On a family vacation in Ohio's Cuyahoga National Park a few years ago, fifth grade New Yorkers Sadie Hope-Gund and Safiyah Kai Riddle saw a chicken lay an egg and tasted the best cherry tomatoes "ever."
"I was like, 'Woah'," recalls Safiyah, now an 8th grader at the Manhattan Academy of Technology in Chinatown. "I thought you see everything in New York. You see everything—but not farming!"
The seeds had been planted for "What's on your Plate?" a documentary the girls spent the next two years making with Sadie's mom, filmmaker Catherine Gund. The movie, which aired last week on the Discovery Channel's Planet Green, is a spirited look at our unsustainable food system and how we can change it.
Two weeks ago, I sat down with Sadie, Safiyah, and Catherine over slices of (locally made!) Balthazar cake to talk about "bad" vegetarians, why good food should not be a luxury, and the importance of not telling other people what to eat. Check out my blog about the movie, which I did for the Atlantic Monthly's food channel. An edited Q&A of my conversation with the gals is now up at The Faster Times.
For upcoming screenings of "What's on your Plate" see here.