I’ve submitted this post to Food Renegades’ Fight Back Fridays.

Well, for one, you get a really great discussion group. Led by Jackie Berger from NYC’s Just Food, the discussion followed the screening of Ana Sofia Joanes’ new film Fresh, a documentary on the local and sustainable food world. I recently reviewed the film here and Ana Sofia was good enough to sit for an interview.

The first thing I’ll say about the discussion is that there was a rousing ovation when Will Allen and Joel Salatin stepped on stage. I suspect that Salatin, so clearly a cult figure at this point, was the recipient of a good deal of the applause. Looking happy in jeans and a straw hat, Salatin’s presence was regal. It was a shock to see him sitting still, looking exceedingly happy and comfortable. On screen, Salatin radiates explosive energy and intellectual fervor. He never wants to be silenced. Following Salatin and Will Allen onstage were Joan Gussow (a nutritionist and Professor at Columbia University) and Chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns. An impressive roster for Ana Sofia to arrange. After just viewing the movie, to have these giants of the sustainable world was like raisinets in popcorn, as long as they were made with locally made raisins, fair trade cacao, and popcorn with real creamery raw milk butter, and sel gris.

The first question, coming from Jaquie Berger of Just Food, who was moderating the discussion was: Why grow food in an urban environment?

Directed at Will Allen, who runs the Growing Power urban farm in Milwaukee, WI and was also the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship answered that it was a form of social justice to grow food in urban environments. He expanded upon this point explaining that social justice and food justice were synonyms. He stressed that good food should not just be for the wealthy, those that can afford to purchase shares in CSA’s or shop at Whole Foods, and that is was a responsibility for all of us to find ways to get good, local, fresh foods into poor urban communities. This is precisely what Will Allen is doing.

Allen further explained that our world has changed; more human beings live in urban environments than ever before and therefore we need to develop strategies to feed those urban environments. He cited urban farms, vertical farmscrapers and other solutions to feed urban populations, particularly the urban poor. He cited cities like Milwaukee, where he operates, Detroit, Flint. These are cities that have been decimated by globalization, with large swaths of land that are ideal for farming. He moved on to talking about how to inspire people to want to grow food. Growing food has to be cool, not something to be looked down upon. He concluded his statements by saying simply, “We need to grow farmers.”

Dan Barber fielded a question about how to increase consciousness in eaters. Chef Barber talked about how structuring and creating narratives in his establishments has been the single most important thing in terms of raising awareness. He said that diners have become eaters, and that when a chef introduces a narrative, peoples taste buds “open up.” The point he was getting at was education “through hedonism and delight.”

“How do we get there,” was the next ambiguous question which Joel Salatin gladly fielded. He exclaimed that we need nothing less than a cultural revolution. He spoke of changing 1 person at a time, building successful prototypes, and starting the revolution in that manner. All good revolutions begin person to person. He also spoke of his own status, and found it extremely telling that he is considered alternative. He wants to live in a world where what he is doing, using nature instead of abusing it, as normal, not counter cultural or an alternative option.

The last question was an important one too. Someone in the audience asked whether it was more important to buy locally or to buy organic. Joan Gussow answered that local was the best option, because we can always transform that local farm into organic at a later point in time, but the more money we send abroad, to China, Chile, or Argentina the more we put American farmers out of business. Salatin called the USDA the USDUH. Said that the word organic had been basically stripped of all its importance as soon as the government began regulating who could and could not use that term. He spoke of transparency, and that local was clearly the way to go, because a local food chain is much more transparent. “The shorter the chain, the better the food.”

All in all a great, albeit short discussion group. The highlight for me was seeing Salatin, a true hero of mine, in the flesh. A real treat. Thanks again to Ana Sofia!