We’ve embarked on Sourced’s new season! Last season was an introduction to the project where we discussed the ideas behind Sourced, you can learn more about these ideas in our Instagram Live Tutorials.
Season 2.1 will be more representative of what Sourced will look like in the future. We started this project to research the politics, commerce and culture of food and drink through focused investigations into ingredients. Our goal is for this research to develop an understanding of how food and drink moves around the world to develop more equitable culinary systems.
Season 2.1 will run through March 2021 and will focus on soil. You can read more about how we approach soil as an ingredient in our syllabus. We will be continually updating the syllabus throughout the Soil season so check back monthly for more reading, listening and viewing recommendations.
So far we have published our first series of audio interviews for our soil season. The first is with Carla Martin of the Fine Chocolate and Cacao Institute who discusses how cacao farming can be made more equitable to farmers and chocolate’s status as an everyday luxury with Anna. In the second interview Anna speaks with Ian Burrell of Equiano Rum about the cultural ‘roots’ of rum and how Equiano is honoring the spirit’s history through its supply chain. In case you missed it, we ended last season with Chloe interviewing Kirsty McFadden, Head of Creative at the UN World Food Programme (WFP), who had started her role ahead of Europe’s pandemic lockdowns.
We have some exciting commissions coming up in the next few weeks as well, including a comic that will explore equatorial farming, an article on how forced displacement shapes food culture and a piece on the temperamental needs of saffron.
We also wrote a piece for the excellent New Zealand / Aotearoa based magazine Stone Soup, it is currently only in print (in Auckland!) but will be on their website next month. Do give them a follow on instagram in the meantime as they are doing exceptional work around food, drink, hospitality and sustainability. Image in this newsletter is from the Stone Soup team, which accompanied our piece; the issue was entitled Emergence.
All of the work we commission for Sourced is made possible by our paid subscribers. Last month we decided to donate the first monthly fee (£3.50) of all new paid subscribers to the UK food aid organisation, Trussell Trust. We have actually decided to extend this for all new paid subscriptions in January 2021. Our goal is to reach £1700 monthly in subscription fees which translates to 500 paid subscribers and a £1500 donation to Trussell Trust. If we reach our goal this year we will be able to put out a print issue of Sourced, bring contributor rates up to a minimum of £400, host events (when safe) and expand our venture into more mixed media including video.
Our next paid subscripted newsletter is our on Tuesday! Anna thinks about sugar and Chloe is delving into cake - with a semi savoury cake and a sweet cake recipes.
If you would like to upgrade your subscription we offer a £3.50 monthly plan or a £42+ annual plan (this newsletter is our monthly free round up edition).