As an actual journalist, I bemoan what passes for food journalism. The best reporters on the food system in the United States have been comedians, such as Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and yes, Samantha Bee.
For 7 years, Samantha Bee took on topics real journalists were afraid to confront. Samantha Bee might have been afraid yet she did segments on important issues such as school lunch funding.
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee on TBS ended its run over the terribly awful Warner Bros. Discovery merger with the new TBS management making several stupid mistakes, one of them cancelling the show. We had hope the show could find a new home but that seems highly unlikely.
Having a half hour a single day a week meant the show couldn't cover as much as The Daily Show did. Still, we would love to celebrate what we had.
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee makes the case for universal free lunch
The stigma of lunch debt. The pandemic led to the USDA to waive price as an issue for the cost of school lunches. Those waivers pretty much expired about a year ago.
The economic numbers don't reflect the number of people unemployed or sharply underemployed, many of whom have children who go to school. Feeding lunch to children is crucial to their ability to learn, which benefits everyone in society.
Since the GOP controls the House, there will be zero legislation to improve the situation.
The food system is also about who is involved in your food
The impact on immigrants, no matter their status, makes a gigantic impact on the U.S. food system from farm workers to restaurant workers and even chef/owner immigrants. Samantha Bee is an immigrant from Canada (that counts) so Bee and Padma Lakshmi, host of Top Chef, talked about the impact of immigration on food.
"I think the food landscape in this country would be completely different without immigrant labor," said Lakshmi. "We all have a responsibility to reach down and pull up the people who really break their back for you day in and day out."
Bee spotlights Cristina Martinez, who runs a popular barbacoa restaurant. Martinez explained in Spanish that she came to the United States to escape her abusive now ex-husband.
The food insecurity coverage in most mainstream journalism during the pandemic was about the visual of long lines for food pantries. Once again, Samantha Bee points out the food insecurity before the pandemic and the loss of school lunches since children weren't going to school.
BalanceofFood.com school lunch coverage
BalanceofFood.com U.S. food policy coverage
BalanceofFood.com television coverage
The Daily Show is in transition after Trevor Noah left. The future of these late-night shows, once so crucial to supplementing journalism, is really up in the air.
What's Eating America devotes cable news time to important food issues
How Trevor Noah and The Daily Show poked fun at the food supply
The MSNBC series was brief and mostly got on the air thanks to the popularity of Andrew Zimmern. This is the exception in cable news, not the norm. While the Trevor Noah version wasn't as diligent about the food supply system, Roy Wood Jr. could have his own show on the topic.
In a TikTok world, the idea of 7-8 minutes for a segment devoted to a food policy concern with humor and significance finding a happy partnership feel wonderful but may be only a pipe dream.
The Food Network and Cooking Channel, both owned by Discovery, the group that took down Samantha Bee's program, would be the ideal place for a block of programming once a week on actual food policy issues. Over the air stations are required to run educational programming. We could check that box, though cable channels don't have that requirement.
photo and video credits: Full Frontal with Samantha Bee/TBS
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