I’ve been immensely enjoying the Sundance Channel’s original documentary series, Big Ideas for a Small Planet, which addresses some very important environmental issues and focuses on a diversity of people who are trying to make a difference.

The show succeeds in that it’s not preachy, and the featured subjects are interesting and make very valid points in regards to the changes we need to make in order to maintain the beauty and sustainability of our planet. I’ve seen several episodes, my favorite being the one titled “Eat,” which follows three parallel stories centered on food. The first is about Hilary Brown and her Lawrence, Kan., organic fast food restaurant, Local Burger, where she serves all locally-raised meat and locally-produced fare. Big Ideas also traces her successful Morgan Spurlock-inspired challenge, “Localize Me,” where an overweight fast food-addicted person consumed only Local Burger food for 30 days, which prompted his lowered blood pressure and a 25-pound weight loss. The next story is about Trenton, N.J.-based Terracycle, the country’s largest organic fertilizer company. The system that creates the fertilizer uses green waste (leftover vegetable matter) mixed with manure and paper waste to feed to thousands upon thousands of worms. Said worms produce a whole lot of mineral-rich doodie that is transformed into the liquid fertilizer offered by Terracycle. In the last segment, an up-and-coming Los Angeles chef gives a tour of his new green fine dining restaurant, Blue Velvet, where all the furnishings and decorations are made from sustainable and recycled materials, the menu is tailored so that it’s constantly changing to feature seasonal foods, and the rooftop is in the process of being converted into a produce garden so that the restaurant can grow all its own organic veggies. 

 Watch clips and download episodes here.

This article appears in Jun 6-12, 2007.