family farms

Description

I spoke to local farmers and food producers about their challenges in hopes of seeing what we, as consumers, can do to make their lives easier and support them. There are lots of ways to eat local if you live in a city like San Francisco. You can go to a local grocery store like Bi-Rite, shop at farmer's markets, and buy directly through a CSA. It's clear that the industry needs to change to make local food systems truly sustainable. Distribution needs to be easier, and there are several interesting companies out there working on that problem. Capay Valley Farm Shop pools small farms in their region, and Farmigo (http://farmigo.com) is a great option if you have it in your workplace. If you want more flexibility than what a CSA offers, my favorite source is Good Eggs (http://goodeggs.com). You can pick and choose what you want and when you want it so you're not stuck with rotting veggies! All the foodies out there can also easily order the ingredients in your signature dish or that new recipe you want to try out. We also need to change the way people think about food. No biggie, right? Huge industrial farms, even organic ones, do not have the same farming practices as small family farms. Labels don't really matter that much anymore. The most important thing to do is to know your farms and make sure they are adhering to practices you're comfortable with. Michael Pollan (http://michaelpollan.com) has done some great work bringing these differences to light as well as their health and environmental impacts. Getting educated and spreading the good word about sustainable food systems is a start because not enough people know about the benefits of eating food produced by small family farms! ---------------------------------------- Featured in this video: - Beckmann's Old World Bakery - Santa Cruz, CA - Lifefood Gardens - Kelseyville, CA - Julio Guzman of From the Sea to You - Santa Cruz, CA - Mollie Sitkin of Old Dog Ranch - Bellota, CA - Nick Papadopoulos of Bloomfield Farms - Bloomfield, CA - Samir Mogannam of Roxy's Cafe and The Palace (ventures of Manny Torres Gimenez) - San Francisco, CA Also special thanks to those I interviewed: - Jack Rudolph of Stepladder Ranch - Cambria, CA - Roxanne Crittenden of Capay Valley Farm Shop - Esparto, CA - Kathy Webster of LeftCoast Grassfed/TomKat Ranch - Pescadero, CA Photo credit: - Walnuts from Old Dog Ranch - Farm photo from Bloomfield Farms - All other photography by June Lin Videography and editing by June Lin