Both Timeless and New: Behind the Scenes of Locally Grown Food

Abstract

First paragraphs:

Each time I watch the Growing Local trilogy of short films, my heart feels like I've chosen the wrong profession. The early-morning-mist beauty of these films makes one yearn for more direct participation with farms, farmers, and the business of providing real food to real people.

For many people, the public face of local food is their local farmers markets: the hands ingrained with dirt stacking a bountiful rainbow of vegetables and fruit on tables shaded by the ubiquitous pop-up canopy. The Growing Local films showcase some of the other faces of local food: the retiring dairy farmer struggling with how to transfer the farm to his son; the accidental butcher providing fair middle-man services to his meat-producing neighbors; the young couple who feel they were born in the wrong time, creating a vibrant hub for local food and community....