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Films take a hard look at our food industry

Published online on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009

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Will sustainable agriculture remain a niche market?

I’ve been pondering this question since last month, when Harris Ranch Beef Co. objected to a Cal Poly lecture by industrial agriculture critic Michael Pollan.

“I fully appreciate the importance of developing niche markets,” Harris Ranch Chairman David Wood wrote in a letter to Warren Baker, Cal Poly’s president. “However, I feel strongly that in exposing students to these alternative markets the university should take utmost care NOT to detrimentally impact conventionally produced agricultural products which represent fully 90% of all foods consumed in the United States.”

There’s no question that various forms of sustainable agriculture — farmers markets, organic products, and the like — are a small part of our food supply.

But it’s visibility is growing, due to folks such as Pollan. He appears in two films that will be screened this week in Fresno:

* On Thursday, Fresno City College’s theater will show “Fresh,” a documentary that profiles farmers, activists and grocers who are bucking conventional agriculture. The film’s Web site, freshthemovie.com, calls the consequences of industrial agriculture “food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity.”

The free screening starts at 4:30 p.m. After it airs, organic farmer Tom Willey of T&D Willey Farms in Madera will give a talk titled, “The Green Dream: Organic Farming in the Central Valley.” For more information, call (559) 265-5711.

* At 5 p.m. Friday, a free public screening of “Food, Inc.” will take place at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fresno, 2672 E. Alluvial Ave., Clovis.

Director Robert Kenner says he was inspired by “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Pollan and “Fast Food Nation” by Eric Schlosser. His documentary aims to show that Americans know little about the origins, production and content of their food.

Friday’s screening of “Food, Inc.” is part of the Ingredients for Change campaign, a movement pushing communities to take action on the issues of healthful food and obesity.

The campaign has organized 30 screenings of “Food, Inc.” and discussions. Fresno is one of two California sites selected by the campaign. For more information, call the Central California Regional Obesity Program at (559) 228-2140, or go to ccropp. org.

It’s notable that these events are taking place in the San Joaquin Valley, one of the country’s centers of conventional agriculture.

This brings me back to my original question about sustainable agriculture as a niche market. Both movies advocate changes in our food system, and the discussion after the screening of “Food, Inc.” aims to bring some of that transformation here.

Will attendees of these events call for dramatic changes locally? Will conventional farmers show up to passionately defend their livelihood?

Join the discussion at these events and at my blog. Your answers will show how close — or how far — sustainable agriculture is from the mainstream.

The columnist can be reached at jobra@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6365. Read her blog at fresnobeehive.com/author/joan_obra.