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
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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
