The farmers in our film come from all across the country. They are veggie growers, orchardists, sausage-makers, urban gardeners, and ranchers. Some are committed to small-scale artisan production or cottage industry. Others raise pastured cattle with extensive acreages. They farm with horses on Land-Trust land, tractor-farm on incubator plots, and squat-farm in tiny urban greenhouses.
All these farmers feel deeply about what they are doing, and the film will unfold around that kernel of motivation. Those who acquired access to land, capital, technical training and an eager marketplace offer a survival manual for aspirants wishing to follow in their footsteps.
Willow runs City Slickers Farm, which maintains eight vibrant urban gardens and low-cost farmers markets in West Oakland, a place potholed with vacant lots and pretty extreme poverty. She focuses on nutrition and community-based social justice. Willow is a wonder, and our plan is to do a dream sequence where she get a magic wand and prances from lot to lot transforming them into food-gardens.
John and Stacey are self-diagnosed suburban refugees who are in the second year of a lease on Land Trust land in Scarborough, the fastest growing town in Maine. They run an 80 basket CSA with 80 families on the waiting list in its second year! They speak with us about the importance of agricultural easements in Land Trust conservancies and the bountiful markets for farm-fresh food.
Chris is a biodynamic farmer and nursery manager at Intermountain Nursery in Prather, CA. He shows us the life-stages of growing plants, the incredible native plants of the region, and his magical preparations made from the stomachs, horns, intestines and viscera of elk and cow. Chris also describes how his father, who labored as a farm-worker during the time of the grapes, is proud of his son’s career choice.
Pilar runs Sunnyside Organic Nursery in North Richmond, California. She laughs that she should have called it “ghetto organic” because her nursery finds a low-rent home in the abandoned Japanese cut flower headquarters in the shadow of the Chevron Refinery. Between the oil crisis, NAFTA and the “Ecuadorian roses,’ that neighborhood has withered. But between the recycling depot and municipal dump there are some leaking water tanks and 50 year old avocado trees and a totally delicious eco-entrepreneur! Pilar grew up in Alabama and began work as a chemical applicator. Since studying AgroEcology she has moved to the Bay, drives a CNG hybrid, and agonizes about black plastic.
Antonio is a mucisian and activist and community farmer at Alemany Farm. He got involved in growing food because of his concern about peak oil. He is a dear, and a native of Alemany–a district of the south mission that abuts the merging of two major freeways, and the confluence of about 14 lanes of traffic. Despite the din, and a fair dusting of diesel fumes–a strong community of activists, hipsters, and smiling urban farmers works every weekend on San Francisco municipal parkland’s Alemany Farm. Jason Mark is another director of the alemany project.
Jason is a writer and farm committed to improving food security by encouraging city residents to grow more of their own food. He is a co-manager of Alemany Farm, a 4.5-acre organic fruit and vegetable farm that is San Francisco's largest food production site. When not farming, he can be found writing about agriculture and food politics. His writings on food have appeared in The Nation, Gastronomica, Earth Island Journal, E, Yes!, Grist.org, Alternet.org, San Francisco Chronicle, and Orion. He is the co-author, with Kevin Danaher and Shannon Biggs, of Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grassroots.
Ned and Ryan run Blue House Farm in Pescadero, CA. It’s a small CSA on the edge of a wilderness preserve and on the footstep of a state park. The two lease the land from the POST land trust and focus on dry-farmed tomatoes, strawberries and nature education. They have seemingly dozens of blond pony-tailed, gorgeous farm girls working for harvest day. One of them is Kim Bayer, a professional surfer.
Brooke Budner
Urban gardener, Mission District, San Francisco, CA
Brooke manages a little garden on Guerrero Street in San Francisco. It’s tiny, and lovely–just steps from Dolores Park in one of the densest neighborhoods in the city. Brooke works at the farmers market, as a waitress, and as an artist. She has begun to sell her salad greens.
Tamar Adler
Bay Area Meat CSA, Berkeley, CA
Tamar runs the Bay Area Meat CSA with Bonnie Powell out of her lovely house in Berkeley– it’s a cooperative of conscious carnivores who pool their resources to purchase the whole hog–literally. The group purchases directly from the farmers, and with a short side trip to the slaughterhouse and butcher shop, the animals come straight off the grass and into the hands of these pro-active consumers. Tamar comes from Georgia. Now she’s a chef at the Chez Panisse cafe.
Amy and Kristen run Freewheelin Farm down in Davenport, CA. It’s right on the coast, smack in the middle of a brussell sprout monoculture you wouldn’t believe. But they got access to one acre of land adjacent to one of the old Bracero Barracks, and they run a CSA for Santa Cruz residents. They deliver the food once a week with a bicycle trailer–its about a 9 mile round trip mission. These ladies are strong, strong-willed, and oh-so-quick at planting garlic.
Marina Michaelles
Shoving Leopard Farm, Rokeby, Barrytown, NY
Marina is a farm policy wonk and flower grower. She runs a cut flower CSA on her family’s 19th century Hudson estate, and sings songs with names like “Fat is where the flavor is.”Her dream is an incubator project for young farmer enterprises. Her future farmer’s (future) husband is Louis Munroe, a handy man to have around–singer, carpenter and love.
Miguel Altieri
Scientist
Miguel is not a farmer; he’s a scientist– one of the premier agroecologists in the world, on the faculty of UC Berkeley. We speak with Miguel down at the Gil Track, the former research center for biological control of the Univeristy of California–now almost totally abandoned, without funding and on the verge of development, including a proposed Whole Foods shopping center. Miguel explains to us the risks of monoculture and the importance of biologically diverse agro-ecosystems during times of drought and for a lower energy future.
Lydia and Rupert Allen
Ireland
Lydia and Rupert are new parents and new owners of their very own farm in the south of Ireland. Windswept and perfect for barley. Rupert runs the farmers’ markets in Cork City and hopes to become an organic brewer. Lydia is an artist and a cook–she is also the daughter of a sustainable rural dynesty in Cork County.
Fingal Ferguson
Sausage Maker, Ireland
Fingal makes sausages from the pigs fattened on his mother’s whey. Well, the whey from her cheesemaking, the milk of which come from the herd of Kerry, Simmenthal, Friesen and Jersey cows that his father milks, manages and wrangles. Also just on the ocean- this family run a tight ship, and Giana helps develop programs for youth with Slow Food. The family sells their wares primarily through farmers’ markets, a growing and blooming trade in Ireland.
Ghislain Jutras
Les Jardines Naturluttes, St-Francois-Xavier de Brompton, Quebec
Ghislain teaches organic agriculture at the University of Quebec City. He started a vegetable CSA on a family friend’s farm, which now serves as a meeting place for lovely French-speaking young growers. Ghislain has created a community of concerned and inspired youth, and we are lucky to have him as a friend and advisor.
We also hear from Brock Fulmer of Black Sheep Ranchand Richard Heinberg. Collaborations are in the pot with the locavore-promoting folks at Marlow and Sons in Brooklyn, who publish Diner Journal.
