To teach people about climate change,
feed them journalism
By Miranda NeubauerColumbia Journalism Review
THERE’S A STORY BEHIND EVERY INGREDIENT THAT GOES INTO OUR MEALS EACH PLANT OR ANIMAL WE CONSUME CARRIES THE WEIGHT OF THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS RAISED, THE WAY IT WAS CULTIVATED, THE HISTORY OF ITS BREEDING... THE VERY NATURE OF OUR PLANETARY ECOLOGY...
These granular food narratives, which are rarely told, often hide within larger stories... although the story of what we eat is critical to understanding the day-to-day experience of our changing ecosystem, climate journalism often looks beyond food, and food journalism rarely gets at the issues behind the experience of the meal.
But could a meal itself be a form of journalism—one that could bridge the gap between these two storytelling genres?
It’s an esoteric question, admits Mark Hansen, the director of Columbia’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation...
Hansen teamed up with legendary chef Alice Waters for a 70-person... four-course meal prepared by... her Berkeley-based organic food restaurant, Chez Panisse... presented by the Aspen Institute as part of its Morris Series on Leadership and Innovation, the Asia Society, and the Brown Institute.
Waters collaborated with Andrew Revkin, a science journalist at the National Geographic Society; Corby Kummer, a senior editor at The Atlantic and the editor in chief of IDEAS: The Magazine of the Aspen Institute; and Lisa Goddard, the director of Columbia’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society.
Seated around the room, Kummer noted, were various “plants”: writers and experts on climate and food topics—such as New York Times climate change journalist Somini Sengupta, food writer Nathanael Johnson, and former Department of Energy assistant secretary Andy Karsner—
The goal was to create an experiential event that would show how food could be a backdrop for conversations about climate change.
By Miranda Neubauer
Columbia Journalism Review
THERE’S A STORY BEHIND EVERY INGREDIENT THAT GOES INTO OUR MEALS EACH PLANT OR ANIMAL WE CONSUME CARRIES THE WEIGHT OF THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS RAISED, THE WAY IT WAS CULTIVATED, THE HISTORY OF ITS BREEDING... THE VERY NATURE OF OUR PLANETARY ECOLOGY...
These granular food narratives, which are rarely told, often hide within larger stories... although the story of what we eat is critical to understanding the day-to-day experience of our changing ecosystem, climate journalism often looks beyond food, and food journalism rarely gets at the issues behind the experience of the meal.
But could a meal itself be a form of journalism—one that could bridge the gap between these two storytelling genres?
It’s an esoteric question, admits Mark Hansen, the director of Columbia’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation...
Hansen teamed up with legendary chef Alice Waters for a 70-person... four-course meal prepared by... her Berkeley-based organic food restaurant, Chez Panisse... presented by the Aspen Institute as part of its Morris Series on Leadership and Innovation, the Asia Society, and the Brown Institute.
Waters collaborated with Andrew Revkin, a science journalist at the National Geographic Society; Corby Kummer, a senior editor at The Atlantic and the editor in chief of IDEAS: The Magazine of the Aspen Institute; and Lisa Goddard, the director of Columbia’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society.
These granular food narratives, which are rarely told, often hide within larger stories... although the story of what we eat is critical to understanding the day-to-day experience of our changing ecosystem, climate journalism often looks beyond food, and food journalism rarely gets at the issues behind the experience of the meal.
But could a meal itself be a form of journalism—one that could bridge the gap between these two storytelling genres?
It’s an esoteric question, admits Mark Hansen, the director of Columbia’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation...
Hansen teamed up with legendary chef Alice Waters for a 70-person... four-course meal prepared by... her Berkeley-based organic food restaurant, Chez Panisse... presented by the Aspen Institute as part of its Morris Series on Leadership and Innovation, the Asia Society, and the Brown Institute.
Waters collaborated with Andrew Revkin, a science journalist at the National Geographic Society; Corby Kummer, a senior editor at The Atlantic and the editor in chief of IDEAS: The Magazine of the Aspen Institute; and Lisa Goddard, the director of Columbia’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society.
Seated around the room, Kummer noted, were various “plants”: writers and experts on climate and food topics—such as New York Times climate change journalist Somini Sengupta, food writer Nathanael Johnson, and former Department of Energy assistant secretary Andy Karsner—
The goal was to create an experiential event that would show how food could be a backdrop for conversations about climate change.
