From pans and Food Photography to an online newspaper
Exactly one year ago, I embarked on an adventure that is one of the most important of my life.
In the photo, the first article in the newspaper, back in January, all the hope, positivity, and desire to do something new were in the air.
It all started with another blog, the culinary one Ana Cunha-Busch, which had more to do with what I was doing at the time. I was working as a private chef for Take a Chef Home in Germany, going from house to house wherever they recruited me, for a small dinner, most of the time, and bringing my Brazilian way of being, very good at setting tables, along. They didn't just hire a cook, but the beautiful, welcoming, charming atmosphere that I learned in Germany, especially with Brazilians, to mention one of my mentors, Pixu. One of the most sensitive, inspiring people I've ever met. Because of her strong influence, I didn't get mentally ill (I never got COVID, yes I'm weird). In the year we were quarantined, I set up an e-commerce where I had a lot of products from artisans from all over the world, who were especially affected by the pandemic. The e-commerce lasted three years and when normality returned, I closed the business, it didn't make sense anymore. As a food photographer, there was also a fatal paralysis for me, I had 2 clients, and both restaurants closed.
But what do blogs and e-commerce have to do with this newspaper? Everything. I'm a little old lady, I wasn't born with a cell phone in my hand. The Internet, programs, apps, social media, and this whole universe were not part of my life. I've always written, I've been writing as a ghostwriter for many years, but that's all it was: the Word program and I still struggled with it several times, my God, there are so many possibilities... I'm from the days when you had to take a typing course, and I was a terrible typist, to be honest.
Coming into contact with this world gave me the courage to take higher flights. I cried a lot because it took me hours to get something done, web designers who were crooks, social media “helpers” who didn't understand me (as if I understood them), who didn't understand what I wanted, but I had them by my side: writing and photography. That's how I started the Gastronomy Blog, which was almost stolen by a bad professional. The blog has given me a lot of joy and still does, because it's not just recipes, but the history of food, combined with beautiful photos, suggestions, and tips that I've learned in cooking/gastronomy courses and life, all for free, with no advertising, no adds from anyone, it's me and the reader, like a book.
All this experience gave me the courage to think about doing something different from what I had done before: a newspaper about sustainability, ecology, and climate change.
I was in Brazil in July 2023, and my daughter had just been widowed by a tragic accident, she was sleeping a lot with strong medication, and while I was there, looking after her, I continued the studies I had started a few months before, exactly two years ago. I learned a lot about the subject, the closest I'd ever come to it was having been an excellent biology undergraduate student, which I didn't finish, but it gave me a good grounding, but we're talking about 300 years ago here.
Joking aside, being in Brazil, I became interested in the Brazilians who were already doing a lot for the environment, hidden away in our continental country, but always with a lot of creativity, and entrepreneurship, always with our special touch. Be it the waste pickers I met, the recyclers, the Indigenous people who are the true maintainers of the forests, the simple people, or the academically involved. Among them, one caught my eye: Anna Luísa from SDW, a UN prize-winner, an inventor in the field of water and sanitation, a lovely person, very little known if we consider her talent. I don't want to be unfair to the other people who have inspired me, so let's put her forward to represent everyone else.
With more than 10 online courses under my belt by that point, July 2023, I began to think about what I would do with the knowledge I was acquiring, the people I was meeting and connecting with, and from there, continuing my studies until December 2023, I thought, why not, make a newspaper. A newspaper with a capital J, as we say in Brazil, where there would be news from a serious agency, and I chose AFP, where I receive pertinent news by e-mail.
As of this December, in just over a month the newspaper was on the air, in other words, I started to ACT quickly, I had prepared myself, as you can see in the photo, the first article in the newspaper was written by me and was published on January 19, 2024.
I divided the newspaper into three parts: news, articles by contributors, which I'll talk about in a moment, and interviews on Instagram.
The interviews took a break as soon as the tragedy in the south of Brazil happened, I was pretty shaken up, but I still intend to come back. Time is absurdly short right now.
I do everything myself, I have a web designer who helps me only with the technical side, but I'm the one who receives the news, decides if it deserves to be published, goes through the corrector, translates it into Portuguese and German, since the news arrives in English, with serious grammatical errors. I do the layout and look for photos and fonts. I publish on social networks, especially LinkedIn. I do all the contacting of people who want to connect, find out more about the newspaper, for example, how many employees... I haven't decided yet whether it's shameful or a source of pride, just one. I decided not to decide then, because in a way, with the growth of the newspaper, I've been hiring people, even temporary ones, either for special Canva artwork or to help me with social networks that I don't know a thing about. The good thing: I've learned to delegate. It's difficult for me, and I only delegate to special people who understand me, who embrace the topic, and who are truthful, direct, sincere, and cute.
Today we celebrate one year as a newspaper. We're still not advertising, because I don't want anything “jumping out”, or getting in the way of the reading experience, whether it's the news or reading the opinions of my contributors, who are so diverse, plural, they are waste pickers, Indigenous people, quilombolas, teachers, biologists, administrators, ESG specialists, forest engineers, agroforestry producers, physicists, doctors in catastrophes, or even a representation from Brazil (I have a representative from India, Dr. Prachi Jain), whoever has something to say that has to do with our theme. Usually on the SDGs, or on a specific topic on sustainability, ecology, or climate change. With them, I share all the merits that the newspaper begins to have. Incredible people who write for me, free of charge, out of love for the topic, and for believing in my work. I'm eternally grateful.
There are other people I have to thank. My husband, of course, believes in everything “I invent”, because he knows that at my age I should already be knitting sweaters for the grandchildren, but I hate threads, I get tangled up in them, and my head can't keep up with my body. He hasn't grown old yet, he still wants to learn, and he still wants to make some kind of difference in this world. My daughter, my faithful companion in all my moments, is the one who talks about this. Thank you, Bina.
I have to thank my friends at ClubHouse, an audio social media site, who have given me strength since the seed of the idea, many of whom I no longer have contact with, but specifically Marcio, Tami Alceu, and Alan. Incredible squires of the crazy woman who decided to report on some issues. Down with Fake News and disinformation! We're all locked in this direction!
One year of the newspaper, made with courage, with money from my pocket to pay for the platform, professionals, CANVA, affiliation, social media premium, domain maintenance, and all the other expenses.
I work around 9 hours every day, but I don't regret a minute of it. It's a life project that I enjoy, and it's scheduled to last 5 years. Until then I have a lot to learn and pass on. Our planet, our animals, ourselves, and our descendants deserve so much more, and I hope I'm giving a little of what I can, with a lot of help from my partners, so let's get going! We have 4 more years!
I'd like to take this opportunity to ask any business or company interested in having their banner in our newspaper, exclusive articles, or any kind of cooperation to contact us. Donations are also welcome and will be mentioned in the newspaper.
Prerequisite: love for Planet Earth and its crew.
Editor-in-chief
PS: Soon we'll have a podcast and interviews again.
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