Documentary filmmaker Casey Beck chronicles a full year — four seasons — in the life of an organic farmer in Sonoma, California and the financial insecurity, physical hardship, and rise of corporate agriculture that threaten the sustainability of small-scale, localized organic farming.
The Organic Life aims to move audiences to better understand the rigors involved as well as the delicious gratification, while also reducing our carbon footprint and mitigating individual impacts on the environment. The filmmaker is partnering with two local fresh food mobile apps on the market, “Locavore” from LocalDirt and “Dirty Dozen” from the Environmental Working Group. There are plans to develop a “living classroom” curriculum to go with the movie for local school children and adults.
A Tour of Pepperwood Preserve
I spend a lot of time with farmers, and as a result, I know a decent amount
about crop rotation and compost teas, cover cropping and soil
composition. I've learned how well-managed farms and ranches can reverse
whats happening to the carbon cycle, how localized farming practices
can positively influence a region's watershed and the role organic farms
have on the global water cycle.
So, I'm a little sheepish to admit that I had momentarily
forgotten the importance of keeping natural spaces as they are (with
some helpful agricultural grazers) and thus was so humbled and honored
to receive a personal tour of Pepperwood Preserve, just north east of
Santa Rosa, California with its director and past ITP Grant Partner,
Lisa Micheli. Pepperwood is an ecological institute dedicated to educating, engaging, and inspiring our community through habitat preservation, science-based conservation, leading-edge research, and interdisciplinary educational programs. However, this mission, while encompassing some of the more important aspects of Pepperwood is forgetting one important one: for conserving nature for the sake of beauty. Our one hour hike over some of Sonoma's most spectacular rolling hills gave allowed us to see so beautifully the natural Sonoma landscape has looked like in recorded history and also how it has changed (the creeping fir forests).
Lisa Micheli and Casey Beck
