bore, with the courtesy of an itchy sore, festering, brooding, puss squeezing out the door of my mind. For one does not simply walk into Mordor! Please, please, please sir may we have some more?
Digitally empowering poor people and marginalised communities
The International Food Loss and Food Waste Studies Group
Insights into Field Realities
Just another WordPress.com site
Blogs and Op-eds from the Global Forum on Agricultural Research and Innovation
Changing the narrative. Telling my African story.
Books by Tomi Astikainen
Hot-shot lawyer when necessary. Hitchhiking hobo as often as I can.
Studying the Human Implications of Climate Change
Foregrounding marginalised voices
European Marie Curie Innovative Training Network in Environmental Humanities
Doing, writing and thinking economic & public policy
Just another WordPress.com site
Food Waste: from field to fork 
A key to feeding the hungry of the world can be found in an award-winning documentary filmed in Southern Arizona.
“Man in the Maze,” one of five films to win the Sundance Short Film Challenge,, takes the viewer from the devastating dumping of fruits and vegetables into the Rio Rico landfill to the Borderlands Food Bank in Nogales and on to Southern Arizona communities working to save the food from waste, and to grow their own.
The film, made by New York City-based Greener Media, heavily features Tucsonan Gary Nabhan talking about ways to rebuild food systems. It begins with an aerial scene of the dumping of the produce from Mexico. Red tomatoes, yellow peppers and green cucumbers tumble over the landfill, most looking fresh and eatable. Nogales is the largest inland entry port for fresh produce in the world, Nabhan says in the film, and the third largest port of entry in the country.
“Twenty-five to 30 percent of all the produce that we eat year round comes from the border towns,” Nabhan goes on to say.
“With that is a tremendous amount of food waste, because if the Florida tomato prices drop on a certain day, 120,000 pounds might be thrown into a landfill just because of the pricing.”
As the co-founder of Native Seeds/SEARCH, Nabhan is also helping farmers plan for the uncertainties of climate change. He emphasizes that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to sustainable farming. Nabhan writes, “We must not attempt to imitate, but instead emulate, what traditional desert peoples have learned about living with climatic uncertainty. Take inspiration, not recipes.”
The filmmakers, Phil Buccellato and Jesse Ash, follow some of the food that is spared from the landfill and distributed through the Borderlands Food Bank. They also talk to residents of the rural town of Amado who feel passionately about growing their own food for their families and their community.
Ash and Buccellato, who through Greener Media produce works that address social issues, worked closely with Food Tank, a food think tank with programs and a presence around the world.
When the filmmakers heard about the Sundance competition, underwritten by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and geared toward addressing such issues as poverty and hunger, they brainstormed with Food Tank. They found out about Nabhan, one of the founders of Native Seeds/SEARCH, an author, food advocate and 1990 winner of a MacArthur “genius” grant. They were convinced they found the subject of their documentary.
Then they landed in Southern Arizona.
“I think this story unraveled in a way that wasn’t expected,” says Buccellato in a phone interview with the Star. “I wouldn’t have expected to do the Rio Rico landfill. You reach out to one person, and they refer another, and another.”
That referral chain resulted in a poignant interview with Christina Natalini, a mother who is teaching her young daughter to grow her own food; another with Arturo Lopez, who maintains a community garden in Amado, and another interview with the people at The Avalon Organic Gardens, a community-supported agriculture program in Tumacácori.
“This is an important story that impacts billions around the world — how do we sustainably feed a growing population,” says Ash.
The Sundance Institute’s Mike Plante says about 1,300 films had been submitted for the competition, which has five winners — each pocketing $10,000. Those initial entries were culled down to about 15, which were then sent to the Gates Foundation for the final selection.
“Quality factors in, but most important to us was what the story was,” says Plante. Ash and Buccellato “took on a very gigantic issue and overwhelming problem and boiled it down to a story,” says Plante. “They told the story with style and information.”
“The documentary has great power to change the conversation about the issues,” says Buccellato. “If we can be a catalyst for someone to make a donation, or get involved in some level, that would be greatly satisfying.”