MARCH 19, 2009 ISSUE
Local Food Focus
Two Upcoming Events Spotlight Sustainable Food Movement Locally and Nationally
Photo courtesy of Chris TaylorThe High Country is home to many green initiatives including the sustainable food movement, which is the focus of two upcoming events.
To conclude the ASU Goodnight Family Sustainable Development Program’s High Country Local Food Summit on Thursday, March 26, third-generation alternative farmer Joel Salatin will deliver a free keynote presentation at 7:00 p.m. at Farthing Auditorium. In addition, Food Fight, an award-winning documentary that takes a hard-hitting look at the United States food system, will show at The Dragonfly Theater & Pub, located at 215 Boone Heights Drive in Boone, on Sunday, April 5, at 7:00 p.m. Admission is $5 per person.
Both events are open to the public.
Joel Salatin Presents ‘Ballet in the Pasture’ at Farthing March 26
Salatin will present “Ballet in the Pasture,” a theatrical performance mixing humor and bombshell food system analysis, on Thursday, March 26, at ASU’s Farthing Auditorium. Salatin passionately defends small farms, local food systems and the right to opt out of the conventional food paradigm.
Salatin is a third generation alternative farmer in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. His family’s farm, Polyface, Inc., achieved iconic status after being featured in the New York Times bestseller The Omnivore’s Dilemma by food guru Michael Pollan.
The High Country Local Food Summit is a day of education, collaboration and inspiration as participants identify opportunities to increase access to fresh, healthy food for all members of the community.
Registration is already at capacity for the summit, but the Joel Salatin presentation is free and open to the public. For more information, call 828-262-3177 or click to susdev.appstate.edu.
You’re Invited To A Food Fight!
Award-Winning Documentary Featuring Local Activist At Dragonfly April 5
Food Fight will show at The Dragonfly Theater & Pub on Sunday, April 5, at 7:00 p.m. Los Angeles-based Chris Taylor, who directed the film, will attend the screening and will respond to audience questions afterward, as will Valle Crucis-based writer and food activist Tom Philpott, who is featured in the film.
The film traces the rise of the sustainable food movement, from its origins in the 1970s to its current heyday. It also takes a hard look at the industrial food system, teasing out links between federal agriculture policy and the rise of highly profitable food companies like McDonald’s.
Interview subjects include Michael Pollan, author of the best-selling books The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food; Alice Waters, a leading advocate for healthier school lunches and the founder of the iconic Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse; Wolfgang Puck, a Los Angeles-based celebrity chef; and Will Allen, the pioneering Milwaukee-based urban farmer who won a 2008 McArthur “genius grant.”
Philpott, one of the founders of Maverick Farms in Valle Crucis and the food editor of Grist.org, the nation’s leading online environmentalist magazine, appears repeatedly in the film.
“Chris came to the farm in 2007 to interview me,” Philpott said. “It’s an honor to be in a movie, especially one that features so many of my heroes in the food world.
“Food Fight reminds us that when we band together as a community to buy food from High Country farmers and work to expand access to fresh, delicious food, we’re part of a broader movement that’s been going on for decades,” Philpott continued. “People have seen for a while that letting a few corporations dictate everything we eat leads to disaster—in terms of ecology, health and quality.”
Food Fight won the Audience Award at the 2008 International Documentary Association in Los Angeles; Best Documentary at 2008 HD FEST in Los Angeles; and Best in Show at the Documentary Indie Fest 2008 in San Francisco.
Maverick Farms, a Valle Crucis-based center for food and farming co-founded by Philpott, is sponsoring the event. Partnering with New River Organic Growers, Maverick will launch the High Country CSA this spring, a community-supported agriculture program designed to link High Country residents with local farmers.
“Food Fight demonstrates the multiple benefits of strong local-food institutions,” Philpott added.
For more information on Food Fight, click to www.foodfightthedoc.com.
For information on tickets, call The Dragonfly Theater & Pub at 828-262-3222.
Want To Go?
What: “Ballet in the Pasture”
Date: Thursday, March 26
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Farthing Auditorium, ASU
Cost: Free
Want To Go?
What: Food Fight documentary screening
Date: Sunday, April 5
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: The Dragonfly Theater & Pub
Cost: $5
About Maverick Farms…
Maverick Farms is an educational, nonprofit farm dedicated to promoting family farming as a community resource, reconnecting local food systems and training the next generation of young farmers.
Maverick Farms formed in spring 2004 to preserve a small farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains—an area under intense pressure from development—and operates as an open laboratory, experimenting with human-scale farming techniques and traditional food preparation. The project arose out of Springhouse Farm, which for 30 years sold handpicked vegetables to local restaurants. Maverick Farms is continuing with that tradition while embarking on new education and outreach projects to connect local food producers and consumers.
For more information, click to www.maverickfarms.com.
About High Country CSA…
Maverick Farms has launched the High Country CSA, a community-supported agriculture (CSA) project linking area consumers to several local vegetable farms and the New River Organic Growers Cooperative.
CSAs offer a positive alternative to the conventional agricultural system in which consumers and farmers are estranged. Instead, CSAs create a viable economic model in which farmers receive 100 percent of the food dollar. In a CSA, consumers take direct responsibility for supporting their local foodshed, pre-buying produce before the season begins, pitching in work during the season and then reaping the benefits of the harvest each week as the season progresses.
Maverick Farms opened its first CSA in 2005 with 10 members. By 2008, membership increased to 25, which the farm felt was near its capacity. To meet increasing demand because of community interest in local food, Maverick decided to facilitate a multi-farm CSA in 2009. This High Country CSA will open with 50 shares with plans to increase membership annually. The group has hired Franya Hutchins of Boone to coordinate the High Country CSA project. The coordinator position is funded with a grant from the N.C. Rural Center that Maverick Farms received.
“Choosing local food is one of the best ways to support the health of both your family and the community,” Hutchins said. “Our farmers are committed to growing without the use of chemical pesticides or fertilizers, and CSA members will receive absolutely fresh produce once a week. Our goal as a multi-farm CSA is to make farming viable for locals and the local economy. Having lived in Watauga County all my life, my experiences as both a daughter and a mother here have made creating a stronger local economy a great priority to me.”
For more information, click to www.newriverorganicgrowers.org or www.maverickfarms.com/farmcsa.html.
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