Film series in review: Food, water, community

8 mins read

As part of an ongoing series, here is a review by Michael McPherson on three films included in the Third Annual Social Justice Film Festival “Sustaining Spirits: The Changing Face of Health Care” program running this month at the University of Maine.

Good Food

This installment of the third annual April Film Series takes a look at organic foods, and how to live on a “100 mile diet.” That is, a diet where all the food a person eats is grown or raised within 100 miles of the customer. Set largely in the Pacific Northwest, this documentary follows several families and cooperatives that have set out to grow only organic foods, and to treat their land and animals with respect.

Ranchers using traditional grazing methods for their beef, where the cattle move on their own through a variety of fields to create a product that, according to everyone who eats it, tastes astonishingly good. But that’s only a bonus for those who purchase organic food, because these herds are fed on grass and hay, not industrial cow feed, which is whatever is cheapest at the moment. There are no plastic pellets or beef entrails in these animals feed, which means that it is much harder for diseases to be passed on. In fact, since these animals aren’t exposed to the same filthy conditions that normal cattle are, the megadoses of antibiotics, a staple of modern ranching, just isn’t required.

Similarly, the organic agriculture trade requires a more hands-on approach to be fruitful, compared to an industrial farm. However, by tending the fields with humans rather than machines, the yields are much higher. Also, though the herbicides used to weed out unwanted plants in an industrial operation have no place in organic farming, the increase in workers mean that they aren’t necessary. To keep pests away, many farmers of low-ground crops, or anything that can be grown in racks, use simple netting or cloth on a frame, reducing the need to spray insecticides on the plants, which have to be washed before they can be eaten.

During the discussion following the film viewing, the audience noted that in Maine, the execution of a ‘100-mile-diet’ would probably be easier than in more urban areas. Though, as the documentary noted, these organic foods are sometimes more costly in the store, many of these farmers also attend regular farmers’ market events, where customers can buy directly and avoid the markups that come with grocery store products.

During the summer and much of the fall, in Farmington, there are Farmers’ Markets every week at the Better Living Center on Front Street and new this year, a farmers’ market opening at the Farmington Grange in West Farmington.

Water First

Water First is a documentary about the efforts to bring water to the small African nation Malawi. Trying to curtail infant mortality—one of the more direct detrimental effects of insufficient or tainted water sources—had a whole host of other implications, such as lowering the rate of domestic violence, increasing education, and promoting social order.

Charles Banda used to be a fireman in Malawi while he watched the social problems in his small country multiply. There was almost no good water, and those places that did have clean water, didn’t have it reliably. In his opinion, regular access to clean water is something that everyone needs, so he set out to make it happen. He started building water points all across his country.

It started working, and there were side effects. Girls who had access to good water and proper sanitation were less likely to drop out of school after they hit puberty. Girls who could stay in school are better equipped to control their own birth rate then those who have had less education – on average, female dropouts gave birth to ten children each, where those who completed the course of study had an average of three.

The trend of domestic violence in Malawi declined also, and a movement began among Malawi women toward trying for equality. They were supported by the group Banda had founded, and over the course of several years, men began learning to do ‘women’s work’ such as washing clothes, drawing water (from the newly convenient water points), and taking in the food.

With such a simple gesture as bringing water to these villages, Charles Banda and his organization changed what it was to live in an entire nation. The discussion that followed elucidated the time that Banda had been working –over the course of 15 years or so—to bring health to the people of his native country.

Power of Community

The strength that can be found in a strong sense of connection to one’s neighbors is explored in this edition of the April Film Series. When the Cuban supply of cheap Soviet oil was cut off in 1993, their economy all but collapsed; they lost two-thirds of their GDP over the course of a few months. The rapid restructuring of their entire way of life was the only way the could continue. So they did.

By 1993, Cuba had industrialized its farming to be on par with the United States’ industrial practices, which is to say that for every day that Americans –or Cubans, then—eat, 10 barrels of oil have gone directly into its production. From chemical fertilizers containing petroleum and its byproducts to the mass transportation, they had taken our system. And then, there was no oil any longer, and the system collapsed.

Cuba imported 1, 200,000 bicycles from neighboring countries, and manufactured half a million of their own. These were distributed to the populace, so that they could get around without using their cars. The universities of Cuba were split up to match population distributions, so that education could continue without requiring long-distance travel. Medical support and food were provided as before, with a strict rationing system making sure that everyone was fed until food growth could begin in earnest. Today, farmers are among the highest paid people in Cuba, and over 83 percent of the country’s crops are organic.

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