6 Movies We Dig About Food, Farming and the Environment
When Florida’s thundershowers drop rainfall on any chance of escapade outdoors, there’s no time like the dry and present to explore our favorite community topics through the lens of the latest economic and environmental documentary filmmakers.
Powerful and journalistic, these documentary films offer the chance to engage and connect with the frequently neglected voices of economic activists, agriculture trailblazers and those nobly (with real-time hiccups) working towards harmony and valuable understanding of their natural world.
To help diversify and elaborate on your intake of the present agricultural news cycle, take a cinematic break with some of these recently acclaimed farm- and food-focused films. Each offers a gripping investigation or entertaining perspective into the latest discoveries in agriculture practices, permaculture and our nation’s infamously flawed food systems.
The Biggest Little Farm
You will laugh, you will cry, and your heart will melt for the breathtaking cinematography and captivating animal life within The Biggest Little Farm. The film beautifully chronicles the eight-year quest of John Chester, an Emmy Award Winning director, and his wife Molly, as they quit their city lives to procure a 200-acre farm outside of Los Angeles. They attempt to revive its barren land under the guidance of mentor and biodiversity sensei, Alan York. If only for the drool-worthy macro lens nature-cinematography, this flick is a must-watch for those wanting an along-for-the-ride view of the dogged perseverance needed to embrace and celebrate nature’s wildest conflicts.
2. The Need To Grow
“We have an estimated 60 years of farmable soil left on the planet. Mostly due to unsustainable agriculture.” This is the gut-punching statistic that The Need To GROW lays in front of its audience before diving into the bigger question: Can we feed the world without destroying the planet? This new award-winning film, executive produced and narrated by Rosario Dawson, follows three very different leaders (an 8-year-old Girl Scout, a renegade farmer, and an accomplished visionary inventor) as they fight to localize sustainable food systems and regenerate our planet’s dying soils.
3. WASTED! The Story of Food Waste
In WASTED! The Story of Food Waste, world-famous chefs reimagine the future of food, and in the process, create delicious and sustainable solutions. It’s an informative and entertaining documentary produced by celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain that brings light to the unsettling fact that our planet’s food waste issue is a glaring measure of inequality. You’ll finish the film knowing how comprehensively food effects everything, from the climate to the global fight against hunger.
4. Kiss The Ground
The documentary film Kiss The Ground was specially previewed after last year’s 14th Annual Sustainable Communities Work Shop, presented by UF/IFAS Extension Sarasota County. Very well-received with Sarasota’s local audience, the film artfully illustrates how transforming agriculture practices to promote re-carbonizing the Earth's soil could be the key to reversing global warming and the desertification of our society’s vital farm land. If you’re one for wise words over visuals - check out the best-selling book by Josh Tickell that the movie is based on first.
5. Sustainable
Sustainable is a deeply empathetic and informative investigation of man-kind’s relationship with the planet that it eats from. Covering the economic and environmental instabilities of America’s present day food systems, the film’s refreshingly positive, solutions-focused vein persuades and inspires, highlighting a community of leaders who are pivoting from a “short-term gains” mindset in order to leave long-term agricultural stability as their repayment back to future generations.
6. Islands of the Future
Okay, we fibbed a little (this one’s not a movie). This unique Netflix docuseries, Islands of the Future, showcases five examples of energy innovation that tiny islands off the coast of Europe introduced in the face of rising oil and gas prices and dwindling resources. As Transition Sarasota’s deep roots come from the emergence of permaculture education, we’re always driven by stories of innovation that lead to a future where communities transition off fossil fuels and lives in balance with their resource limits.
Happy Watching!