“Tastemakers”  is a public media project and documentary film that aims to creatively change the way we speak about nature and technology. The project involves six people, 4 canoes, a Marco Polo inspired expedition, the flavor industry, a contentious debate between natural and artificial, “chemophobia”, the authors and filmmakers of the American food zeitgeist, a forgotten landscape, and unprecedented finger pointing—at history, science, economics—and ourselves.

The production of flavor is a sophisticated, and arguably remarkable science unknown to most Americans. For many, flavorings are a series of multisyllabic, unpronounceable ingredients that can make even the most intelligent of us feel illiterate. A growing number of news stories and popular documentaries investigating America’s diet, food production, preservation and genetic alteration, has increased public wariness of labels. But, as the film explores, could there be more romance than science involved when we value natural over artificial, organic over synthetic, and raw over processed?

As the canoe makes its way down river, we hope to explore this war of words by speaking with the tastemakers themselves from within the landscape that these factories call home. How are flavors developed, created, marketed? What makes a flavoring natural or artificial by industry standards? What makes a landscape natural or artificial? At what point does it matter? With the growing popularity of terms like natural, green, artisanal, boutique, local, raw, do we—unlike our postwar grandparents— long for a past that never existed?

We need your help. We’re half way there but we still need lots of support to make this project a reality. Any donation would be helpful and greatly appreciated. All donations are tax-deductible. Much thanks!