Ready for Farmageddon?
By Carol Spurling

Americans’ right to access fresh, healthy foods of their choice is under attack. Farmageddon tells the story of small, family farms that were providing safe, healthy foods to their communities and were forced to stop, sometimes through violent action, by agents of misguided government bureaucracies, and seeks to figure out why. The Moscow Food Co-op is happy to present Farmageddon for our next Good Food Film Series, at 7 pm, Wednesday, January 18, at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre, 508 S. Main, Moscow. Tickets will be $4 for Co-op members and $6 for the general public and will be available at the door.

Filmmaker Kristin Canty’s quest to find healthy food for her four children turned into an educational journey to discover why access to these foods was being threatened. What she found were policies that favor agribusiness and factory farms over small family- operated farms selling fresh foods to their communities. Instead of focusing on the source of food safety problems -- most often the industrial food chain -- policymakers and regulators implement and enforce solutions that target and often drive out of business small farms that have proven themselves more than capable of producing safe, healthy food, but buckle under the crushing weight of government regulations and excessive enforcement actions.

Farmageddon highlights the urgency of food freedom, encouraging farmers and consumers alike to take action to preserve individuals’ rights to access food of their choice and farmers’ rights to produce these foods safely and free from unreasonably burdensome regulations. The film serves to put policymakers and regulators on notice that there is a growing movement of people aware that their freedom to choose the foods they want is in danger, a movement that is taking action with its dollars and its voting power to protect and preserve the dwindling number of family farms that are struggling to survive.

Save the dates for future Good Food Film Series this winter and spring: Feb. 15 Back to the Garden, Mar. 21 Harvest/La Cosecha, and Apr. 18 The Economics of Happiness.

“The Greenhorns” Documentary to Screen Across the Northwest This Season
Eleven events mark strong interest in growing a new crop of farmers, will be a Good Food Film Series event on November 2nd
by Carol Spurling, outreach and membership coordinator

The Greenhorns, a national grassroots nonprofit organization of young farmers, will premiere their much-anticipated documentary film, “The Greenhorns,” all over the Northwest this fall, from small town independent theatres to college campuses. Join director Severine von Tscharner Fleming at our own Good Food Film Series Greenhorns screening at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, November 2nd, at the Kenworthy Theatre, 508 S. Main in Moscow. Tickets ($6 general, $4 Co-op members and all University students and local farmers) will be available at the Kenworthy starting at 7 pm; light refreshments will be served in the theatre lobby.

"The Greenhorns" documents the decisive reemergence on our national landscape of a key cultural and economic force, the young American farmer. These new men and women in agriculture operate and thrive despite a longstanding trend of farmer attrition and aging, and the continued rapid loss of farmland to development.  The average age of a farmer in America is 57, and USDA subsidies to huge agribusinesses dominate Farm bill spending. But many communities are experiencing a resurgence of activity among young, new and aspiring farmers.

“The Greenhorns” shows how a new generation of young agrarians who farm with their brains as well as their bodies exert a promising and necessary impact against these crises. These greenhorns are working to reverse negative trends in favor of healthy food, local and regional foodsheds, and the revitalization of rural economies, one farm at a time. Official mandates calling for the increase and successful resettlement of young farmers stir hope while farmland remains abundant, if difficult to access for most new entrants.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack’s recent call for 100,000 new farmers is an encouraging sign. Now we need policies to back up that goal. With over 400 million acres of farmland poised to change hands over the next twenty years, the time for action is NOW. The 2012 Farm Bill package of legislation is already in the pipeline. The Greenhorns film sets this context, shows the issues, and introduces the viewer to a savvy, purposeful posse of young farmers getting into the business of fixing America. One farmer at a time.

Directed by farmer/ activist Severine von Tscharner Fleming, produced in dozens of states over three years, “The Greenhorns” runs a fast 50 minutes. Proceeds from these events will go to support various causes of agrarian-focused non profits. Tickets are available at the doors of each screening.

About the Greenhorns:
The Greenhorns national non-profit organization recruits, supports and promotes young farmers in America. Using radio, blogs, film, new media, original resources and live events, the Greenhorns build agrarian culture by connecting young farmers with land, resources and each other. We are based on a farm in the Hudson Valley of New York State.

The Greenhorns Northwest Tour

Featuring Q&A discussions with the film’s director, Severine von Tscharner Fleming

Monday Oct 24 6:30pm @ NW Film Forum, presented by Central Co-op as part of Food Day
1515 12th Avenue, Seattle

Tuesday Oct 25 7pm @ Pickford Cinema
1318 Bay Street, Bellingham

Wednesday Oct 26 7pm @ The Chapel in Good Shepard Center, presented by Seattle Tilth
4649 Sunnyside Avenue N, Seattle

Thursday Oct 27 6:30pm @ Dragonfly Theatre
822 Bay Street, Port Orchard

Saturday Oct 29 7pm @ WSU Mount Vernon
16650 State Route 536, Mt. Vernon

Sunday Oct 30 4:30pm @ Vashon Theatre
17723 Vashon Highway SW, Vashon

Wednesday Nov 2 7:30pm @ Kenworthy Theatre, Moscow Food Co-op Good Food Film Series
508 South Main Moscow, ID

Friday Nov 4 @ Whitman College, room TBA
345 Boyer Ave,  Walla Walla

Saturday Nov 5 @ TBA, Spokane

Saturday Nov 12 @ Tilth Conference, Yakima Convention Center

For listings of all Greenhorns events, visit http://www.thegreenhorns.net/events.html

Celebrate the harvest with Ian Cheney and Truck Farm
by Carol Spurling, outreach and ownership coordinator, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Celebrate the harvest season with our very special September Good Food Film Series offering: Truck Farm, from the same folks who brought us one of our favorite movies ever, King Corn. Filmmaker Ian Cheney will be joining us in person for a picnic and the movie on Wed. Sept. 21, starting at 4:30 pm at the Moscow Community Garden, and then moving to the Kenworthy at 7:30 pm for the film and Ian's talk.

Truck Farm was born in Brooklyn, NY in the spring of 2009, when Ian Cheney set out to plant a vegetable garden in the bed of his grandfather's 1986 Dodge truck.

The mobile garden project soon grew: Ian and collaborator Curt Ellis turned Truck Farm into a 20-member CSA, marketing their produce to residents of Manhattan and Brooklyn. With the help of tour coordinator Carla Fleisher, they took the public art project on the road, exhibiting Truck Farm at 40 schools and on the National Mall. Ian and Curt's talks and advocacy efforts, profiled on NPR and in The Washington Post, promoted equitable access to healthy food. Their Wicked Delicate Garden Contest, judged by food celebrities Alice Waters, Michael Pollan and Marion Nestle, inspired 65 student groups to plant creative farms of their own.

Now the capstone of the Truck Farm project is complete: a 45-minute documentary film, awarded an honorable mention at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival and an Official Selection at the DC Environmental Film Festival. Featuring animation by Sharon Shattuck, musical narration by Simon Beins of The Fishermen Three, and filmmaking from the Peabody-winning co-creators of “King Corn”, “Truck Farm” tells the story of an old Dodge, a new kind of farming, and the future of food in the American city.

Our own Truck Farm harvest celebration is in support of the Moscow Community Garden and Backyard Harvest, who are all about gardening and access to healthy food in our community.

The harvest celebration picnic starting at 4:30 pm at the Moscow Community Garden (near 1038 West "C" Street) will feature the Co-op's own burgers and brats, kale slaw, local lentil chili, and gluten-free brownies. We'll serve non-alcoholic beverages and enjoy live music by Charlie Sutton and Idlers Rest.

During the picnic Ian will be the judge of two contests: the Garden Photography contest and the Fresh Produce Potluck Recipe contest. Bring a photo of your garden or something in your garden, and/or your favorite potluck dish featuring fresh produce, and the winners will each receive a $50 gift card from the Co-op. We'll all be winners, though, as we get to enjoy the photos that we'll display during the picnic, and taste the wonderful potluck dishes! Please note that if the weather turns rainy, we'll move the picnic inside the nearby church, that has graciously offered us this space should we need it.

After dinner we'll all head downtown to the Kenworthy Theatre at 508 S. Main for the 7:30 pm screening of Truck Farm, with our special guest, Ian Cheney.

Tickets are on sale at the Moscow Food Co-op: $15 dinner and movie (adult/teen), $7 dinner and movie (children age 5 - 12), children under age 5 free. Tickets will also be available at the picnic. If you can't come to the picnic, Truck Farm movie tickets will also be on sale separately at the Kenworthy door at 7 pm before the screening, $10 adult/teen, $5 children, under 5 free.

We hope you'll bring the whole family to celebrate gardens and gardeners in our community, as well as the filmmaking and food advocacy talents of Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis!

Queen of the Sun
Wednesday August 24, 2011
Kenworthy, Main Street, downtown Moscow

Please join us as we launch our third year of the Good Food Film Series this month with the gorgeous Queen of the Sun, 7 pm, Wednesday, August 24, at the Kenworthy Theatre at 508 S. Main in downtown Moscow. Admission will be $4 for Co-op members and $6 for the general public.

Movie-goers will be treated before the film begins to a sampling of foods featuring honey, or produce pollinated by honeybees.

Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us? is a profound, alternative look at the global bee crisis from Taggart Siegel, director of The Real Dirt on Farmer John, one of our favorite GFFS movies so far!

Taking us on a journey through the catastrophic disappearance of bees and the mysterious world of the beehive, this engaging and ultimately uplifting film weaves an unusual and dramatic story of the heartfelt struggles of beekeepers, scientists and philosophers from around the world including Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk and Vandana Shiva. Together they reveal both the problems and the solutions in renewing a culture in balance with nature.

 You can watch the official trailer at www.queenofthesun.com

 Food Co-op Movie in Production
by Carol Spurling, Outreach and Ownership Coordinator, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
 
Education, participation, independence and cooperation. These are four of the seven cooperative principles that keep food cooperatives rooted in their mission: to serve their communities. Food for Change, a work-in-progress documentary planned for release next spring, looks at how food co-ops manifest these principles in their day-to-day operations.
 
The film takes a contemporary and social-historical look at cooperatives in the United States, exploring three periods of co-op expansion: the first wave following the financial collapse of 1929 when co-ops proved to be a mitigating factor against hard times; the second wave of the 1970s driven by a counter-culture desire for whole and organic foods; and the third wave, currently underway, aimed at both of these concerns.
 
Food For Change’s release is timed to coincide with the United Nations designation of 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives. The plan is to show the film in hundreds of locations across the country on the same day and to follow-up with national discussion on the cooperative ways of doing business.
 
To date, 64 co-ops in 25 states, including the Moscow Food Co-op, have contributed nearly 40 percent of the budget needed to complete and distribute the movie. I can hardly wait to add the film to our line-up of great Good Food Film Series shows, and the producers have even asked us to contribute archival material from our Co-op for possible inclusion in the movie!
 
But the project needs support from co-op members too. Please visit http://www.foodforchangemovie.com/ to watch the trailer (or you can see it here), view scenes from the movie and consider making a contribution. Your investment in this documentary will help us communicate a deeper understanding cooperatives and will help the present wave of co-op expansion. If you are able to contribute, please let me know, and we’ll be sure to give you a shout-out (if you don’t mind) when we screen the finished film next year. Go Co-op!