Sovereignty in the City

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In response to the corruption and greed that fuel industrial food production in the United States, city-dwellers and suburbanites throughout the Bay Area are taking control of the local food supply. The urban farming movement not only makes seasonal, healthy food locally available, but it strengthens the communities and relationships of everyone involved. Filmmakers Andrew Hasse and Adam Goldstein chronicle this movement in their forthcoming documentary, Edible City.

“Food sovereignty – being in control one’s own food systems rather than relying upon uncontrollable market forces – is a distant dream for most people. We have a mass food infrastructure reliant upon oil for production and distribution. Whole generations are eating nutrient deficient, packaged foods, without any idea of where that food comes from.”

With profiles of various successful urban farming models, Edible City proves that there is plenty of room for a new paradigm of sustainability to emerge.

The film will be released in Fall 2009, and you can watch the trailer here.

Comments

seeds...

industrial agriculture has been corrupting seed stock for several thousand years now. Small plots of diverse crops isolated from each other present an opportunity to regain viable strains of such excellent food sources as Amaranth, the North American version of quinoa which went feral after maize culture gained dominance. Planting and sharing seeds with an aim for diversity as well as yield will bring better food to more people and protect against crop failure disasters by creating a range of cultivars capable of withstanding pests and climate variation.

drought...

its important to keep farming during drought, even if it seems like a waste of water since the right kind of plants hold water in the soil and odd as this may seem attract rain and limit heatwaves...also urban farming can reduce the urban heat island effect and decrease occurrence of life threatening tornados.