Farm Friday

Last weekend we attended the Virginia Association of Biological Farmers' annual conference in Richmond.  We weren't able to stay for the entire conference (in fact we had to drive back and forth over the two days) due to our bottle-fed kids.  The highlight of the conference for me was hearing Kristin Kimball and her husband speak.  Kristin is the author of a book called The Dirty Life:  A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love.  She and her husband run a full year, full diet CSA in Upstate New York.  If you're interested in farming, I highly recommend this very entertaining book.  I also attended a couple of sessions on natural/organic pest control.  I believe I'm becoming an expert on garden pests.

We watched several good movies this week:  Craigslist Joe, Farmageddon, Safety Not Guaranteed, and Our Daily Bread.  Craigslist Joe is a documentary based on the title character's desire to see if there is still good in the world by living entirely off Craigslist for 31 days.  For this period of time, he depended upon the kindness of strangers for food, shelter, and entertainment, as he left home without any money, credit cards, or contact with family and friends

Farmageddon was a disturbing moving about agriculture, mainly the dairy industry.  It shows how small family farms are repeatedly harassed by government agencies.  Rules are written by and for corporate agriculture then those rules are used to close down smaller operations.  While all problems within our food system (i.e., recalls, food poisoning) occur as a result of mishandling or abuse of products by industrial farms, it is the small farmers that receive the brunt of government punishment, even when there have been no problems with their products.  On a related topic, Our Daily Bread focuses entirely on industrial agriculture.  This movie is unusual as it tells the tale without any dialog.  Not for the squeamish.

We really enjoyed Safety Not Guaranteed.   It was actually funny - without being raunchy.  It's so hard to find a decent comedy that isn't just plain vulgar.  I'm not a prude (this move IS rated "R") but I do get tired of movies appealing to the lowest common denominator.  

I took some photos this week but never got around to uploading them.  Maybe next week...

Have a great weekend!