Once a month my wife and I host Social Consciousness Movie Night where we watch documentaries and movies about human rights, health, the environment, politics, international affairs, and other issues.
This past Saturday night the living room was full of people who’d come to watch The Future of Food, which points the spotlight on GE foods, gene patenting, government farm subsidies, and the impact of corporate powers on food production. I appreciated the international flavor of the documentary; this issue is bigger than just the U.S.
Organic food (especially locally grown) is presented as a sustainable alternative to modern food production practices.
After the film ended, we talked for quite a while about our personal thoughts and questions. The discussion moved from food allergies to Leviticus 19, from Soylent Green to King Corn, from the price of organic food to the problems of chemicals, from the need for a local CSA to questions about starting a garden and finding heirloom seeds, from concerns about bone meal to the effects of corn-syrup.
We came to this 4-part conclusion about food purchasing:
- Locally grown organic food is the best option for personal and planetary health. This could be from your garden, a for-profit organic farm, or community supported agriculture.
- Organic food at the local grocery store or co-op is the next-best option.
- Non-organic food purchased at a farmer’s market is good because it reduces emissions from transportation, supports the local economy, and gives a larger share of the income from produce to farmers rather than to all the intermediaries.
- Processed, preserved, and production-style food at the grocery store is the least beneficial option for both the environment and for our health.
Looking for a local farm or CSA? Check out www.localharvest.org. We had two good CSAs in Colorado, but there don’t appear to be any in this area. If you have one near you, count your blessing and support them with your time, money and hugs.
Are you interested in learning more about health, gardening, and/or farming? Two other documentaries we’ve enjoyed are King Corn and Super Size Me. And these look interesting—How to Save the World, Project Garden, My Father’s Garden, Fed Up, Genetically Modified Food: Panacea or Poison, Bad Seed, and Sweet Remedy. And I’m embarrassed to say that I have not yet seen The Real Dirt on Farmer John.
Also, as spring approaches I’ll be posting two articles here about organic gardening. Honestly, I know very little about gardening, so I'm going to interview two Adventists with actual experience. It has been many years since I pulled weeds from our family garden or picked strawberries with migrant workers in Oregon.
And the big question… Would a social action movie night work in your community? When we did this in Colorado, almost all attendees were our non-Christian friends. Here, everyone who comes is SDA. Who could you invite? What issues would you want to discuss as a community? What would be your first three films?
NOTE: Purchasers of the documentary receive a 2nd DVD with excellent special features. This bonus disc does not come with Netflix or Blockbuster rentals. Though a new edition was released in 2007, I have only seen the original (2004).
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ONLINE RESOURCES
- Local Harvest
- A Better World – Organic (Definition and Benefits)
- USDA – Organic Labeling
- Organic Consumers Association
- Organic Food Info – Organic Benefits
- Organic Foodee – Organic Lifestyle Online Magazine
- NewsTarget.com – Organic Gardening
- Sustainable Life – Organic Gardening
- Wikipedia – Organic Farming
- USDA – Community Supported Agriculture
- Amherst – Community Supported Agriculture
- Sustainable Agriculture Info – Community Supported Agriculture
2 comments:
Another option to consider is becoming a professional farmer. A growing corps of first generation farmers throughout the U.S. and Canada are taking up SPIN-Farming, developed by Canadian farmer Wally Satzewich. SPIN stands for S-mall P-lot IN-tensive, and it is a non-technical, easy to-learn-and inexpensive-to-implement farming system that makes it possible to generate significant income from land under an acre in size. Minimal infrastructure, reliance on hand labor to accomplish most farming tasks, utilization of existing water sources to meet irrigation needs, and situating close to markets all keep investment and overhead costs low. SPIN therefore removes the 2 big barriers to entry – land and capital. You can see the operations of some of these backyard and front lawn farmers at the SPIN-Farming web site - www.spinfarming.com.
Great post, and a fun idea (movie night with a purpose)! I've been toying with the idea of doing the same thing in my community, and this report might just give me the impetus to get it rolling.
With a group of friends from La Sierra University who come to our place for dinner Monday nights, we watched part of the documentary "Earthlings". Recommend that one highly (in fact, part of it is posted on AEA here).
Roxsen offers a great suggestion too. In Redlands, CA, where my family lives, local citrus and avocado growers produce tons of fruit each year.
I spoke with a lady last weekend who said that it is more cost effective to sell her oranges and avocados on the street corner than to sell to Sunkist.
Which means more affordable, organic local produce!!
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