Films about CA farming worth watching

[Guest guest]

This past week filmmakers visited SF to present the following inspiring

documentaries about California's farmers:

 

1. Slow Food SF held a screening of THE LAST CROP, filmmaker Chuck Schultz's

work-in-progress profiling Jeff & Annie Main of Good Humus Produce in Capay

Valley. Small-scale organic farmers in California's Central Valley face many

challenges: preserving fertile land under threat from urban sprawl (1 million

acres of farmland is lost to development), their grown children's lack of

interest in continuing the family farm business (two-thirds of farmers are over

age 65), lost crops resulting from the current drought, etc. Despite these

challenges, the Mains are seeking an agricultural easement that will preserve

their organic farmland to ensure healthy local food production for generations

to come.

Check out trailer at

http://blueprintproductions.biz/Documentaries/5/the-last-crop

More information at http://www.goodhumus.com/

 

2. Southern Poverty Law Center held a screening of VIVA LA CAUSA about the grape

strike and boycott led by vegetarian Cesar Chavez & Dolores Huerta in their

non-violent movement for justice and human dignity on behalf of California grape

pickers in the 1960s. After 5 years, involving a 340-mile march from Delano to

Sacramento & Chavez' 25-day water fast, they succeeded in getting grape growers

to accept United Farmworkers Union contracts providing for improved working

conditions such as protection from pesticides, fresh drinking water & toilets in

the fields. Si se puedo! More information at

http://www.tolerance.org/kit/viva-la-causa A reception with vegetarian fare

(but no table grapes) followed so guests could mingle with Dolores Huerta (who

said she will turn 80 next year), film producer Bill Brummel, SPLC founder

Morris Dees (who was born to a farming family) & SPLC President Richard Cohen.

Check out http://www.splcenter.org/index.jsp