What's the best method of growing food for a hungry population of 9.5…
Broken Limbs
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
Wenatchee, Washington, the 'Apple Capital of the World'; this pastoral valley in the heart of the Northwest prospered for nearly a century as home to the famed Washington apple. But the good times have vanished. Apple orchardists by the thousands are going out of business and thousands more await the dreaded letter from the bank, announcing the end of their livelihoods and a uniquely American way of life.
After his own father receives just such a letter, filmmaker Guy Evans sets out on a journey to find out what went wrong here in this natural Garden of Eden. Over the course of filming, Evans witnesses small farmers struggling to compete against the Goliaths that populate today's global economy, only to be ultimately forced off their land. The future looks grim for the Apple Capital until Evans happens upon an entirely new breed of farmer, practitioners of a new model called 'sustainable agriculture'.
BROKEN LIMBS explores these hopeful stirrings within agriculture, outlining ways in which any individual can play a role in saving America's farmers.
'Inspiring and powerful...[Broken Limbs] is cutting new ground in terms of where agriculture in this state, country and the world needs to go.' Rev. Paul Benz, Director, State Public Policy Office of Evangelical Lutheran Church
'Broken Limbs is a powerful film that, using humor and drama, gives viewers a lot to think about in this increasingly globalized world we live in...What works in this film is its intellectual honesty and the sense of hope that is its underlying message.' Rufus Woods, Editor and Publisher, The Wenatchee World
'Broken Limbs is a very accurate and moving description of what is happening to agriculture in America. Focused on apple growers in Washington State, the story reflects what is happening to hog producers in Iowa, citrus growers in Florida and dairy farmers in New York. The video offers a ray of hope---the 'new farmers' who add value to their production and retain more of that value on the farm by producing the quality, attributes and services that a growing number of food customers want. A moving and compelling story.' Fred Kirschenmann, Ph.D., Director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University and a North Dakota grain and livestock farmer
'Broken Limbs is amazing, excellent, and on the mark...The entire group was enchanted by this film... the first half of 'bad news' was terrifically and delightfully offset by the second half of the film which focuses on solutions and alternatives to traditional style farming.' Michelle Frain, The Rodale Institute
'Broken Limbs will break your heart with its images of the sad plight of the independent American farmer being forced off the land by the global economic machine. But then, it will begin to heal your heart with its stories of new small scale farmers who are living well, low to the ground with a vision of a sustainable agricultural future.' Sam Keen, filmmaker, author
'Broken Limbs can well serve to demonstrate that sustainable ag 'socializes' responsibility in the food system among all participants, while industrial ag 'socializes' environmental and community costs onto society but jealously retains responsibility only for financial rewards.' Brad Redlin, Center for Rural Affairs
'This insightful documentary works through how agriculture is changing. It's a personal story for filmmaker Guy Evans...[b]ut the film's concerns affect us all. When Evans begins his inquiry, he is pushed toward accepting as inevitable the trends that squeeze the small-to-mid-size farmers, leaving only the largest, most globalized and vertically integrated or, maybe, a few of the smallest, niche-market producers. Evans captures the waste and sorrow this entails...But as Evans keeps searching, he finds another trend that, with nurturing, may offer hope - sustainable agriculture. It requires we reformulate decision-making so that the overall, long-term quality of life, land, and food become the defining terms. This can only be done when the farmer and the consumer understand how they are connected to each other. Starting in Washington State, Evans has examples around him. Farmers markets and produce stands abound in the Seattle area and beyond. For much of the rest of the country, the trend has weaker roots for now, but its where we should be heading.' Deborah Popper, Co-author of The Great Plains: From Dust to Dust , Associate Professor of Geography at CUNY's College of Staten Island
'This is a poetic, lyrical film with excellent visuals of the land, appropriate musical soundtrack, and soft voiced narration. Environmental studies, science, and current events classes can utilize this film and be challenged to live with hope for the future and believe that 'one by one we change the world.'' Patricia Ann Owens, School Library Journal
'If you're looking for a video to provide background information and be the springboard for a group discussion about agricultural issues [Broken Limbs is] worth considering... I can imagine this video being shown to church classes or social justice groups and being the impetus for a church or home becoming the drop-off site for a CSA operation or meat producer.' Dana Jackson, The Land Stewardship Letter
'Provides a vivid example of how agribusiness and world trade practices have disasterously impacted family farming of apple orchards...[a] strongly recommended addition to school, college, and community library collections.' Midwest Book Review
'The production elements of Broken Limbs are excellent. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in agriculture. Broken Limbs presents a refreshing look at ways that farmers can survive and even thrive without becoming bogged down in discussing the often depressing outlook for the future of the family farm.' Educational Media Reviews Online
Citation
Main credits
Evans, Guy (Producer)
Howell, Jamie (Producer)
Howell, Jamie (Screenwriter)
Other credits
Photography, Guy Evans; editor, Guy Evans; music, Guy Evans, Jamie Howell and Fathappy.
Distributor subjects
Agriculture; American Studies; Business Practices; Environment; Globalization; Local Economies; Science, Technology, Society; Sustainable Agriculture; Western USKeywords
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[music]
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Some say the apple
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was a forbidden fruit that one that got Adam and
Eve into so much trouble in the Garden of Eden.
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As much trouble as my hometown is in.
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Maybe we should have left
the apple alone as well.
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[music]
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This year as the Apple Blossom
Festival grand parade,
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ground its way down Wenatchee avenue. Across
town, excavators moved in on the last stand
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of apple trees at the gates of the
city, making way for a New Home Depot,
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right across the street from the Wal-Mart. They still
call this place the \"Apple Capital of the World.\"
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We still hold the Guinness
Book of World Records title,
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for the World’s largest apple pie. We’re still
headquarters of the Washington Apple Commission.
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And still the focal point
of a statewide industry
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that pumps out 12 billion apples a season.
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But the title doesn’t fit the
way it did when I was a kid.
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When I was a kid, apples were everywhere. We played in the golden
apple marching band, we went to football games in the Apple Bowl,
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we flirted with Apple Ettes. And if you
were successful in those flirtations,
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you and your apple-ette sought out a
soft place deep in an apple orchard.
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I don’t know where the kids go today,
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but something tells me, making out isn’t nearly
as easy in the middle of the new subdivisions
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that have sprouted where the apple orchards one grew.
The Apple Commission isn’t what it used to be either,
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guard of the multi-million dollar ad
campaigns to sell Washington apples.
00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:09.999
All that remains is a building on the north
end of town, haunted by a skeleton crew
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and a few part time clerks selling
apple souvenirs out of the lobby.
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Gone as well are the Hawaiiantians(ph)
are farmers used to sport in the fall,
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after dropping off their last bin of apples at the packing shed.
An apple orchard won’t support Hawaiian vacations anymore.
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It will scarcely support
the simplest living.
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Yet, this is still the same place. The
soil, the sun, the mighty Columbia,
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put a ceiling in the ground
here, take good care of it,
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and in the two Septembers, you’ll have yourself one of the
best apples in the world. Farming was healthy, healthy.
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It… it really was. You’re in God’s
country, and if you could get fruit
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from those trees into a box and to market.
You know, thank you Jesus,
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I mean it was money in the bank. It’s
everything else that has changed
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things out in the world. You know, when something when you see
a 50 year old farmer breaking the tears. I mean, they just…
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they just don’t break down emotionally. We see that
a lot. My children don’t wanna continue farming.
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Neither one of ‘em has an interest
in farming. My son tells me
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\"Why would I wanna do something that’s gonna pay me $2 an hour
Mom, wake up.\" And today what was once a simple proposition.
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Grow a beautiful piece of fruit and
sell it to somebody who wants it,
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has become complicated, impossible even.
Somebody is the blame,
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but you can’t put your finger on it. I got
a feeling, a lot of it is globalization.
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Today, the future of my hometown,
\"The Apple Capital of the World\"
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is very much in question. Go down of the coffee shop, talk
to 10 people and you’ll get 12 different visions of the…
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of the future. That would be a
tragedy, if we use the small farm
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’cause that’s small farm is what
made America, what it’s today.
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My family is been in apples
for three generations.
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I was to be the 4th.
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But I’m not. In this family
tree, \"I’m the broken limb.\"
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My dad used to tell me, \"Farming
was like sitting on an egg
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and waiting for it to hatch.\" Frankly,
I thought that sounded pretty dull.
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So using the money he made on his apples, dad helped
put me through college, so that I might find a career
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more to my liking. My dad is a good farmer,
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\"Washington farmer of the Year\" in 1979.
He grew red delicious apples
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and a few other varieties. Once, he told me
that, by the time I was finishing up at school,
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he’d probably be retiring from the apple
business. The graduation came and went,
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and my dad’s retirement only seem
to get further and further away.
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In March of 2000, I got a letter from uh…
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Farm Credit saying that uh… \"They were no
longer uh… in the financing business with me,\"
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and they wanted repayment of
all the money in uh… October,
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and I said, you know, \"The only way you’re gonna
get that is to, you know, foreclose on me and… and
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I’m not gonna, but you really do that.
I’m gonna be very obstinate
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and I’m gonna be very on honoree about it,
and it’s gonna cost you a lot of money.\"
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$750,000, for all his
hard work over the years,
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all he had to show for it, was $750,000
in debt, a bank breathing down his neck
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and no money to get next
year’s crop started.
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But he wasn’t ready to give up, while he fought to convince
the bank to give him more time to pay back his loans,
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he lived on money, he made it as fruit stand, and by
renting out his basement to tourists in the summer.
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To cut his losses,
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he had to cut out some of his trees. Trees,
he had been tending most of his life.
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The only thing harder than cutting out
the trees, was cutting out the people
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who’d helped him carry the workload of the orchard.
Half the money, it takes to run an orchard,
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goes to the people who work in it. You lose the
uh… first of all, you know, your health uh…
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that you’re if, we’ve had around for number of years,
you go through uh… that five year around people,
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so those people have to go.
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One of those people was Salomon Mendoza. Every
morning, as a child, I walked to the school bus stop
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with Salomon’s kids, Rudy and Rosa.
When the end finally came,
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Salomon had been working
alongside my dad for 23 years.
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When I told him that there was no
financing and that uh… you know,
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he would be, that I would keep him the very
last person, you know, he could see that
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probably wasn’t his best interest to stay.
So he went out and found other employment
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which I was happy that he did.
I found Salomon
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much as I remembered him, still at work in the apple
orchards with a new job at a place called \"Apple I\",
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a 900 acre spread the dwarfs the 130
acres, he and my dad used to farm.
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He’s just as crazy.
00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:24.999
Yeah, I… it took me a week
to learn my way around
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from orchard to orchard,
which way was more faster
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and name of the blocks. I’ve
gotten couple of headaches.
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Right now, we’ve got 110
pickers and plus uh…
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30 uh… here around, you know,
operators, truck drivers uh…
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adds up almost 150 people.
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That’s a lot of people. Yeah, big
difference, big change. Hello.
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Salomon told me he was
happy just to have work.
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Year around, orchard jobs aren’t as easy
to come by as they once were. Okay.
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As far as he can see, his future is tied
to these orchards. Yeah, it’s true.
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Especially, for me who been
on the apple uh… business
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for I think, working on
apples for 28 years.
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I don’t know anything else to do.
Mean, I… at least I could
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break into something, but
be hard of my… my age.
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[music]
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Today, my dad is 60. He understood from the start
that farming doesn’t come with any guarantees.
00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:44.999
He’s always been at the mercy of
Mother Nature, her hail storms
00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:49.999
and cold snaps, her withering sun
and her armies of hungry pasts.
00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:54.999
But he believed that over the long run, he could
work with Mother Nature. She would provide
00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:59.999
and someday he would retire. In some
cases, you can do everything right,
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and… and be the best farmer in the world. Put
all the right inputs in, at the right time,
00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:09.999
and still end up with crop failure.
We know that.
00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:14.999
What I didn’t realize is that the change
00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:19.999
that I knew was coming would be so fast
and so severe. None of us dreamed,
00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:24.999
it would hit as quick as it did.
00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:29.999
It wasn’t the natural hazards they got
to him. It was the manmade hazards.
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For small farmer like my dad, there may
be no more inhospitable environment
00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:39.999
than the global market. Uh… The Chinese
and the Chileans and those folks
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are doing just a good
job for uh… less money.
00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:49.999
And if you go to Costco, you probably do, and you can see along
in February, and you can see what awful nice fruit in there,
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at awful cheap price, from…
from southern hemisphere
00:09:55.000 --> 00:09:59.999
and umm… that’s what people buy.
00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:04.999
A currency crisis in Asia,
a port lockout in Seattle,
00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:09.999
an overzealous pest inspector in
Taiwan, a new tariff in Mexico,
00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:14.999
these are the winds that blow through
my father’s orchard these days.
00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:19.999
And like most small farmers, he feels every bit as
powerless before them as in the face of a storm cloud
00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:24.999
coming over the Cascades.
The local paper came out
00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:29.999
to do a story about my dad and about the jury
future, Apple farmers like him, seem to be facing.
00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:34.999
Next to the story, ran a poem I wrote,
as an attempt to make some sense
00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:39.999
out of what I was seeing around me.
00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:44.999
[music]
00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:49.999
The apples, red, ripe, ready for
the pickers bag, warehouse bin,
00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:54.999
ready for the grocer’s shelf,
your fridge, your mouth,
00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:59.999
but not this year.
00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:04.999
The apples, red, ripe, riddle the ground.
00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:09.999
Our machines rip the trees from the Earth.
A huge pyer burns.
00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:14.999
Spirits tended for years,
pillar to the sky.
00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:19.999
In a few days,
00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:24.999
only the apples and amount of ashes.
00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:29.999
The orchardiststays away that day,
00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:34.999
talks about economics at the coffee shop.
How the red delicious had to come out?
00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:39.999
How they just didn’t pay their way?
But inside,
00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:44.999
he fights back for two years. Years of growth,
planted in soil that should have born fruit
00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:49.999
for another 20. The house
might go next year,
00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:54.999
if prices don’t improve. At
least, the kids are grown.
00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:59.999
[music]
00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:04.999
All around the valley, this fall, the smoky
(inaudible)pile hangs like the last breath of life.
00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:09.999
Old timers shake their heads, say,
\"they’ve never seen it so bad.\"
00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:14.999
[music]
00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:19.999
The hander short boy out on the flats,
got a job driving cement truck,
00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:24.999
got to feed that little baby, somehow.
00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:29.999
No one knows quite what to do. No
way to plant and pick fast enough
00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:34.999
to follow the fickle markets.
00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:39.999
[music] And so, the trees come out.
00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:44.999
And men stand huddled by their trucks.
Arms crossed,
00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:49.999
baseball caps pushed back on
foreheads lined with fear.
00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:54.999
And the Autumn breeze drifts by.
00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:59.999
Heavy with smoke and the distant sound
00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:04.999
of a snapping trunks.
00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:13.000
[music]
00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:19.999
Writing the poem only raised
more questions for me.
00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:24.999
\"Why if this is really the Apple Capital of the
World, are we having such trouble raising apples?\"
00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:29.999
I decided to see if I can learn more
00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:34.999
about what was ailing my hometown.
00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:39.999
When some people see farmers like my dad pulling out
their trees, they call it a \"market correction.\"
00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:44.999
They believe that when we grow more
apples and the world cares to eat,
00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:49.999
the market will set things right. But with every
correction, we end up with fewer farmers.
00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:54.999
Once, this country was full of farmers.
00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:59.999
In 1900, 38% of the people in the United
States made their living on the farm.
00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:04.999
In 1950, that it dropped to 12%.
00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:09.999
In 1980, it was only 3.4%.
And by the year 2000,
00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:14.999
less than 2% of us were
making a living on the land.
00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:19.999
Is that a market correction?
Or is that a market mistake?
00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:24.999
I picked up the mail,
00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:29.999
I got the letter, I opened the letter,
it said \"No,\" I walked out and told him.
00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:34.999
That was it. He never work
in the orchard again.
00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:39.999
Set my loppers down. Huh-hmm. I laid
my letter down and I walked to house.
00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:44.999
David, and Phoebe Crosby, got a
letter from the bank very much
00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:49.999
like the one my dad got. They’d come to the
Apple Capital from Alaska 20 years earlier,
00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:54.999
as part of a kind of reverse gold rush.
And one of the gentlemen that
00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.999
Phoebe, had worked with, had quit and come down
here and bought an orchard in Nortonville(ph).
00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:04.999
And I had talked to him and he said, \"Man,
this is the best thing in the world.\"
00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:09.999
He said, \"You don’t have to work, you just
pick the apple, you make lots of money
00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:14.999
and you just have good time.\" As a
man, this sounds like a life for me.
00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:19.999
The Crosbys weren’t alone. In the 20 years that
followed, more than 50,000 new acres of apple trees
00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.999
were planted in Washington State.
Everything was in place
00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:29.999
to make Apple farming as easy as possible. Field men and
chemical reps to guide you through the growing season,
00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:34.999
truckers to cart your apples away, and
sheds to pack and market your fruit.
00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:39.999
Of course, everybody took their cut.
So by the time
00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:44.999
uh… the money is taken from the
customer to pay the grocer,
00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:49.999
who pays the whole seller,
who pays the trucker,
00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:54.999
who pays the broker, who pays to warehouse,
00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:59.999
who finally pays us. If there’s anything
left over, the farmer gets what’s left over.
00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:04.999
Every, everybody’s work on it, fixed cost.
00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:09.999
Except the farmer. Except the farmer. And he’s
taken… Whatever is left. Whatever is given to ‘em
00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:15.000
and he lays down like a whip up and says
\"Well, that’s all. I’m gonna get for supper.\"
00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:24.999
Still for many years, there was enough money
to cover everybody’s cut of the apple dollar.
00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:29.999
The Crosby settled in, and soon they had
come to love their new way of life.
00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:34.999
You got them in the band and there they were and
all are glory. There’s nothing more gorgeous
00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:39.999
and beautifully ripened fruit,
sitting there in the (inaudible) bin
00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:44.999
and… and the size is
good and you say, \"Yes.\"
00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:49.999
I think every farmer says that.
When you stepped out the door
00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:54.999
and you heard her the geese hollering
00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:59.999
and in the birds singing, and that cock bird feathers
it up there screaming and the little quail sit near
00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.999
on your fence post, Holland, Chicago,
and you were communing with nature.
00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:09.999
Huh-hmm. It made it all worthwhile.
00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:14.999
But the apple dollar kept shrinking,
00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:20.000
until eventually, there
was no more left over.
00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:29.999
I’m gonna open the bidding up with the bid that I received from the planters
attorney in this matter and the first bid of (inaudible) reckon will be
00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:34.999
$363,151.45. Do you have any more bids?
00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:39.999
[sil.]
00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.999
This bid been $363,151.45.
Do you have any bid?
00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:49.999
[sil.]
00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:54.999
Going once, going twice.
00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:59.999
Sold to the planters attorney $363,151.45.
00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:04.999
Talk to the clients.
00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:09.999
The people, we hardly tried.
I told Phoebe (inaudible)
00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:14.999
give me your hand, she’d looked at me, she said,
\"What for?\" I said, \"So we can stand together
00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:19.999
on our own property, ‘cause when
we come back, it won’t be ours.\"
00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.999
And, it hurts a little bit.
00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:29.999
But, what do you do? Not much.
Not much at all.
00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:38.000
[sil.]
00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:44.999
Now, that the bank has taken their farm, the
Crosbys’ have a year to vacate their home.
00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.999
Dave has found work at a local church.
Phoebe took a job
00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:54.999
assembling plumbing parts, but it
lasted only a few months. Oh, it’s like
00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:59.999
a lot of other, Pheobe got awful and
depressed. Yeah, you thought about
00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.999
going out and laying down on the road
waiting for some might (inaudible).
00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:09.999
We’ve really thought some bad thoughts.
We’ve got no money. We’ve got nothing
00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.999
to back us up, because every dime we
ever made was put into the orchard
00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:19.999
and when that is taken away from you, and
your livelihood is taken away from you.
00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.999
Where do you go? What do you do?
What do you think about it?
00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.999
\"It’s just business we like to say,\"
00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.999
but here in the Apple Capital of
the World, it’s more than that.
00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.999
Farmers in the U.S. commit suicide at a
rate six times the national average.
00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.999
I’ve seen the cloud in my
father’s eyes and I worry.
00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.999
[sil.]
00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.999
Of course, not all family
farms are failing,
00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.999
like mine, the MacDougall family goes back
generations in the valleys apple industry,
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.999
but that’s where the similarities end. This is
what the MacDougall family farm looks like today.
00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
Their key to survival through
tough times has been growth
00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
and diversification. When the
Apple prices couldn’t carry them,
00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
they squeaked by on the earnings
from their packing shed.
00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
In this industry, you have to take those chances
to continue to grow and I think that, you know,
00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.999
if you don’t grow in this in… in this industry
right now, if you’re not moving ahead, uh…
00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.999
you’re probably gonna fall out, you
know, you’ll fall by the wayside.
00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.999
You had to be cutting edge
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.999
and you have to be extremely
honest with yourself too
00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
about exactly what you’re doing. You
want to enjoy it, but that better
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
not be why… why you’re in it, you… you know,
or you… you won’t be in it very, very long.
00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
I… I noticed uh… the guys are
back in New York, didn’t…
00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
didn’t take of the uh… 60… It’s still apples, but Stuart
and his brother Scott, don’t work in the same business
00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
their father did. So much the
business is done through,
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
you know, electronically
produced uh… orders
00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
and… and things like that. It
seems to me, it’s much more, umm…
00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
it doesn’t have the same flavor, let’s
put it that way. Like it or not,
00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
they don’t see any alternative to constant
growth and all its attendant risks,
00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
if they want to continue to be a player.
Recently, they joined forces
00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
with other like-minded packing houses and
formed a marketing agency called \"CMI\".
00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
Together, they’ve managed to more
than triple their production numbers.
00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
With CMI, we’re getting close to uh… probably
eight, nine boxes of fruit collectively.
00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
And that seems to be a level that we
need to be at, to be able to supply
00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
the bigger chains on a year around basis.
And if you don’t have that amount of supply
00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
then it’s pretty hard to even get your foot
in the door to work with these people.
00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
Some packing houses joined forces to
keep up with the demands of Albertsons
00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
and Safeway and Kroger. But if you really
want to feed the WalMarts of the World,
00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
it’s better to become a force in your own
right. Stemilt fruit founded by a local farmer
00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
named Tom Mathison in 1962, has become
one of the largest fruit shippers
00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
on the West Coast. They control
more than 10,000 acres of orchards
00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
and can offer the kind of one stop
shopping, big box stores like, apples,
00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
pears, cherries, all right
here, all year long.
00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
To satisfy the appetites
of these retail giants,
00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:50.000
you have to have an appetite of your own.
00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
[music]
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
West Mathison is 27, and he’s been
handpicked by his grandfather
00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
to lead Stemilt into the future.
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
We live and breathe and act and, and are part of the global
market. And our job is to find out where we fit into it.
00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
And I think that we have to somehow
embrace all of the global trends of…
00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
of sourcing, international sourcing of
product, different type of packaged types,
00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
newer varieties, improving the product, I mean, we
have to embrace those things in order to survive.
00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
When the Apple Commissions marketing budget is
guided by a legal decision, the Stemilt, answers
00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
to hire away the top guns for their own marketing
department. When foreign competition ramps up,
00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
the Stemilt answer is to set up its own
relationship with Chilean fruit growers
00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
and become an importer. When the country’s biggest
buyers need something, the Stemilt answer
00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
is to make it happen. Because the
retailers’ problems are our problems,
00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
no matter how you look at it, we not only have to be suppliers,
we’ve got to be problem solvers for the retail industry.
00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
Unfortunately,
00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
my dad doesn’t have time to be solving retail
issues for Wal-Mart. He’s too busy right now,
00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
figuring out how to bring the plumbing at Sunshine
fruit stand, up to health department codes.
00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
It took most of his marketing budget, just to print up
stickers for the kitschy Llama Doo that he collects
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
and sells to gardeners for 475 a box.
00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
West and the Mathison family have found a set
of answers that seem to be working for Stemilt.
00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
But they aren’t answers that
will ever work for my dad
00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
or for any other small farmer.
I kept searching for answers,
00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
for some hope that my father might be
able to hold on to his way of life.
00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
Some pointed me in the
direction of technology.
00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
Our… our orchards are handle it much the same way as
there were in Roman or Grecian times. We grow a tree,
00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
put a ladder next to it, climb up it, pick a fruit put
in a bag, go dump it in a bin. That’s what they did in…
00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
in the days of Theophrastus. We need
to change that aspect of our industry.
00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
Ceaseless innovation and that’s
what’s gotten a lot of our industry
00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
where it’s now. Some felt that more
creative marketing held the key.
00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
Our message is \"Three apples every
day, three workouts every way.\"
00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
In America, we all want instant gratification
and weight loss and… and looking good naked
00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
is instant gratification. Some
just told me not to worry so much.
00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
But you know what, there used to be
85 auto manufacturers in this nation,
00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
and we got down to three. Things do
go through an evolutionary period.
00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
You can’t see every farmer.
Good farmer should survive
00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
and agriculture probably
isn’t going to go away.
00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
Well, if we’re really going to
get down to three Apple farmers,
00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
the odds don’t look good that my dad is going to be one of them.
And besides, wouldn’t getting down to three apple growers
00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
in a state that has 4,000 of them, the almost
the same thing as agriculture going away.
00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
The old answers didn’t
seem to hold much hope,
00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
especially, where small
farmers were concerned.
00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
Over time, it just becomes undeniable hoot to anyone
who’s willing to think and… and look at the world around
00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
that there’re things going on
that we need to talk about.
00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
And each storm that comes along, we’ve fewer and fewer and
fewer farmers and, and more and more and more consolidation.
00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
Are these the rules we want
to continue playing by?
00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
Do we want to keep on that path? And… and I
say the answer should be \"No.\" We… we don’t
00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
because we… we will, we want and
need family farms to exist.
00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
The business model in the U.S. is to become
bigger and bigger. And that’s a difficult thing
00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
to apply to agriculture and, and we’re doing
it. The model that we used to produce food
00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
in the United States is what we have to think
about right now. But if the model itself
00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
is the problem, I had yet to
hear anyone in my hometown
00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
proposing a new one.
00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
One day in August, a friend handed me an academic paper
that have been circulating among some local farmers.
00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
The title read \"Survival
strategies for small farms.\"
00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
Those 11 pages contain my first introduction
to an idea called \"Sustainable agriculture.\"
00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
It’s simply a matter that we… we lost our
sense of purpose in the agriculture.
00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
The… the purpose was to meet the needs of people
to enhance the quality of lives of people.
00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
It was written by a professor from the
University of Missouri, Dr John Ikerd.
00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
And he had very specific ideas about
how we got into our current bind.
00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
By focusing so narrowly, on
productivity and economic efficiency,
00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
we drifted away from that
fundamental purpose.
00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
But what really intrigued me, are his ideas about how
we can get out of that bind? What we’re talking about
00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
is agriculture that will
last over the long run.
00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
Dr Ikerd travels the country, spreading the
word about this new model for farming.
00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
I caught up with him at a conference
where he was the keynote speaker.
00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
Ikerd’s talk laid out the three central
ideas of sustainable agriculture.
00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
First, that a sustainable agriculture
must be ecologically sound.
00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
We’ve got to take care of the land and maintain
the productivity of the land because if we…
00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
if the land loses its ability to produce
agriculture is not sustainable.
00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
Second, and this is when all our farmers
understand already. A sustainable agriculture
00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
has to be economically viable. And if the
farming system isn’t economically viable,
00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
if the farmer goes broke, it doesn’t make any difference
how ecologically sound his farming operation is,
00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
the farmer goes broke it’s not sustainable.
And third, a sustainable agriculture
00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
has to be socially responsible, improving the
lives of the people involved. It has to meet
00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
the food and fiber needs of society, that’s
the fundamental purpose of agriculture.
00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
But it also has to provide opportunities for
farmers and people in rural communities
00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
and society to lead successful lives.
We’ve always done business with our eye
00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
on the bottom line. But Dr. Ikerd
was talking about something more,
00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
a triple bottom line. One that factored in, not just
dollars, but also our impact on the environment
00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
and on the people around us.
00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
Dr. Ikerd, that the road we’re on, towards
large scale, fully industrialized agriculture
00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
threatens more than just our small
farmers, it threatens all of us.
00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
We’ve watched big industries leave one
after another, looking for cheap labor
00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
on foreign shores. But what
if agriculture were to leave?
00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
Sustainability is ultimately about long
run food security. I think we could
00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
at some point become as dependent upon the rest of
the world for our food as we are today for our oil.
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
We’ve never been hungry since 1930.
We’ve forgotten that…
00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
that food actually could be short.
00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
And in any kind of catastrophe, if there’s no local
products, no local food right here, we would be in trouble.
00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
If the trucks can’t get over
the past, we can’t get food.
00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
But sustainable agriculture was
still just a theory in a paper.
00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
How would it actually be done and by whom?
00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
I call them the New American farmers.
00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
[music]
00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
Dr. Ikerd described a new breed of Farmer,
both a steward and a student of the land.
00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
Dr Ikerd’s New American Farmers were
not the stoic solitary figures of old,
00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
but men and women focused on building new relationships
both with other farmers and with their customers.
00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
Finally, these were farmers for whom
money mattered, but not above all else.
00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
What mattered most, was holding on
to a lifestyle they believed in.
00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
Because, it was good for their
families, good for their communities,
00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
good for their world. Ikerd’s New American Farmers
for more than just ideas and academic papers.
00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
They were real and he had met them.
There’re literally thousands,
00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
if not hundreds of thousands of farmers
across this country and around the world,
00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
that are thinking in different ways. They are
working thankers, thanking workers, if you will.
00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
These are the New American Farmers.
If that was so,
00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
my next task was clear.
00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
I set out to find some of these
New American Farmers for myself.
00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
Husband is so strong. I mean, he’s really
an anchor and he has a lot of faith
00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
and he’s just one of these steady kind of ant
guys that, you know, goes and gets (inaudible)
00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
and brings it back and goes and gets (inaudible)and brings back, it
doesn’t matter if it hail’s on him, rain’s on him, snow’s on him,
00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
he’s still gonna get that (inaudible)and bring it back.
And so he’s been a tremendous inspiration for me.
00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
I’ve been very lucky.
00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
Wynne Weinreb and her husband Scott
Beaton haven’t always been lucky.
00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
In 1994, the hail did come.
00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
We saw this beautiful, black storm
coming up the Columbia River just uh…
00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
it… it looked like hail, and when it came,
there were three quarter inch hail.
00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
We thought it, well, we thought it was pretty cool for a
while till we realized, you know, we’re getting hammered.
00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
Their crop was ruined. No packing shed would
attempt to sell it for anything, but juice.
00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
And juice apple prices wouldn’t come close
to covering their $25,000 crop loan.
00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
And then they hit on an idea, they
picked through their crop by hand,
00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
salvaged all that they could and made
a trip over the mountains to Seattle.
00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
We were selling uh… ding (inaudible) fruit
at the farmer’s market and people go
00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
\"Oh, what’s the matter with this?\" And… and we would
explain to ‘em that it was just a hail not was like,
00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
you know, some infectious disease
that there are gonna die from it.
00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
The Apple sold and they paid back the crop loan. It
was the start of us getting into marketing our own…
00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
our own fruit and then we figured out
as we went that we either get ourselves
00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
some place to pack and store on
fruit, our business is over.
00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
Economies of scale, work applied to Apple
just like the applied to make them,
00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
you know, affords. It’s just
tough to go smaller acres
00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
or the five acre, you’re not make a living on that
anymore, I used to. Wynne and Scott own, Jerzy Boyz Farm.
00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
An organic apple orchard not far
from my dad’s, but smaller,
00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
five acres in fact. Hey, listen We were
actually getting paid to work out here.
00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
You know, we’re not making a
real lot of money, but uh…
00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
you know, we’re making enough money uh… to get paid
and we’re helping our, one of our kids go to college
00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
and so we feel that we’re…
we’re doing pretty good.
00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
I mean, all my neighbors tease me about it. They all say, \"Oh,
you… you know, you’re gonna end up buying the whole neighborhood\"
00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
and \"Oh, you want to buy my farm\" and you know, but I
really don’t, I have no interest in growing bigger.
00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
Small is very beautiful, if you manage
it well. And small makes it possible.
00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
If it were bigger, we couldn’t do what
we’re doing on that field. There’s no way.
00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
There’re two keys to the success of
Jerzy Boyz. The first is that they know
00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
how to get exactly what they want out of their
trees. You have to do a lot of work yourself
00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
if you’re a smaller farmer. Umm…
And, you know, even with uh…
00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
apple trees uh… in order to stay above the
curve, you have to be out in the field a lot.
00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
And he knows what he wants in the field.
00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
He knows everything that he has to do to make
that fruit be best earned food in America.
00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
And so he’s out there doing it because
he’s the only one who can really do it.
00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
The second key is that they are as willing to
tend their markets as they are to tender trees.
00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
We saw a lot of fruits in San Francisco area. We saw
fruit in Minneapolis. We saw a lot of fruit back east.
00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
Those are, I mean, little bit in
Florida, it… it kind of gets around L.A.
00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
Using a background as a research librarian, Wynne knows
how to find her way to the customers she’s after.
00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
But they don’t have to have a huge market,
but if they’re, if they have a high…
00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
high priced, high quality market where people are looking
for really good quality. I send them a sample box
00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
and that’s usually how it goes. I mean, I
sent… I sent one guy a sample box back
00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
eight years ago umm… a 20 pound box
00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
and he probably has ordered uh… several hundred thousand
dollars worth of food, since then. What Wynne and Scott
00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
have come up with, combines the technologies
of today with the sensibilities
00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
of the past. I take a lot from the way
the old farmers did it, not the ones
00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
that went out and brought brand of (inaudible) and took their RV’s
and went on vacation for six months. I’m talking about the guys that
00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
worked the land, hunkered down, did
what they had to do, live tight,
00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
aid(ph) off the land and save their money. That’s
where we’ve kind of get ourselves not a lot of frills
00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
uh… trying to be really conservative,
00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
spend your money very wisely, boring stuff
like that, but we paid our land off.
00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
That’s, this farm, the
business, bought the land,
00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
paid our land. Last year, we got
our debt from the bank. So we now
00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
own Jerzy Boyz Farm.
00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
But the real giveaway that I’d found a pair of New American Farmers was
something Dr. Ikerd has singled out as one of their most important traits,
00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
a desire to cooperate rather than compete.
00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
That’s part of what drives me to work as hard as I
do and to be successful at what I’m doing because,
00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
I want other farmers to do that too. And
if they’re not gonna see models like me,
00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
they’re gonna see all the guys that are pulling their fruit out
and giving up. They’re not gonna have the impetus to go on,
00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
but there’re people that look at me and see
what we’re doing and they say \"They can do it,
00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
we can do it.\" And you call me on the phone
I’ll tell you what I know would help you do it.
00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
So yeah, it’s kind of a mission to
keep uh… small family farm alive
00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
to not let all of our agriculture leave the United States,
and go to other places where you don’t know what’s going on
00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
and what’s… what’s being put in the soil.
Umm… you come and inspect my farming,
00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
you can take soil samples, you come, visit,
I’ll be happy to tell you everything.
00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
[music]
00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
I live a very modest lifestyle,
00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
limiting my means. I could just say,
you know, I farm within my means,
00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
and that’s, you know, it’s not
a novel idea. It’s… it’s just
00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
something that’s not happening that much anymore. How
much are these? Look at these as if now, we don’t…
00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
Wait a minute. See, we’re gonna weigh… When you first spot Grant
Gibbs at a farmer’s market or driving around in his battered truck,
00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
he can’t be blamed for thinking that
here is a man on the fringes of society.
00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
And the truth is Gibbs does
operate on the fringes.
00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
But when it comes to farming, the fringy operates
on is what some are calling \"The cutting edge.\"
00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
That you got to have a dream to go
somewhere and that’s one thing I’m good at
00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
as dreamin’.
00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
Gibbs dream is to create a farm there with
his help alone takes care of its own needs.
00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
Farmers like my father have long relied on a growing and
expensive list of chemicals to keep their farms producing
00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
according to expectations. But
Gibbs has been weaning himself
00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
from the things he buys, choosing instead, to rely
on his own ingenuity and his knowledge of the land.
00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
You know, I knew I wanted the
hay growing in the frost pocket
00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
and I wanted the fruit upon the slopes,
and I wanted deep soils for gardening,
00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
and I needed some pasture ground
as well, and handy clear that
00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
The cow manure, he scoops from his
pasture becomes compost for his gardens.
00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
Once a day, he moves his flock of chickens
in the orchard, where they do double duty,
00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
mowing the grass and feasting on pests that
would otherwise be feasting on apples.
00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
Once a week, Gibbs shifts the pen, call the
hog tractor further down his garden rose.
00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
While the pig’s feed on damaged
apples and other farm scraps.
00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
They’re actually telling him fertilizing the
soil. On Gibbs 20 acres, everything cycles,
00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
everything connects. Gibbs believes,
he’s only a year or two away
00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
from never having to go to the feed or chemical
stores at all, a self-sustaining system.
00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
But the kind of farming that we’re
talking about in terms of sustainability
00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
requires the creativity, requires
imagination. It requires now
00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
determining what you can do, in
terms of recreating agriculture
00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
in a particular area. Gibbs
had to use his imagination
00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
to make it up here in Chumstick, Canyon, but when winter comes6 a
little earlier and a little colder than it does down in Wenatchee.
00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
Of all the great places we have to grow
apples, this may actually not be one of them.
00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
Yet, Gibbs manages and unlike many local
farmers, he isn’t entertaining any ideas
00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
of pulling out his apple trees in
favor of some hot new variety.
00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
His apples made sense, when he put them in the ground
and it make sense now. When I planted in my orchards,
00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
I planted them in heirloom
varieties that ripe in
00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
at different intervals. So
I’ve started picking my apples
00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
with the grabbing teams(ph) in August.
And I end up picking my apples
00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
with the wines after Halloween,
00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
and all the other varieties come off
in between. And I only need one bin
00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
to harvest my whole crop. I
don’t need 200 bin laying
00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
around collecting (inaudible).
I only need one bin.
00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
And when it’s packed out then I go up
in the orchard and I pick another bin.
00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
And when I get to $2000 to $3000 with a
product packed in my crewer, I quit picking
00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
for a day and I take a day and
go out on the road and sell it.
00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
In Gibbs, I saw living proof of some of Dr. Ikerd’s
theories. Every time, he changes his old hand lines,
00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
he’s thinking about how to better tend
his farm, how to strengthen his systems.
00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
He was a farmer truly relying
on his own imagination.
00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
In the people that do their thinking, the people
that come up with the innovative and creative ideas
00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
will be rewarded. Gibbs reward,
00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
he’s managed to recapture a degree of power that most
apple farmers in our valley can no longer even imagine.
00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
Gibbs not only sets his own price
for apples, he holds that price.
00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
What I do is I target the
natural food Co-ops,
00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
not the chain grocers. Chain grocers
want to buy from a wholesaler
00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
which would basically be your fruit packing
shed, but demand pop Co-op stores,
00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
they’ll buy direct. And I
value them and they value me
00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
and there’s a mutual
connection there that uh…
00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
really works good for the small farmer.
One season, wholesale prices
00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
for organic golden delicious
apples saying to $21 a box.
00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
Well, below gives customary price
of $26 a box. Gibbs wouldn’t budge.
00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
The fact that drop down
$21, a box, you know,
00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
that’s time to fume the pigs, you know. I’m
not… I’m not gonna honor that fluctuation,
00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
because I know that’s what
I need to make a living.
00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
To the pigs chagrin, most of Gibbs’
buyers decided to stay with him.
00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
And out of the 10 stores I was selling
into that year, eight of them honored me
00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
and my $26 a box and said \"Flew with
the wholesaler and their cheap price\",
00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
which made me think, you
know, here’s a real,
00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
real serious friendship. Here’s a
real serious connection to the farm.
00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
I call it the food connection,
real serious food connection
00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
going on here.
00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
I don’t want to try and tell somebody what they need to sell their product
for. If they know what they need for, then that’s what they need for.
00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
Of course, Grant’s gonna tell me what he
wants for and Grant’s prices are reasonable.
00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
While many large grocery buyers
play farmers against each other
00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
forcing them to compete by dropping their
prices. Co-op stores with produce managers like
00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
Katherine Lewis, see their farmers in
a different light. I’m very concerned
00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.999
that the farmers survive. If the farmers
don’t survive, we don’t have anything.
00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.999
Farmer on the fringe though he may
be, today, Grant Gibbs is in demand
00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
as a speaker at universities, where the farmers of tomorrow
hope to learn from his techniques and philosophies.
00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
But his basic philosophy can be
boiled down into one simple idea.
00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
Make the food connection happen. You’ve got to make it
happen, what gonna happen for you. Here’s the farm,
00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
here’s the farmer, there’s a customer,
there’s the mouth and it’s all connected.
00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
There’s nothing separated.
00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
Between Gibbs farm and my father’s
00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
in the small town of Cashmere, I found Anne McClendon and
Gale Bates. Two women committed to making the food connection
00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
in a slightly different way. This is a CSA.
00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
The place is called \"Earthsong Farm\"
00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
and CSA, I learned, stands for Community
Supported Agriculture. The idea is
00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
that people subscribe for produce.
00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
They pay in advance of the
season so that the farmer
00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
has operating capital. Every Thursday, Anne and
Gale, load up their cars and make the rounds
00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
delivering equal shares of the week’s harvest
to the doorsteps of their subscribers.
00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
It’s not an altogether new idea, but
it’s an idea that’s taking hold.
00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
This tractor fills it up. Well, Anne and Gale serve
between 20 and 30 families in the Wenatchee Valley,
00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
Pike Place Market Basket is a CSA in
Seattle, with more than a 1000 members.
00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
People in cities have really lost that
connection to where their food comes from,
00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.999
and the people who grow it. And…
and I think a lot of people
00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.999
really crave that connection. Once a week,
volunteers converge on a parking lot,
00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
behind Seattle’s famed Pike Place Market.
Divvying up food and loading it onto trucks
00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
bound for high rises around the city.
Once they become involved and in…
00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.999
in something like shopping at farmer’s
market or becoming a member of a CSA,
00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:54.999
they realize how meaningful it is. Even just to
eat seasonally to know that berries of the fruit
00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.999
that we get in the springtime and maybe the fall for
lucky and we get pieces and nectarines in late summer.
00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.999
And just having that sort of regular
flow of the seasons is something that
00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:09.999
you lose going to a 24/7 grocery store.
Their customers are professionals
00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.999
and office workers, who subscribe for
a variety of reasons. To me \"Yes\"
00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.999
and it makes you try things you would
normally try. I split it with my mom.
00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
And so she was really excited, cause it kind of
gave me a reason to go to her house every week,
00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
I take it to her. Our members are also really
interested in helping to support local agriculture.
00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
They really like knowing where their
food comes from. They like the fact
00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
that if they have a question about something, they can come
down on Wednesday, when the farmer selling up the market
00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
and talk to that farmer about - why your cares
care that’s for before (inaudible) amazing?
00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
Or how on earth do you cook Kohlrabi
or these grazing greens again?
00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
Give me your best recipe for grazing grains.
They like that connection. Now let’s go.
00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
It’s time to buy some fruits. I got you from…
It’s an incredible feeling for some people.
00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
It’s just… it’s a very new thing for many
of us in Ag. We don’t even think about it,
00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
but for a lot of folks in the city, this
is a new deal and it’s very exciting.
00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
It’s all part of re-acquainting
people with the true agriculture
00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
and maybe we’re gonna get to the point. Hopefully, we can
get to the point where instead of the consumer just having
00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
their own doctor, their own dentist,
00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
they have their own farmer.
00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
Hello and welcome to the farm fresh report, a look at what will be
fresh this week at the Mid-Town Valley Farmers’ Market in twist.
00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
The more I look, the more I notice farmers
reaching out through roadside stands
00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
hanging out signs, inviting visitors on to
their farms, taking school-kids on tours.
00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
These farmers were no longer accepting
the anonymity of the food system
00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
my dad had grown up in. They were reclaiming their
identities as farmers. Well, you can see it
00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
where this part one year and this
part for the second year. So this…
00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
Actually, I get more energy out of working with people than I do just
loading bins on a truck and sending them to Yakima or Wenatchee.
00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
I found these farmers taking classes, learning not
just how to grow their crops, but how to sell them.
00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
Marketing is everything.
It’s a smile on your face,
00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
it’s against to the… And a new
realization began to form in me.
00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
Everything these New American Farmers were doing was aimed at
connecting to me. I’m the second half of this emerging equation.
00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.999
When a New American Farmers need most,
00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.999
are some New American consumers.
00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.999
We in America have been taught to buy
00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
the cheapest product that we could get our
hands on. But I was beginning to understand
00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
was that those thrifty impulses I learned growing
up, came with costs I hadn’t considered before.
00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
In fact, all those years of saving pennies on the
dollar with the grocery store, might actually have come
00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
at the expense of my own
father’s livelihood.
00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
What we’re seeing more and more is consumer saying \"Hey,
I don’t want to be part of this huge downward spiral.
00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
I don’t want to willingly participate in some
massive consolidation. Give me the information,
00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
give me an alternative and I
will rise to… to the challenge.
00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
If there’s one thing that I could tell that
the consumer, you know, is buy quality.
00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
When you buy quality, you favor that really you favor
the smaller producers who can produce quality.
00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
I can lend in the quality.
00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
I met Deborah Kane at the Food
Alliance Headquarters in Portland.
00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
At produce department, manager told me once that
they’ll make changes in the produce department
00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
when about 10 people ask, when about
10 people bring something out
00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
because they figure if 10 people there’re trouble to ask, a
hundred others are thinking it. And so I just tell folks
00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
Ask, talk about it. You know,
ask questions. Because,
00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
hundred other people are thinking about it, are thinking
about the very same thing and they’re not asking.
00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
So just imagine if we all started asking. The
Food Alliance Program though still young,
00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
is already working at the national level. By
providing special seals of approval to farmers
00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.999
who adopt sustainable practices, it helps
consumers find that food on the shelf.
00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:19.999
I began looking for Food Alliance stickers or
any other sticker that could tell me more about
00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.999
the food I was buying, where it
came from and how it was grown.
00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:29.999
Shopping habits developed over a
lifetime aren’t changed overnight.
00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:34.999
But I began to see ways that I could direct my dollars
towards farmers or farming practices I value.
00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.999
I began to see, how I could
become a New American consumer.
00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
[sil.]
00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:49.999
CSA’s New American Farmers’
sustainable agriculture,
00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:54.999
I found so much and I couldn’t wait to
share it with my dad. One afternoon,
00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.999
I talked to him into watching a tape of Dr
Ikerd. He sat through it agreeably enough,
00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.999
but it didn’t exactly light the fires
of Revelation in Him. Yeah, I see ways,
00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.999
I see people around they’re living, you know,
these hippie type of lives and off grid people,
00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:14.999
but you know, a lot of people
don’t want to live that way.
00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.999
I mean, that they want… they want to be able to drive
in a automobile and… and have things paid for it,
00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:24.999
they won’t be able to send their kids to
school and… and be able to take a trip now
00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:29.999
and then. And, how is all that going
to force the money gonna come from?
00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:34.999
And how are you gonna… You
really would have to love it.
00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:39.999
My dad has suffered a lot,
00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:44.999
but he’s never given up
on farming, why is that?
00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:49.999
I can only speculate, but my guess
is that he must really love it.
00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:54.999
I understand his reservations. The ideas of
sustainable agriculture by their very nature
00:51:55.000 --> 00:51:59.999
don’t hold readymade solutions
for him or for anyone else.
00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:04.999
Sustainability is a goal. It’s a long term goal,
but it’s not a set of practices like organics
00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:09.999
and I think people need to understand that… that
there’s a difference there, and we don’t know what’s
00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:14.999
the sustainable. It’s to me it’s presumptuous
to say, \"I’m a sustainable farmer.\"
00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:19.999
I… I would never say that because I don’t know.
The only way I know is by, really by looking back
00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:24.999
10 years later, okay, did what?
Did your practices protect
00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:29.999
the environment? Did they
improve the social fabric?
00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:34.999
Did they, were they profitable? I watched
as my dad headed off back to work.
00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:39.999
This spring, he managed to pay
off his farm credit loan.
00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.999
And though he still struggles to make his land payments
and property taxes, he’s finding ways to survive.
00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.999
He’s downsizing the orchard, selling
off plots, five acres at a time
00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.999
who keep what’s left and grow
fruit for the fruit stand.
00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:59.999
Last month, he signed up for a class to learn how to write a business
plan for the small winery, he’s planning to open next summer.
00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:04.999
He keeps trying new things innovating.
At some point,
00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:09.999
I’m gonna have to break the news to him.
He’s a New American Farmer.
00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
I don’t know what his next move should be.
00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
I can’t answer all those questions.
The best answer I could give my dad
00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.999
might be the words of the
poet Rainer Maria Rilke.
00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:29.999
Don’t search for the answers which could not be given
to you now, because you would not be able to live them.
00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:34.999
Live the questions now.
00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:39.999
Perhaps then, someday far in the future,
you’ll gradually without even noticing it,
00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:44.999
live your way into the answer.
Step by step,
00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:49.999
as the way things change in the past.
One by one as all of us
00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:54.999
change what we do, as you change the way you farm what
you produce? Where you sell as I change what I yield?
00:53:55.000 --> 00:53:59.999
Where I buy and change the way I
relate to other people? One by one,
00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:04.999
we change the world. I don’t
know if the Apple Capital
00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:09.999
of the World will retain its title and may well,
be the growing apples in such massive quantities
00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:14.999
can’t be sustained. I do know that it’s
still one of the best places on the planet
00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:19.999
to grow an apple. For all my searching, in
the end I found what I was looking for.
00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:24.999
I found hope. People ask me
00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:29.999
\"Well, do you know this is gonna work?\" No, I
don’t. No one knows the future was certain.
00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.999
And people would say \"Well, what’s the odds if it’s gonna work
as if the odds had to be in your favor to make it worth doing.\"
00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:39.999
And I say \"I don’t know, but
I have hope for the future
00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:44.999
and I know that the kind of agriculture that we’re talking about here
is possible. And I know that it’s better than what we have today.
00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:49.999
And I know that it be a step forward.
And I have hope. And Vaclav Havel
00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:54.999
closed the quote that I read, and he said
that \"Ultimately, life is simply too precious
00:54:55.000 --> 00:54:59.999
to live it without faith and without
love and finally without hope.\"
00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:04.999
I think our lives are simply too
precious to live ‘em without hope
00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:09.999
for the future of agriculture and food, and within that
hope for the future of agriculture, the hope for humanity.
00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:14.999
[music]
00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:23.000
[sil.]
00:55:25.000 --> 00:55:29.999
I never thought it would happen,
00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:34.999
but I decided to join my dad. I
managed to fruit stand in the summer.
00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:39.999
It feels good to be connected to
this land again. To my father,
00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:44.999
to all those generations before us. … go back
home now. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much.
00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:50.000
Yeah, see you again. This new kind of
agriculture, it’s going to be anything but dull.
00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:04.999
I plan on
00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:09.999
learning myself on this farm till the
day I die, I’ll still be learning.
00:56:10.000 --> 00:56:14.999
There’s no end to learning out here.
00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:19.999
Hopefully, by the time we’re finished with
this, we’ll have all the answers, right.
00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:24.999
Yes, but at the end of this though
there’ll be one thing that…
00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:29.999
Yes, it’s this sort of…
00:56:30.000 --> 00:56:34.999
I’m looking… looking for that answers. So you get
that answer from (inaudible)’cause I still looking.
00:56:35.000 --> 00:56:39.999
I mean, you guys, you haven’t
even, you don’t know.
00:56:40.000 --> 00:56:44.999
You’re just doing your interviews. Give no idea
what the thing looks like, where it’s going,
00:56:45.000 --> 00:56:50.000
what it’s concluding, what it’s
saying, do you now? Well, we know…
Distributor: Bullfrog Films
Length: 57 minutes
Date: 2004
Genre: Expository
Language: English
Grade: 7-12, College, Adult
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
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