Sunday, November 15, 2009, join Washington University’s student-run garden, Burning Kumquat, and Slow Food St. Louis for a screening of FRESH the movie.

FRESH celebrates  the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.

Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy.

“If Food Inc. was your wake up call, Fresh, The Movie is your call to action. Fresh’s strength is that it shows the incredible creativity of individuals who are devoting their lives to producing food differently.”

- Michael Pollan

When: Sunday, November 15 at 7 pm
Where: Washington University Danforth Campus, Brown 118
(located near Forsyth and Skinker)
Cost: free (but donations accepted)

Official time to be determined, so check back

Farmer, lecturer and author Joel Salatin will speak at Webster University’s Grant Gymnasium Monday, October 5. The event is sponsored by the College of Arts & Sciences as part of the International Year of Human Rights 2009-10: The Right to Food and Water.

Salatin is an American farmer, lecturer, and author whose books include You Can Farm and Salad Bar Beef. Salatin raises livestock using holistic methods of animal husbandry, free of potentially harmful chemicals, on his Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. He was recently interviewed for the film, Food, Inc. where he appeared alongside other notable authors including Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan whose 2006 best-seller, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, featured Salatin’s farm prominently.

Salatin’s philosophy of farming emphasizes healthy grass on which animals can thrive in a symbiotic cycle of chemical-free feeding. Cows are moved from one pasture to another rather than being centrally corn fed. Then chickens in portable coops are moved in behind them, where they dig through the cow dung to eat protein-rich fly larvae while further fertilizing the field with their droppings.