THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN This is a wonderful DVD to share with friends. It tauts the value of the CSA and Biodynamic agriculture.

Date:   8/17/2008 5:17:08 AM ( 16 y ago)

3:12 AM
Sunday August 17, 08

THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN is an enjoyable DVD
that is really entertaining and has a storyline of one
small family farmer's success.

We need this kind of message now.

I highly recommend showing this among your friends.

The Punchline is that CSA's really do work to support
the family farm.

Here is a review:

Taking doc to market is now Farmer John's life
By Melissa Merli
Sunday, May 4, 2008 7:58 AM CDT

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The documentary "The Real Dirt on Farmer John," a hit at Ebertfest last week, has been shown in 10 countries and subtitled into five different languages.

It's out on DVD, and a shorter version was broadcast by PBS.


http://www.news-gazette.com/entertainment/2008/05/04/taking_doc_to_market_is_...



So far 10 million people have seen "The Real Dirt on Farmer John," but that is a "teeny little percentage" of the world population, said Farmer John Peterson, the fascinating subject of the doc.

"There's been a very enthusiastic response to the film, but how does the rest of the world get to see it? That's the big question. You can't just go out and show it piecemeal."

And, he noted, "If people think they've seen it on PBS, they've seen the shorter version, which is much less effective."

Peterson, whom I encountered at Cafe Kopi after Ebertfest ended last Sunday, said the marketing of "The Real Dirt on Farmer John," which has won at least 30 awards, has taken over his life. He has traveled with the film to Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

He will return this summer to Europe, specifically in June to Modena, Italy, where he will be a keynote speaker at the International Federation of Organic Movements conference, which will draw representatives from more than 100 countries.

Also scheduled to give a major talk there is Carlo Petrini, founder of the International Slow Food Movement. Last summer, the Italian, considered one of the most influential people in the world, visited the organic Prairie Fruits Farm north of Urbana.

"The Real Dirt on Farmer John," the vital-to-the-planet and wildly entertaining documentary directed by Taggart Siegel, tells of Peterson's inspiring life and his three-generation family farm in northern Illinois, which he took over and then lost as he became one of the first victims of the farm-debt crisis of the '80s.

After much soul-searching, he returned to the land and rejuvenated his once much larger farm into the much smaller 22-acre organic Angelica Farm. He later joined the community supported agriculture (CSA) movement. A few years ago, he expanded after his CSA members pitched in $180,000 to buy acreage adjoining his land. That enables him to let part of his farm lie fallow, so that nutrients can be restored to the soil.

The documentary reveals a flamboyant but sort of everyman character whose life was changed after he went to nearby Beloit College and became interested in art and theater and befriended radicals, artists and hippies.

They stayed at his farm near Caledonia, prompting from narrow-minded neighbors rumors of Satanic worship and cult killings there, and then violence against his land, including the torching of a log cabin that he and other artists had built. One lost all of her life's artwork in the fire.

After "The Real Dirt on Farmer John" was shown Friday evening at Ebertfest, viewers rose spontaneously in a standing ovation. The reaction overwhelmed Peterson, even though the documentary has elicited standing ovations at other U.S. screenings, he said.

They include a screening at the Castro Theater in San Francisco, where Al Gore introduced the film. That drew 1,100 people while Ebertfest attracted 1,500, outdrawing Gore, Peterson joked.


 

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