Among the problems in Jeff Spitz’s noble but flawed documentary Food Patriots is its failure to contextualize. The 2014 Wisconsin Film Festival entry preaches a worthy message about understanding where your food comes from and what goes into it, but it lacks a frame of reference (or sound financial suggestions) for healthy food options outside of wealthy midwestern suburbia.
Food for Thought, Food for Life, Susan Rockefeller’s new docu-short playing at the Central Library on Wed, is the antithesis of Spitz’s film in more ways than its length: it dispenses with any one “magic bullet” in favor of surveying agriculture’s great and er, not-so-great effects. And even for a briskly-paced 22 minute documentary, that honest perspective feels like a relief.
It’s quite remarkable how honest Rockefeller, a filmmaker with a strong conservationist slant, is about her subject but from the get-go she begins her whirring slide show of cutesy animations and condensed statistics: land use in farming outnumbers either urban or suburban areas in the U.S.; agriculture contributes more to climate change than any other industry; emissions from farming amount to over 30% or all carbon emissions. Nuggets of knowledge whiz by between talking heads, inspired community art, and quotes from environmentalists, intellectuals, and free-spirits; imagine a quilt of motivational posters from the likes of Michael Pollan and Henry David Thoreau.
Soon after, Rockefeller’s tapestry folds away to the future burdens of commodity agriculture and the trend of minimized crop diversity on American farms (as is becoming common practice, many farmers only focus on growing one or two crops). These ensuing grain monocultures also feed animals, and more animal waste requires greater means of disposal, with disposal requiring more energy expenditure.
Rockefeller presents a daunting if not altogether bleak future, but Food for Thought keeps its final notes optimistic, empowering viewers to “vote” with their tables and wallets in addition to the usual “call your legislator” rigamarole. Buying locally-grown produce, eating less meat, and sitting down at farm-to-table restaurants, the film’s host of farmers and scientists argue, are all practical means of change and unlike Spitz’s film, seem a little more reasonable than starting your own chicken farm.
As I’ve written about in the past, most documentaries don’t justify their feature-length running time but if there’s a mark against Rockefeller’s documentary it’s that it goes by too quickly. Its 22 minutes cram what could be a semester’s worth of information on commodity agriculture and urban farming into a tight, peppy package. Fortunately Wednesday’s screening will be followed with a panel featuring Michelle Miller, Associate Director of the UW-Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, and the Willy St. Co-op’s Kirsten Moore and Megan Minnick. Central Cinema has collaborated with community leaders and intellectuals in events past but Food for Thought, Food for Life might mark the first time a discussion panel actually feels necessary. Bring a notepad?
- Central Cinema and US Gathering present Food for Thought, Food for Life FREE on Wed, May 13 at 6:30p in Rm 302 of the Central Library.