Market Farming

[Alliums <garlicgrower AT earthlink.net>]

Hi, Folks!

Here's my review of the recent documentary "Strong Roots, Fragile
Farms."  You can guess why I was asked to review it! ;-D 
I retain copywrite -- if you want to publish it elsewhere, let me
know.  Someday I'll get rich doing this, but it probably won't be
this year! ;-)

Dorene


Dorene Pasekoff, Coordinator
St. John's United Church of Christ Organic Community Garden

A mission of 
St. John's United Church of Christ, 315 Gay Street, Phoenixville,
PA  19460

*************************

Strong Roots, Fragile Farms Video,  Running time 57:46,
Available for $19.95 (plus s & h) from United Church Resources 
(UCCR) at 800-537-3394 or 230 Sheldon Road, Berea, OH 44017


“Strong Roots, Fragile Farms” the
made-for-television documentary produced by the United Church of Christ
and hosted by Willie Nelson, shows us the human faces of family farmers
driven to near-extinction by the globalization of agriculture. 
Sprinkled with just enough statistics to back up its points, the
documentary profiles 4 different, but equally endangered types of family
farmers:  an Iowa family growing soybeans and corn on 1,000 heavily
mechanized acres, a North Carolina family growing traditional
African-American crops on small acreage with mostly hand tools for the
local restaurants and grower’s market, a Filipino family growing
traditional rice varieties with a local farmers’ cooperative to improve
growing techniques and market share and Mexican subsistence farmers who
no longer have a market for their crops.

Because prices are set by the handful of multi-national corporations that
process and transport food, none of these family farmers are able to sell
their crops at a price that covers their costs, let alone make a
profit.  The documentary leisurely meanders through these families’
lives as they try to remain in farming and keep their families
financially solvent.  Willie Nelson also provides a short overview
on why NAFTA and the last two Farm Bills have made things worse both for
farm families and the small town economies that depend on them.  By
the end of the video, we care about these people and are inspired to make
social change.

The documentary was offered to ABC affiliates to air at their discretion
starting on October 6, 2002.  Here in the Philadelphia region, our
local ABC affiliate aired the program at 5:30 am on October
13th
(with fantastic public service announcements instead of commercials 
an experience in itself!).  If you missed this program on your own
station, it is easy enough to order the video from the United Church of
Christ and download all the resources (study guide, fact sheet, poster,
etc) at
http://www.ucc.org/fragilefarms/index.html
to set up your own discussion group about how globalization is affecting
agriculture.   This video, especially when combined with the
study guide and fact sheet, is an excellent way to gently introduce these
issues to folks who have never considered them before.


Reviewed by Dorene Pasekoff, Coordinator
St. John’s United Church of Christ Organic Community Garden
Phoenixville, PA