Food Chains, a project we’ve been working with for the last year, just won the James Beard Award! The annual awards by the James Beard Foundation honor the outstanding work of chefs, restaurants, cookbook writers, journalists and other food professionals for excellence in cuisine, culinary writing and culinary education in the United States. Food Chains, the story of the farmworkers who pick our fresh produce and their quest to convince retailers and consumers to join the Fair Food Program, stars Eva Longoria and Eric Schlosser, who are also executive producers, and is narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker.Directed by Sanjay Rawal, Food Chains highlights myriad problems still present in our agricultural system today and how big conglomerates at the top reap huge profits the expense of those at the other end – the farmworkers. At the same time, however, it focuses on the work of an intrepid group of tomato pickers from southern Florida, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), who, together with Florida’s tomato farms have radically transformed agriculture there through the Fair Food Program, a revolutionary partnership between the CIW, Florida tomato farmers and a few large retailers. Their aim is to ensure a dignified life for farm workers and a more humane, transparent food industry.
http://www.jamesbeard.org/blog/2015-book-broadcast-and-journalism-awards-complete-winner-recap