"Couldn't be more timely! A film made to awaken our taste buds and our courage to create a food system aligned with what the earth needs and what our bodies yearn for. Good Food shows us it's possible. It's happening!"
- Frances Moore Lappe, author of Diet for a Small Planet and Hope's Edge

Something remarkable is happening in the Pacific Northwest; family farms are making a comeback. These farms, the farmers, ranchers, cultivators, and the food they produce, are the focus of the new documentary, Good Food.

• Brooke and Sam Lucy of Bluebird Grain Farms in the Methow Valley plant, harvest and sell organic grain on land they have recovered from years of disuse.
• The Hatfields, family ranchers in eastern Oregon who founded Country Natural Beef, explain how proper grazing of cattle can actually improve the environment.
• Hilario Alvarez, who came to the U.S. as a farm worker decades ago, shows off the innumerable varieties of colorful peppers that brighten his fields and Seattle farmers markets.
• George and Eiko Vojkovich of Skagit River Ranch raise chickens, pigs and beef for your table, all sustainably and naturally.
• Diane Dempster of Charlie’s Produce, talks about how offering local growers the ability to distribute is an important part of their business and commitment to the area.

Seattle International Film Festival Premiere:
Wednesday, June 4, 7 p.m.
Egyptian Theatre, 901 E. Pine St.

Saturday, June 7, 4:30 p.m.
SIFF Theatre, 321 Mercer St.

Good Food brings you close to the producers and the people that are helping to sustain and support the cycle of great food getting to our tables.

Posted by Laura Ford at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Michael Pollan connects the dots between government policy, public health, and the cost and availability of fresh, wholesome foods. Due to current government subsidies that make the least healthy foods the cheapest, we will have to pay more to eat well. That could all change with a federal universal health care system.

View part one, part two and part three of this four part video series.

This video is in thanks to Ecotrust's partnership with a local film company that produces Cooking Up A Story, a show about real people and their special connections to food and sustainable living. Cooking Up A Story’s work is shot unscripted, and the stories are told in the voice of the subject.

Posted by Deborah Kane at 9:12 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

How do we decide what to eat? Pleasure, a sense of community, and connecting to nature are all highly important aspects of eating that today are overlooked because of our reliance on the science of nutrition. In the third part of this four part video series, Michael Pollan encourages us to accept culture as the trustworthy guide in our approach to eating food.

View part one and part two of this four part series.

This video is in thanks to Ecotrust's partnership with a local film company that produces Cooking Up A Story, a show about real people and their special connections to food and sustainable living. Cooking Up A Story’s work is shot unscripted, and the stories are told in the voice of the subject.

Posted by Laura Ford at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

In this video, Michael Pollan discusses how Americans have come to view food through the lens of nutritionism, valuing the act eating only as seen from the health perspective. As Michael aptly reminds us, there are a number of other compelling reasons for eating whole foods.

This is part two of a four part video series produced by Cooking Up A Story. View part one here.

This video is in thanks to Ecotrust's partnership with a local film company that produces Cooking Up A Story, a show about real people and their special connections to food and sustainable living. Cooking Up A Story’s work is shot unscripted, and the stories are told in the voice of the subject.

Posted by Laura Ford at 4:39 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

The Barred Rock hens of the Eastside Egg Co-operative live on Zenger Farm. The hens clear farmland, produce free nitrogen-rich fertilizer for crops, aerate soil, provide educational opportunities for youth, and supply eggs to cooperative members. They're busy.

The story of the group of dedicated volunteers that came together to organize and manage this unique community enterprise comes to life below.

Thanks to a new partnership with a local film company that produces Cooking Up A Story, a show about real people and their special connections to food and sustainable living, we’re able to bring Edible Portland stories to life in video format. Cooking Up A Story’s work is shot unscripted, and the stories are told in the voice of the subject.

Read the story as published in the Spring 2008 issue of Edible Portland here: The Eastside Egg Co-operative: Fifty Chickens and a Grand Idea.

Posted by Laura Ford at 1:29 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

Did you miss Michael Pollan's recent talk in Portland? You're one of many. Michael spoke to a sold out crowd of 650 at Bagdad Theater. His new book, In Defense of Food, provided the backdrop for his talk and prior interview with Deborah Kane, publisher of Edible Portland. Remarkably, Michael talks about a defense of food in a literal sense: It's increasingly difficult to escape from eating foods that are food-like substances (processed foods), but are not whole (real) foods.

In part one of a four part video series produced by Cooking Up A Story, we see how simple changes in food labeling requirements can influence consumer behavior, and how food manufacturers apply overwhelming pressure to effect laws that ultimately protect their own interests.

This video is in thanks to Ecotrust's partnership with a local film company that produces Cooking Up A Story, a show about real people and their special connections to food and sustainable living. Cooking Up A Story’s work is shot unscripted, and the stories are told in the voice of the subject.

Posted by Laura Ford at 1:01 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Edible Portland and Ecotrust hosted Ann Vileisis, author of Kitchen Literacy, in November 2007. Having attended the talk, Rebecca Gerendasy of Cooking Up A Story was inspired by Ann's words. That inspiration resulted in a three-part video series. Ann discusses what we know about our food, and how we came to know it.

This is the first video in the series. Watch the second video here. Cooking Up A Story’s work is shot unscripted, and the stories are told in the voice of the subject.

Posted by Laura Ford at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Ecotrust is a conservation organization committed to strengthening communities and the environment from Alaska to California. Ecotrust works with Native peoples and in the fisheries, forestry, and food sectors to build a regional economy based on social and ecological opportunities.

Ecotrust's Food & Farms program publishes Edible Portland as part of its work to create a vibrant regional food system where sustainability is the underlying value of the mainstream food system. Deborah Kane, Edible Portland publisher and Vice President of Ecotrust's Food & Farms program, describes the program in this video.

This video is thanks to Ecotrust's partnership with a local film company that produces Cooking Up A Story, a show about real people and their special connections to food and sustainable living. Cooking Up A Story’s work is shot unscripted, and the stories are told in the voice of the subject.

Posted by Laura Ford at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Faced with buying property to make good on their dream to farm, Michael and Jill Paine went to the bank for a loan with a solid business plan in hand. First the bank refused. And then upon further consideration, Michael and Jill were counseled to take the word “farm” off the loan application. That’s when Michael and Jill got the money they needed for their “country estate,” now know as Gaining Ground Farm.

This amazing story comes to life below. Michael’s first-hand telling of his experience trying to capitalize his new farm business is truly captivating.

Thanks to a new partnership with a local film company that produces Cooking Up A Story, a show about real people and their special connections to food and sustainable living, we’re able to bring Edible Portland stories to life in video format. Cooking Up A Story’s work is shot unscripted, and the stories are told in the voice of the subject.

They are tremendous new allies as we work to spread the word far and wide about the amazing people behind our very best stories. You can look forward to enjoying Cooking Up A Story's great work throughout 2008 at edibleportland.com.

Read Michael and Jill Paine's story as published in the Winter 2008 issue of Edible Portland here: Meet the New American (Zen) Farmer.

- Deborah Kane

Posted by Deborah Kane at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )