JANUARY 29 - 31, 2009
| Getting Around
Can’t make it to the whole conference? Join conference delegates at a Special Public Keynote Special Public Keynote Friday January 30, 2009 Tickets $30 tickets available at Earth's General Store and at the door, first come, first served.
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Film SynopsisSchedule > Film Synopsis
Directed by Taggart Siegel "What do you do when nothing is left, and in a community where you aren't welcome because you're kind of different?" VIEW TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqP1SC5Tr7U&eurl The Real Dirt on Farmer John will turn every idea you ever had about what it means to be an American farmer, or an American dreamer, on its head. Meet Farmer John, the incredible human being whose inspirational story of revolutionizing his family farm and redeeming his own life has won accolades and awards at film festivals around the world. Director Taggart Siegel of Collective Eye made the film in a most unusual way—shooting farmer John Peterson over 25-years of their evolving friendship, and using multiple media, from 8 mm home movies to modern video—allowing him to capture his alternately humorous, heartbreaking and spirited life with raw drama and intimacy. With the death of his father during the late 60s, a teenaged John takes over the traditional family farm, slowly turning it into an experiment of art and agriculture, making it a haven for hippies, radicals and artists. The Real Dirt on Farmer John charts the end of this idealistic era as the farm debt crisis of the 80’s brings about the tragic collapse of the farm. As the intricate weave of rural America unravels, vicious local rumors turn John into a scapegoat, condemning him as a Satan-worshipping drug-dealer. Threatened with murder, his home burned to the ground, John forsakes his farm and wanders through Mexico, where he is transformed by the soulfulness and pageantry of this ancient land. Mysteriously, his quest leads him back to his hostile homeland. Defying all odds, he gradually transforms his land into a revolutionary farming community, a cultural mecca, where people work and flourish providing fresh vegetables and herbs to thousands of people every week. The Peterson family farm has become Angelic Organics, one of the largest Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms in the United States, a beacon of today’s booming organic farming movement.
Background to the controversy surrounding the Seeds of Change film: Seeds of Change examines the controversy surrounding the use of genetically modified (GM) crops across the Canadian prairies. A publicly funded project, and part of a larger, comprehensive research program examining the risks associated with biotechnology in agriculture, this documentary contributes a new voice and perspective to the debate - that of farmers. But unfortunately, Seeds of Change was not publicly released until over three years after University of Manitoba (U of M) PhD candidate Ian Mauro, U of M professor Stéphane McLachlan, and independent videographer Jim Sanders completed it, in the fall of 2002. Over the course of the long delay, spreading news of the film's existence garnered considerable interest from farmers, researchers, and policy makers from around the world, including those from Australia, the EU, and the US. Why did it take so long for the completed film to be made available to the public? The public release of Seeds of Change was delayed until November 2005 because of the efforts of the U of M administration to hide the film from a popular audience. The administration actively prevented the release of the film through the use of outdated bylaws that gave them 50% control over the Seeds of Change footage.
There is a revolution happening in the farm fields and on the dinner tables of America -- a revolution that is transforming the very nature of the food we eat. THE FUTURE OF FOOD offers an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade. From the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada to the fields of Oaxaca, Mexico, this film gives a voice to farmers whose lives and livelihoods have been negatively impacted by this new technology. The health implications, government policies and push towards globalization are all part of the reason why many people are alarmed by the introduction of genetically altered crops into our food supply. Shot on location in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, THE FUTURE OF FOOD examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what we eat as huge multinational corporations seek to control the world's food system. The film also explores alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture, placing organic and sustainable agriculture as real solutions to the farm crisis today.
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Registration Our early bird winner won a $100 gift certificate for the Blue Pear!
Click here to register for the conference Registration closed January 22, 2009, but you can still call Food for thought www.foodsecurityalberta.ca (Growing Food Security in Alberta) www.foodsecurecanada.org ------------------------------- Want to know more about the global
food system? ------------------------ This Event is Bullfrog Powered!
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