It doesn't take much to grow your own organic food. All you need is perseverance and passion.
That's what all of the farmers possess in Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin's documentary "Good Food," which airs tomorrow at 10 p.m. on KCTS9. The film centers on the growing trend of sustainable, organic farming in Washington and the farmers who are leading the way. There's the Voykovich family of the Skagit River Ranch who raise animals on organic grain and who sell their eggs and meats at Seattle farmers markets in Ballard and in the U-District. There motto, "If we can feed it to our daughter, we can sell it to you." There's Hilario Alvarez who grows more than 100 varieties of peppers in the Yakima Valley. There's the Methow Valley-based Lucy family: Sam, Brooke, Larkin and Mariah, who grow various organic grains including emmer farro. The emmer is an ancient cousin of wheat and eats like a meal. The family rotates their crops and sells to buyers as far as Seattle and locally-including a Methow Valley pizzeria that uses the fresh flour for its dough.
In the film, Young and Dworkin illustrate how these farmers are finding new ways to make ends meet and dispel farming myths. They talk about their relationships with the land and the warmer reception they're receiving from local distributors, wholesalers and retail markets. And of course running through the film is the notion of eating local, which has certainly gained popularity in Queen Anne and Magnolia with their respective farmers markets and retailers such as Greg Conner, owner of Eat Local. Eating local means buying (or growing yourself) food that doesn't have to travel too far to get to your plate, and which has been grown in a sustainable manner.
This sometimes isn't easy to do as large, conglomerate farms make it harder for the smaller, independent farmer to compete financially. But co-ops are helping independent growers, dairy farmers and ranchers pool their harvests and buying power which then puts them closer in line with non-organic produce and meat prices. And the growing demand for such food is helping to chip away at the price, too.
"Good Food" is an informative and humanizing look at how people are starting to think more about what they're eating, how far that food travels and how farmers with good intentions are starting to see financial solvency for their efforts.[[In-content Ad]]
