WWU Professor Gigi Berardi releases short film about 'FoodWISE'

WWU Professor of Environmental Studies Gigi Berardi has stayed busy since publishing her award-winning book, “FoodWISE: A Whole Systems Guide to Sustainable and Delicious Food Choices,” in 2020, and her recently released short film about the book features some familiar faces at Western.

“The messages of the book, and certainly in the film we produced from it, are very timely for these COVID times, and so, they definitely resonate: Do more with less. Be healthy. Cook with simple recipes—easy to follow, and environmentally friendly,” Berardi says, noting that the book gives people tools to understand the latest nutritional and food systems research in a way that is both accessible and rooted in science and sustainability.

The short film and a trailer about “FoodWISE” were made in collaboration with Deran Browne, manager of Western’s Digital Media Center. It features interviews with Huxley Professor and Department Chair Grace Wang, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Nini Hayes, Outback Farm Manager Terri Kempton and instructor Kay Sullivan, and images of Global Learning Program students. Food activists, personalities and academics such as Sandor Katz, Mother Noella Marcellino and Michael Appleby are also interviewed.

“The films were a super fun project,” Berardi says. “The idea was to get more attention on some of the issues in the book, particularly in these Covid times, and get some of the message across in an easily consumable medium.”

“FoodWISE” has received a variety of awards since its publication in early 2020, including a Nellie Bly Book Award for journalistic non-fiction, a Living Now Book Awards silver medal and a Next Generation Indie Book Award, as well as being selected as a finalist for the Independent Author Network Book of the Year, The Eric Hoffer Award and the Foreward INDIES Book of the Year Awards.

Berardi’s next project will be telling the story of a women’s cooperative in India that started with nothing and built up millions of dollars in credit to be able to bankroll women’s initiatives, organic farming, ecological restoration and more.

View Berardi’s short film about “FoodWISE” here.