New Food Documentary Screening in Athens on July 19

Athens Locally Grown is proud to present a benefit screening of the new documentary Farmageddon on July 19th, 7pm, at Ciné. Tickets are $10, available at the Ciné box office, and all proceeds will be split between the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, acting on behalf of farmers and consumers across the country; and Wholesome Wave Georgia, a fund that provides matching funds for farmers markets accepting EBT (food stamp) and WIC payments, effectively doubling the spending power of those shoppers. A discussion will take place after the showing, and will include farmers and other people involved in our local food system.

Farmageddon tells the story of small, family farms that were providing safe, healthy foods to their communities and were forced to stop, sometimes through violent action, by agents of misguided government bureaucracies, and seeks to figure out why. Included is action taken by the state of Georgia and the FDA against members of Athens Locally Grown, who had organized trips to South Carolina to buy milk directly from dairies there.

Filmmaker Kristin Canty’s quest to find healthy food for her four children turned into an educational journey to discover why access to these foods was being threatened. What she found were policies that favor agribusiness and factory farms over small family- operated farms selling fresh foods to their communities. Instead of focusing on the source of food safety problems — most often the industrial food chain — policymakers and regulators implement and enforce solutions that target and often drive out of business small farms that have proven themselves more than capable of producing safe, healthy food, but buckle under the crushing weight of government regulations and excessive enforcement actions.

Farmageddon highlights the urgency of food freedom, encouraging farmers and consumers alike to take action to preserve individuals’ rights to access food of their choice and farmers’ rights to produce these foods safely and free from unreasonably burdensome regulations. The film serves to put policymakers and regulators on notice that there is a growing movement of people aware that their freedom to choose the foods they want is in danger, a movement that is taking action with its dollars and its voting power to protect and preserve the dwindling number of family farms that are struggling to survive.

Eric Wagoner, manager of Athens Locally Grown, and several other ALG members are plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the FDA’s restriction against individuals bringing privately purchased milk across state lines. In pre-trial filings, the FDA has stated that Americans “do not have a fundamental right to obtain any food they wish”, nor do they have a “fundamental right to their own bodily and physical health”. What started as a disagreement over milk has become much more. All of the legal matters in this suit has been handled by the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, who will be receiving half of the proceeds from this screening.

The other half will be going to Wholesome Wave Georgia, a non-profit foundation working to increase access to locally grown foods through a number of programs, including doubling the spending power of EBT (“food stamp”) and WIC benefits at farmers markets throughout the state.

Links:

Farmageddon: http://farmageddonmovie.com
Farmageddon Press Kit (PDF): http://farmageddonmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/FARMAGEDDON_Press_Kit.pdf
Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund: http://www.ftcldf.org
Wholesome Wave Georgia: http://www.wholesomewavegeorgia.org/
Athens Locally Grown: http://athens.locallygrown.net
Ciné: http://athenscine.com