The mission of the Food & Environment Reporting Network has always been to stimulate discussion about food, agriculture and environmental health, and we’ve pursued that though our articles and broadcast and multimedia pieces.
But we can also go live, as we did last week with a stimulating discussion between Ruth Reichl, the author and former editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine, and Pulitzer prize winning New York Times reporter Michael Moss. Their topic was Moss’s recent bestselling book, Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us.
The discussion was illuminating, as Moss unpacked the science of how food companies stimulate taste and satiation to get us to eat and buy ever more. But it was also quite entertaining too. I never thought I’d see Reichl, a former food critic of the Times, doing a taste test of multiple snack foods with Moss, but we all witnessed her eating a Cheeto.
The event highlighted the way FERN seeks to engage audiences, but it was also an important fund-raiser for our organization. The turn out at Haven’s Kitchen showed how much the public—that is, individual donors—support our not-for-profit enterprise. We’ve expanded that individual donor base quite significantly in the past two years, ramping up from nearly zero to now more than 30 percent of our funding, augmenting our support from philanthropic foundations.
We were very thankful to have a team of supporters in addition to Ruth and Michael. Amanda Hesser, Merrill Stubbs, Dominique Browning, Sarah Rosenberg and Tamar Adler served on our host committee. FERN writers with whom we work were present as well, including Paul Greenberg, Jane Black, Elizabeth Royte, and Tracie McMillan.
Alison Cayne, who also served on the host committee, graciously donated Haven’s Kitchen for the event and her home for a small dinner afterwards.
Peter Hoffman of Back Forty in New York City generously served as chef for the memorable food that evening.