Statement:

GUERRILLA NUTRITION LABELS is a tactical media campaign to spread awareness of harmful chemicals in processed foods. I started this project in Heidi Cody’s Culture Jamming class in Fall 2006.

The project includes labels and a website with do-it-yourself instructions. It inspired an ongoing blog, GUERRILLA HEALTH WATCH, about reducing toxic chemical consumption in everyday life and promoting health with natural alternatives.

The labels, which fit on the sides of cereal boxes and many other products, provide a fun, humorous and subversive way for people to tell their communities about partially hydrogenated oils (trans fat), sodium benzoate, high fructose corn syrup, and other unsafe additives.

Consumers can print the labels themselves and surreptitiously plant them on products in stores or even private homes, directly intervening in the company-consumer relationship at the moment when neither party has control over the product.

The labels empower people to speak back to large corporations who do not provide warnings about the harmful chemicals they use to mass-produce food. I hope the labels intrigue and inspire people to share information with their friends and fellow shoppers, especially in communities where nutrition education is scarce and processed foods are abundant.

Websites:

Guerrilla Nutrition Labels

The Guerrilla Health Watch Blog

Exhibitions

2007 If You See Something, Say Something, Hunter College (New York, NY)
2007 Electronic Social Club: Mixer and Presentations, Hunter College (New York, NY)