The other day I attended a showing of the documentary “Fresh”, directed by Ana Sofia Joanes, organized by Chipotle Mexican Grill, the locally-grown restaurant known for its burritos made with sustainable ingredients. At 72 minutes, the documentary focuses on people working to make a more sustainable food system. Kelly Smith, a marketing strategist for Chipotle, introduced the film with the following statistic: Chipotle served 10 million pounds of local produce in 2011 at its restaurants across the U.S. The film (originally released in 2009) shares a number of features in common with “Food, Inc.” (reviewed here). Food journalist Michael Pollan, farmer Joel Salatin, and urban farming pioneer Will Allen, founder of Growing Power in Milwaukee are featured in the film. While big agriculture is mentioned a number of times, the film focuses more on solutions and what is being done to ensure a sustainable agricultural system.
“Fresh” opens with Joel Salatin walking the grounds of Polyface Farms in Virginia. One of the most intriguing quotes was early on, when an interviewee said something to the effect of “American’s fear inconvenience.” This single sentence summarizes the industrial food system, one in which food is engineered and packaged for easy and mass consumption. Pollan points out the current system is unsustainable because it cannot continue indefinitely. He goes on to explain that the industrial food system has created two problems out of one solution. By separating animals from plants and creating two monocultures (large fields of a single crop and enormous concentrated animal feeding operations), there is no longer a symbiotic relationship between the two. Animals now generate vasts amounts of waste that had been used to fertilize plants. Instead, this waste sits in lagoons and threatens fresh water supplies. Conversely, the plants are now fertilized by inorganic (chemical) sources instead of animal waste. This last point was also Satatin’s main argument. Continually throughout the film, Salatin talks about learning from nature and mimicking it to “design” a sustainable, healthy agricultural ecosystem.
Many of the farms highlighted have sustainable missions, but not all of them started that way. Russ Kremer, a farmer who raises hogs in Missouri, tells a poignant story of his conversion from traditional techniques of production to more natural methods of raising animals. Fifteen years earlier Kremer had been injured by a hog and became infected by an anti-bacterial resistant strain that convinced him to forgo medicating his livestock. As a result of the change, he saved more than $14,000 in medication and veterinarian bills the first year.
Salatin is shown again toward the end of the film ticking off the names of grass species on his land. This connection to the land and his knowledge of his surroundings, comes through in his vision of merging appropriate technology with indigenous knowledge about the relationship between the soil, plants, and animals. He closes by saying that he had not purchased seeds or fertilizer in more than 50 years.
While Pollan acknowledges that organic foods cost more, he states that cheap food at the register results from externalities like exploited workforces (lack of full-time options, no benefits), degraded environments, and diminished public health. For those interested in food systems, check it out. If you’re on the fence, take a look at the trailer:
From Chipotle:
Chipotle is dedicated to changing the way people think about and eat fast food, and has a decade-long track record of helping change the food system by simply sourcing more sustainable ingredients. As part of its ongoing community efforts, Chipotle partners and supports like-minded local organizations in the neighborhoods where its restaurants are located, including organizing screenings of food-focused films like “Fresh.”
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