By Adam Rabiner
The Linewaiters’ Gazette ran an earlier version of this review on December 31, 2009 for a screening of Fresh on January 12th, 2010. This past July I chatted with director Ana Sofia Joanes for an update. Fresh, an optimistic take on the movers and shakers of the emerging alternative food movement, remains relevant as the movement has grown and threats such as global warming have intensified. Joanes confesses that an inspiration for the film was a sense of dread, doom, and hopelessness about the environment and part of what she was trying to achieve with her portraits was to amplify and celebrate what was missing, the change-makers. Through their stories and actions she wanted to describe a different paradigm, one of interconnection, kindness, collaboration, hope; humankind as part of nature, not apart from it. Fear, Joanes says, is not a motivator but meaning, purpose, and joy are. She wanted to focus on the positive.
Fresh has had thousands of community screenings since its release in 2009, larger ones in churches, farms, NGOs, libraries and universities and smaller ones in homes, and in more recent years has been streamed online by many more on Amazon Prime and Netflix. While public and private screenings exposed many people to important issues, brought people together, and helped to raise money for disparate organizations, Joanes feels that film’s greatest impact may be on a personal rather than societal level. The larger impact of Fresh, and other films of its cohort such as Food Inc. and King Corn, is debatable. But Joanes knows that her film engendered intense feelings and deep yearnings in some who watched it, not necessarily about food but their personal ethics, sense of meaning, and purpose. Some people asked themselves important questions about where they lived, the jobs they had chosen, and their deepest values. One older viewer, a former activist, became an activist once again, retrieving for herself a life that felt centered.
Joanes’s one regret is that perhaps the film is too personal and does not focus enough on collective action. The righteous consumer is not enough. But it is a starting point.
The Plow to Plate film and discussion series has presented some serious and at times heart-rending movies on the dire effects of our food system. These have included the exploitation of migrant labor, the poisoning of farm workers from industrial agriculture, and the debates over the privatization of water systems and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Like these other films, Fresh indicts the current system and its single-minded focus on productivity and efficiency despite the costs and consequences. Fresh is also educational, like other films in the series, the difference being that its focus is much broader and touches briefly upon many issues rather than exploring a single aspect of the system in depth. But Fresh differs most from many of its peer documentaries in that it is much less an accusation than a celebration of the “farmers, thinkers, and business people across America who are reinventing our food system.” That makes it very refreshing, as well.
The film pays tribute to eight individuals, including writer, teacher, radio guest, and general spokesperson for the alternative food movement, Michael Pollan, who makes some terrific points. For example, he observes that nature abhors and works to obliterate monocultures, through pestilence or pests, thus necessitating the ever-increasing reliance on chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides.
However, the real heroes of Fresh are the actual farmers who are featured: most prominently Virginian Joel Salatin and Will Allen, an urban farmer hailing from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Both, like writer and farmer Wendell Berry, blend the practical with the spiritual and poetic. Salatin talks about bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) in the same breath he marvels at the beauty of a country sunrise.
We learn the most from the farmers: about the importance of worms and fish poop to the ecosystem; about the merits of respecting the natural order of things, allowing animals to follow their herding instincts and to eat what they were meant to eat. And lest you think that these natural farmers are pie in the sky idealists, dreamers, and bards, you would be mistaken. They are successful businesspeople. Their methods have allowed them to produce higher quality products that consumers demand while saving money by not having to buy medicines, chemical fertilizer and commercial seeds.
Perhaps the biggest myth exploded is that organic and sustainable agriculture is not productive enough to feed the world’s growing population. Studies have shown that wisely meshing modern technologies with traditional methods of doing things is just as productive, if not more so, than utilizing industrial methods.
Fresh ends on an exhilarating note. Will Allen, a brawny former basketball player, encourages the visitors to his three acre city farm, kids from the inner city, “you can do this. We’re not leaving until you do this!” I’m not sure what specific task he was referring to but the aim of the film director, Ana Sofia Joanes, is clear. You can make a difference. You can join these pioneers and add momentum to the growing alternative food movement. A good first step is to come out and see the movie on September 12th at the Coop.
The Linewaiters’ Gazette ran an earlier version of this review on December 31, 2009 for a screening of Fresh on January 12th, 2010. This past July I chatted with director Ana Sofia Joanes for an update. Fresh, an optimistic take on the movers and shakers of the emerging alternative food movement, remains relevant as the movement has grown and threats such as global warming have intensified. Joanes confesses that an inspiration for the film was a sense of dread, doom, and hopelessness about the environment and part of what she was trying to achieve with her portraits was to amplify and celebrate what was missing, the change-makers. Through their stories and actions she wanted to describe a different paradigm, one of interconnection, kindness, collaboration, hope; humankind as part of nature, not apart from it. Fear, Joanes says, is not a motivator but meaning, purpose, and joy are. She wanted to focus on the positive.
Fresh has had thousands of community screenings since its release in 2009, larger ones in churches, farms, NGOs, libraries and universities and smaller ones in homes, and in more recent years has been streamed online by many more on Amazon Prime and Netflix. While public and private screenings exposed many people to important issues, brought people together, and helped to raise money for disparate organizations, Joanes feels that film’s greatest impact may be on a personal rather than societal level. The larger impact of Fresh, and other films of its cohort such as Food Inc. and King Corn, is debatable. But Joanes knows that her film engendered intense feelings and deep yearnings in some who watched it, not necessarily about food but their personal ethics, sense of meaning, and purpose. Some people asked themselves important questions about where they lived, the jobs they had chosen, and their deepest values. One older viewer, a former activist, became an activist once again, retrieving for herself a life that felt centered.
Joanes’s one regret is that perhaps the film is too personal and does not focus enough on collective action. The righteous consumer is not enough. But it is a starting point.
The Plow to Plate film and discussion series has presented some serious and at times heart-rending movies on the dire effects of our food system. These have included the exploitation of migrant labor, the poisoning of farm workers from industrial agriculture, and the debates over the privatization of water systems and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Like these other films, Fresh indicts the current system and its single-minded focus on productivity and efficiency despite the costs and consequences. Fresh is also educational, like other films in the series, the difference being that its focus is much broader and touches briefly upon many issues rather than exploring a single aspect of the system in depth. But Fresh differs most from many of its peer documentaries in that it is much less an accusation than a celebration of the “farmers, thinkers, and business people across America who are reinventing our food system.” That makes it very refreshing, as well.
The film pays tribute to eight individuals, including writer, teacher, radio guest, and general spokesperson for the alternative food movement, Michael Pollan, who makes some terrific points. For example, he observes that nature abhors and works to obliterate monocultures, through pestilence or pests, thus necessitating the ever-increasing reliance on chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides.
However, the real heroes of Fresh are the actual farmers who are featured: most prominently Virginian Joel Salatin and Will Allen, an urban farmer hailing from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Both, like writer and farmer Wendell Berry, blend the practical with the spiritual and poetic. Salatin talks about bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) in the same breath he marvels at the beauty of a country sunrise.
We learn the most from the farmers: about the importance of worms and fish poop to the ecosystem; about the merits of respecting the natural order of things, allowing animals to follow their herding instincts and to eat what they were meant to eat. And lest you think that these natural farmers are pie in the sky idealists, dreamers, and bards, you would be mistaken. They are successful businesspeople. Their methods have allowed them to produce higher quality products that consumers demand while saving money by not having to buy medicines, chemical fertilizer and commercial seeds.
Perhaps the biggest myth exploded is that organic and sustainable agriculture is not productive enough to feed the world’s growing population. Studies have shown that wisely meshing modern technologies with traditional methods of doing things is just as productive, if not more so, than utilizing industrial methods.
Fresh ends on an exhilarating note. Will Allen, a brawny former basketball player, encourages the visitors to his three acre city farm, kids from the inner city, “you can do this. We’re not leaving until you do this!” I’m not sure what specific task he was referring to but the aim of the film director, Ana Sofia Joanes, is clear. You can make a difference. You can join these pioneers and add momentum to the growing alternative food movement. A good first step is to come out and see the movie on September 12th at the Coop.