Synopsis:
Sustainable Table is a feature documentary that takes an unadulterated look into the food that you buy and eat. What’s on your plate? Where does it come from? What effects does it have on the environment and your body? What can you do to help?

Over nine months, Mischa Hedges and his crew traveled the west coast to learn more about our food system. During production, they interviewed agricultural experts, farmers, actors, activists and spokespeople for a variety of causes and interests including animal rights, vegetarianism, the environment, cattle and dairy production, conventional chemical agriculture and organic/sustainable agriculture.

Sustainable Table paints a picture of how your food is produced through interviews, file footage and images of California’s agricultural land and practices. The film is made up of several segments:

The History of Agriculture- the shift from humans as hunter/gatherers to today’s industrialized agriculture system Conventional Agriculture the process of producing field crops using monoculture and agrichemicals including synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides.

Animal Agriculture- the process of raising meat, dairy and eggs using conventional methods, including hormones, antibiotics, feedlots and confinement for cheaper, controlled production of animal products.

A Plant-Based Diet: a segment outlining the benefits of a plant-based diet from health, environmental and global standpoints.

Organic and Sustainable Agriculture- outlines organic and sustainable farming methods and their differences from conventional methods.

What You Can Do: stresses the impact of consumer demand on the food market, encouraging the public to make informed decisions about what they eat and vote in the methods they believe in with their pocketbooks.

The food that we choose to buy or not to buy, and to eat or not to eat has a profound impact on the environment, the global food supply and the health of farm workers, agricultural communities and consumers.

Sustainable Table shows you what goes into the food that you eat, what the health, environmental and social effects are, and introduces some of the alternatives to conventionally-produced food. It may not be enough to buy your food from Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. A new kind of food system is needed, where food is produced locally using sustainable methods.

VIEWER QUOTES
"...it all goes down with little sense of preachiness. In fact, the film's overall impression is that it is oriented toward getting the average American to watch without fear or alienation." -VegNews Magazine, May/June 2007 Review

"I can’t tell you how many times we told our children to eat their steak or they wouldn’t get any dessert. This film has profoundly affected the way I will feed my family in the future." -Anonymous viewer

"There is no question that the film itself brings up a lot of interesting topics, and if nothing else really does make you stop and think about what you are consuming and why." -Sacatomato food blog

"I have been showing it to everyone and really trying to spread the word. I have become vegetarian and am doing what I can to help. It made a huge impact on me and I know it will to many more people also." –Anonymous viewer

MISCHA HEDGES
Producer, director, editor and musical artist, Mischa Hedges has long known the impact a single person has on his environment. Growing up in rural Mendocino, California, he learned the importance of working hard and making a difference. While still in high school, Mischa used his talents to produce Big River: a resource worth protecting, a film used in the fundraising efforts to purchase over 7000acres of forestland that was scheduled to be clearcut.

While attending Chapman University to receive his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film and Television he performed more community service. Mischa rode four times in AIDS/Lifecycle, a 585 mile cycling event that benefits AIDS research, services and education through individual fundraising. Over the years of riding, he has raised over $10,000 for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and LA Gay and Lesbian Center. Mischa spends his summers leading backpacking trips and wilderness education at a mountain ranch living camp for kids in Northern California.

During Mischa’s first 3 years in college, his interest in documentary film led him to join several documentary crews. He was a director of photography and an editor on a concert film documentary following reggae artist “Eek-A-Mouse” on tour throughout the western United States. His next experience was in a crew of three, shooting and editing Way Ahead of Their Time, a thirty-minute documentary about drug abuse among teens. They interviewed current and recovering drug addicts, young and old, as well as experts on substance abuse.

In his final year at Chapman University Mischa produced, directed and edited Sustainable Table: what’s on your plate?, a feature documentary about America’s agricultural industry and food system. Over the course of this project and his life so far, he has realized that his calling is to raise awareness and create positive change whether it be through music, community service or documentary films.