I have been a fellow of the Media Education Lab (MEL) at the University of Rhode Island for a couple of decades. That means I’m part of a community of international, national, and regional leaders who promote media literacy. I’ve run MEL conferences, delivered workshops, co-authored white papers, and collaborated in classrooms with other media literacy practitioners. As a designated MEL Fellow Writer, I apply my interests in critical literacy, media messaging, discourse analysis, and visual analysis to everyday topics and events. One of my recent areas of inquiry has been the intersection of food and media. Drawing upon the key questions of media literacy, I’m curious about how mainstream and social media promote marketing messages about food systems. What techniques are used to communicate meanings, and why? How credible are the sources of food information these media channels provide? How does the conscious construction of these food-oriented media messages influence the emotional responses of audiences? This summer I invited a group of talented writers who specialize in food systems to participate in a special MEL publication called MediaEd Insights. Our issue is called, “What’s for Dinner? Food as an Ecomedia Literacy Inquiry.” This cross-post is the first of five essays that discuss different approaches to our food systems as ways to engage in ecological education and media interpretation. The remaining essays will be posted over the next few days. Enjoy. Opening Essay | MediaEd Insights What’s for Dinner?’ Food as an Ecomedia Literacy Inquiry | August 2026 by Carolyn Fortuna My mother cooked for our family with a post-World War II mindset. Bacon and eggs for breakfast. Wonder Bread sandwiches with one slice of American cheese and another slice of ham. Supper typically would be Shake-n-Bake chicken, mashed potatoes, and a canned vegetable, or hamburger and reheated frozen french fries. She upped her meal repertoire game on Sundays with well-done roast beef and on Fridays during Lent with tuna casserole. As I grew up, I became increasingly aware of what an essential gift nature provides to us. Texts like Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and The Sea around Us spoke to me as an integral part of my identity formation. I came to understand that humans are one with the Earth — that we share ecosystems and life forces. I became a tree hugger, an eco-warrior, eco-nut, eagle freak. These derogatory terms for living in ways connected to the planet didn’t faze me — they empowered me. In the 1970s, the meat-processing industry was in the midst of heartily denying how chemicals like nitrates and nitrites react with meat and form cancer-causing compounds. In 1980 I renounced red meat, adding inhumane animal treatment to my healthy-choices vegetarian rationale. By the 21st century food’s contributions to climate change became commonly known: Big Agriculture generates about 25% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions are the result of activities like farm machines powered by fossil fuels, fertilizer production, and methane released by livestock. Yet too many people are still unaware that their food choices help to drive emissions. My vegetarianism morphed into a type of eco-advocacy, and the more I learned about the intersection between our food systems and climate change, the more I realized that most media stories make no mention of meat or livestock production as a cause of climate change. It makes sense that a relatively new field of food media literacy is emerging within the context of ecomedia literacy. Food media literacy develops competences to critically evaluate media portrayals of food and their interconnectedness with ecological and social systems. Inviting transparency into the media’s role in food systems can create all kinds of new meanings about our contemporary food systems. The ecomedia literacy lens becomes important to consider when thinking about our food systems, as it not only incorporates media literacy practices to analyze environmental issues, but it is also a type of awakening for media literacy practitioners. As eco-literacy scholar Antonio Lopez notes, “To be fair, many of those who teach media or sustainability have difficulty seeing the relationship between media and the environment.” For example, when we critically analyze the relationship between social media and nutrition, we see how many common dietary behaviors, perceptions, and choices parallel advice of influencers. This is important, as we need to better recognize how the media shapes perceptions of food production, consumption habits, and waste generation. In doing so, we can make more informed decisions to choose Earth-friendly foods and learn to advocate for environmentally sound and socially equitable food systems. Resources Lopez, Antonio. Ecomedia literacy: Integrating ecology into media education. Rutledge. 2020. — “Ecomedia: The metaphor that makes a difference.” The Journal of Sustainability Education. May 3, 2020.