The Lyons Recorder dishes the deets on the Front Range tour:
Grant Family Farms teams up with New York-film maker, Shelley Rogers, to bring What’s Organic about Organic? to Colorado and Wyoming for a screening tour along the Front Range. What’s Organic about Organic?, the Our Planet award winner in the Los Angeles Going Green Film Festival, takes a unique look at organic farming and how the industry is being shaped as the demand grows.
Shelley Rogers believes this documentary film is “a call to action for a public that is increasingly concerned about their food choices.” The tour will also serve in the film’s Screen & Green campaign, which aims to partner with local nonprofit organizations nation-wide and encourage the audience to take the next step beyond watching the film and become an engaged participant in the organic food movement.
Rogers and Andy Grant, owner/farmer of Grant Family Farms and featured in the film, will be holding post-screening discussions to provide a local perspective and context for the film’s message. Grant has been farming in Northern Colorado his entire life and Grant Family Farms was the first farm to be Certified Organic by the State of Colorado in 1988. He now has a diverse operation of over 2,000 acres and is committed to developing a sustainable Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Grant predicts the farm will provide for over 6000 members with fresh, organic, local produce for the 2011 season.
What’s Organic About Organic? dives into the challenges that arise when a grassroots agricultural movement evolves into a booming international market and reveals what’s at stake in creating and maintaining meaningful standards for organic production. As more organic products crowd supermarket shelves, citizens are left to question what it really means to be ‘organic.’ “What’s Organic About Organic? takes the discussion beyond eco-label shopping,” said Rogers.
“This film will show audiences that the decisions they make in the grocery store and the policies set by our government should not be just about personal preference, but they should embody a means of supporting an agricultural system that produces healthy food, develops market opportunities for regional food systems, and safeguards our environment for future generations.”
“We all can be part of the answer to the world’s problems,” said Florida Organic Growers’ Executive Director and coproducer of the film, Marty Mesh. “We want to see this film be a piece of that solution by helping people understand that the choices they make are important.”
The film’s Front Range screening tour will begin in Cheyenne on April 10th and continue through Fort Collins, Boulder, Denver and culminates its tour in the Colorado Springs, Indie Spirit Film Festival April 14th – 17th.
Screening Dates:
April 10th, Cheyenne, WY
April 11th, Denver, CO; FilmCenter/Colfax; The Denver Film Society
April 12th, Fort Collins, CO; The Lyric Cinema Café
April 13th, Boulder, CO; Nomad Theatre
April 14th, Denver, CO; Mercury Café; The ArgusFest
April 14th – 17th, Colorado Springs – CO; Indie Spirit Film Festival