An outcome of five TEDxManhattan events has been the Change Food Video Library. Over the past few years, it became obvious to me that there are now probably tens of thousands of videos and talks on food and farming, some good, a lot not-so-good. Trying to find them on YouTube has become a nightmare.
In addition, as the TEDx program became more successful and more licenses were granted, I saw that other TEDx events would have one or two speakers speak about food and/or farming but the videos would have relatively few views. And the talks are excellent. I realized that I didn’t need to have these people speak again at my events I could promote the talk they did at the TEDx they spoke at.
So the Change Food Video Library was born. I will admit, we are only in Phase One, and a lot of work still needs to be done to make it the quality destination I’d like it to be, but a group of dedicated volunteers and part-time staff are helping find the best videos on the Internet so we could create a place anyone can visit to easily find talks on all subjects around food and farming.
When we can, we look for additional information to go along with the videos and add it to the library so individuals can easily find more information about the topic of the talk.
This is being done in an effort to encourage people around the country, and increasingly world, to put on their own events and to use the additional information to help educate their local community. I believe change can only come from within, so I can’t go into somewhere like lows and tell people what to do — but I can provide tools and resources to people in Iowa so they can create change in their local community.
That is how we will build the food system we want to see.
We have a long way to go in building the video library, and we are getting ready to enter Phase Two, where site navigation will become easier and more information will be added to the site.
Feel free to send us any videos you think should be in the Library.
Diane Hatz is the Founder & Executive Director of Change Food. Change Food works to create a healthy food system for all by developing programs and resources for individuals and groups changing the food system from the ground up.
Originally published at www.changefood.org on September 14, 2016.