Family Friendly Foodie Films
My wife and middle daughter are out of town. That means my other two children and I have been treading water just to stay ahead of the waves of afterschool activities, household chores, homework and meals that fill our week. I give myself credit that I’ve resisted the one-eyed flatscreen baby sitter perched above our fireplace for four days now. But then our nanny called with a 103-degree fever. Out came the remote.
After hours of wandering the desert of streaming content, the RPG smartphone games, teenybopper Disney shows, and the umpteenth Adventuring the Wild! The Legend of Zelda Zebra Gamer Gameplay Video, I called a timeout. My brain, and more importantly, the cerebral cortex of my offspring, needed a breath of restorative, intelligent, and thought provoking fresh air.
My mission was to find five videos of varying lengths about sustainability and our food ecosystem that would captivate both a precocious 12-year-old young women who winces at the word “tween,” and a frenetic 7-year-old boy who’s attention deficit requires that he watch YouTubers play video games rather than attempt to turn on the PlayStation himself.
So here goes…..
An oldie but a goodie, this quick-paced, 90-minute documentary may have come out a decade ago, but still holds up when compared to the dozens of films that followed in its food steps. Lots of cool animation and well-edited food footage keeps the kids engaged in this critique of the corn-heavy, corporate food industrial complex that got us into this mess in the first place.
One Hundred Thousand Beating Hearts
This 15-minute short is a great, “hey I have to get dinner ready,” length piece about one of my idols, Will Harris’ of White Oak Pastures. He probably runs the largest 100% grass-fed beef ranch in the country. Harris’ self-proclaimed Foghorn Leghorn drawl was just the right amount of folksy to keep my kids interested in the merits of regenerative agriculture while I set the dinner table.
This enchanting, beautifully shot, and whimsical film lays out the agrarian ecosystem in an approachable and compassionate story about the good, the bad and the ugly of farm life without being too utopian. It also resulted in one of the most thought-provoking conversations I’ve ever had with my kids. Seeing three children—seven, ten and 12—realize very different and important concepts that I’d missed during the movie, reinforced how powerful video can be for educating our kids.
Chef’s Table meets Omnivore’s Dilemma, it’s no surprise that OD author, Michael Pollan can tell a compelling story about food. This Netflix miniseries, set around the elemental components of cuisine, touches on sustainability but is really most engaging for the foodies in your family. The four-part series broken up into one-hour episodes means you can spread out the show over an entire week, and no one will miss bedtime.
Not for the squeamish, but perfect for my 7-year old son, Bugs follows chefs Josh Evans and Ben Reade around the world as they explore how eating insects could really save the planet. This low-budget documentary is a bit harder to find on the streaming services, but worth the hunt. Parents beware: the next morning I woke up early to find my son “bug hunting” in the backyard.
My kids are big fans of Hamilton, and I’ve come to learn that the educating power of hip-hop is mighty. Case-in-point: My 10-year old now schools me in the American Revolution despite my expensive undergrad history degree. This five-minute, fast-paced and rhythmic YouTube video, performed by spoken poet Prince Ea, scratches the sustainability itch in a very different way. My kids have watched it three times now, and the 7-year-old is already signing along.
So, when it’s time to make dinner, sit down to a show as a family, or if you just need a few moments of zen, consider putting one of these videos on and rest assured you’re little ones are still getting brainwashed to be better environmental stewards.
And that’s progressive parenting 101 from Top Carnivore.