Organizations team up for World Food Day event on Oct. 16

Two local organizations are teaming up this year to mark World Food Day on Tuesday, Oct. 16.

Cinema Politica Charlottetown and the P. E. I. Food Security Network will host the film Fresh at Murphy’s Community Centre, starting at 7 p. m. The film screening will be followed by a general discussion.

Fresh celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people who are involved in re- inventing the food system. They are responding to the rapid transformation of agriculture into an industrial model and confronting the consequences: food contamination; environmental pollution; depletion of natural resources and morbid obesity.

Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of food and the planet.

Among several main characters, Fresh features urban farmer and activist Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award, a sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, along with Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Cinema Politica organizes screenings of documentary films on a monthly basis. Admission is by donation ( money is used to pay an annual membership fee that covers screening rights for all of the selected films) and open to the public.

The collective selects films that address issues of importance to people living in P. E. I., films that offer critical reflection and opportunities for dialogue.

“They are films that ‘ make you think,’” says a release. “They can also be funny, artistic and beautiful to look at.”

The P. E. I. Food Security Network is a network of individuals and organizations working to make sure that everyone in P. E. I. has access to affordable, healthy food. The group is dedicated to changing community attitudes and public policy that promote environmentally sustainable ways of producing and distributing food, and a livable income for producers.

Jake Bartlett, a board member of the network, says, a lot of the issues that Fresh covers are relevant to Prince Edward Island.

“Producers are facing higher and higher costs of production, there is a high percentage of imported food in supermarkets and a lot of control by big corporations over every aspect of the food system.”

And on the consumer side of the equation, he says, “we have a high level of food insecurity in this province, with people on very low incomes struggling to cover all their costs — too many people need to rely on food banks and soup kitchens — that’s not the way to go.”

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has celebrated World Food Day since 1979, each year on Oct. 16.

For more information about this event, callt Ann Wheatley at Cooper Institute, 894- 4573, or look for Cinema Politica Charlottetown on facebook.