Documentary offers optimistic look at growing food
By Janet Kubat Willette
jkubat@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 04/01/2010 9:17 AM
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ST. PETER, Minn. — Scenes of vegetables picked at the peak of freshness, a trusty Massey-Ferguson in a lush, green hay field and farmers at work pass by almost too quickly in a new documentary, Farming Forward.
The 50-minute film debuted at the Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota annual meeting in February. Since then, it's been shown at the Treaty Site History Center in St. Peter and more screenings are planned.
Gustavus Adolphus College communication studies professor Martin Lang and GAC sophomore Ethan Marxhausen shot more than 40 hours of footage on eight Minnesota farms from early July through mid-August 2009. Their goal was to find out what's happening to farmers, Lang said.
He grew up in the suburbs during the 1980s and the only time he heard the words farm or family farm, it had the word death in front of it.
He wondered who was farming now and what farms will look like in the future.
Lang and Marxhausen, also a child of the suburbs, wanted their documentary to be empowering and an invitation to find out more about small farms. Film makers have been making films to show the problems with the current food production system for years, Lang said. They wanted their film to be different.
Funded by a Gustavus Presidential Faculty/Student Collaboration Grant and with in-kind support from the Sustainable Farming Association, the duo spent nearly two months on farms.
They dubbed their production company Meal Ticket Productions, in honor of the fantastic meals they shared with farm families while filming Farming Forward, Lang said.
Farming wasn't a subject he thought about before making the film, Marxhausen said.
"The topic kind of grew on me to be honest," he said.
Months after the filming ended, Marxhausen finds himself thinking about food and shopping at the St. Peter Food Co-op, which is featured in the film.
Much of what they saw was foreign to him, he said. The whole process of getting milk was eye-opening. He hadn't considered different farm production systems, be it conventional, organic or sustainable.
Lang, who's been at Gustavus since 2005, said he knew there was a distinction and animosity between natural and conventional farming methods, but he didn't know the specifics and he didn't know anybody who farmed in either way.
He's always been interested in food and an active member of food cooperatives where he lived, but he didn't have any real farm connections.
Farming Forward changed that. Lang spent hours traipsing through farm fields and one beautiful day shot 45 minutes of cows in the pasture. It was gorgeous, he said, with the green grass, the cows, the birds and the sun.
Lang and Marxhausen visited Prairie Horizons Farm near Starbuck, Loon Organics, Hutchinson; Living Song Farm, Howard Lake; River Bend Farms, Delano; Big River Farm, Marine on St. Croix; City Backyard Farming, St. Paul; Big Hill Farm, St. Peter. They also visited a farmers market in west St. Paul.
Farmers of all ages are featured in Farming Forward.
Lauren Fulner at Living Song Farm talks about the need to mentor the next generation of farmers and the need to expose young people without a reference point to agriculture. There needs to be a rural revitalization, she said.
In a discussion after the film showing at the SFA annual meeting, Katharine Plowman, formerly of Loon Organics, echoed her comments.
Youth in farming can't be a fad, she said. The only way to get more farms is to have more farmers, she said.
Jim Riddle, University of Minnesota's organic outreach coordinator, said the average age of a conventional farmer is 57.3 years, compared to 53 years for an organic farmer.
He drew laughter from others in the audience when he said that's proof that organic farming makes people younger.
"This paints an awesome picture of sustainable farming," said Terrie Adams of Shakopee. Farming Forward captures the beauty of the land and the closeness of the sustainable farmer and the land.
Original songs, Roots Down Deep and Down to the River, by songwriter Timmy Haus of Grand Marias get watchers wiggling in their seats and tapping their feet.
Lang said he gave them rights to use the songs and didn't ask for compensation.
Lang hopes to get the film into film festivals and he is working with the Sustainable Farming Association to sell copies, which he expects to cost around $10 apiece. Their goal is to get the film to as many people as possible.
They may do two to three minute vignettes with some of the footage that didn't make it into Farming Forward. They are exploring other opportunities, too, Lang said.
There's far more to be done with this topic, he said. Somebody suggested a film on student farms and someone else suggested a film on people who have converted from conventional to organic production.