Tenzin Botsford of Red Door Family Farm, near Wausau, will deliver a TED-like talk at the event.
The future of food is grim: Much of the world’s crop biodiversity was lost over the last century, and six major corporations have a near monopoly on seed distribution. And supermarkets encourage destructive farming practices such as spraying with toxic pesticides and over-fertilization in order to achieve their goal of larger, aesthetically uniform produce.
But people are fighting back. The Food + Farms Film Festival, slated for March 13 at the High Noon Saloon, features five documentaries about activists seeking control over our food supply.
Farmers for America profiles activist farmers around the country, and Food Chains documents a partnership between farm laborers and retailers who are attempting to improve working conditions. The Future of Food takes a look at the stories behind organic farmers distributing produce through community supported agriculture. The Gift follows a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, Canadian Dan Jason. And Adaptive Seeds looks at the promising practice of seed saving in Oregon.
Rather than dwelling on the problems, the short-to-medium length films showcase a diverse group of people and organizations fighting industrial farming monopolies. In between films, experts will deliver “TED-like” talks on the issues. Speakers include Irwin Goldman, a professor of horticulture at UW-Madison, who will speak about the Open Source Seed Initiative, which is adapting a model used by game developers to save the genetic codes of patented seeds.
According to Adaptive Seeds, 13 small seed companies in the Pacific Northwest are fighting to reverse the troubling trend of monoculture. If they succeed, perhaps the future of farming won’t be so grim. After all, the largest, strongest trees all started as the tiniest seeds.
Erika Jones, executive director of the FairShare CSA Coalition, says she hopes the festival will inform and inspire the audience. “By bringing in local leaders that are working on these issues — like organic seeds, or transitioning land from conventional to organic — we can provide a local context, and hopefully help folks find a way to get involved right here in our community.”