The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism has awarded three $3,500 documentary grants to MSU faculty-student teams.
The winning projects were chosen from 16 proposals submitted in a campus-wide competition:

• “Resilience of the Niger River System.” The film and companion online audio/visual photo essay will report on the sustainability of West Africa’s Niger River system, particularly as it relates to fishing livelihoods. Faculty: Richard Richardson and Jennifer Hodbod, Department of Community Sustainability. Student: Ryan Vroegindewey, Department of Community Sustainability. Professional: Amadou Keita, photographer in Mali.
• “GRUB.” The film will look at global food security, using as a jump-off point the 1943 famine in China in which survivors ate locusts to avoid starvation. Faculty: Carleen Ling-An Hsu, Departments of Media & Information and English. Students: Sophie Li, Film Studies, and Erik Shackelford, Department of Media & Information. Professional: Elia Lyssy, cinematographer.
• “The Last Branch — The Rama People of Nicaragua’s Vanishing Rainforests.” The documentary will highlight the simultaneous humanitarian and environmental crisis occurring in the Rama’s last wild area and will feature research demonstrating the vital role of the Indio Maiz Reserve for protecting jaguars, tapirs and other flagship species. Faculty: Gerald Urquhart, Department of Fisheries & Wildlife and Lyman Briggs College. Student: Joel Betts, Department of Fisheries & Wildlife.

In addition to public dissemination of the projects, the Knight Center will be able to use them on its website and for presentation in classes, workshops and other center activities.
This is the third year of the center’s grant competition.