Earth Day 2018 Celebration - River Walk, MFT’s Growing Local & Three Short Films

Local Food Connection (LFC), The Gem and Take Action Bethel are pleased to announce a collaborative agenda to celebrate Earth Day in Bethel on Sunday, April 22, 2018. The potluck and movie are part of the quarterly Food & Film Series offered by LFC and The Gem.
 
Festivities commence with a River Walk starting at Davis Park at 2:00 p.m. Activities move to The Gem for a 3:30 Potluck Appetizer Social, followed by 4:30 screenings of four films: Growing Local (Maine Farmland Trust), Farms of Western Maine: Moon Dance Farm (The Eddy School), Foothills Food Festival: Celebrating Local Food (Center for an Ecology Based Economy) and Alan Day Community Garden Youth Leadership Program. The last three are roughly five-minute documentaries created locally about the local food systems.
 
Following the films, at 6:00 p.m., panelists will discuss the films with an active Q&A session. They include Chris Franklin—MFT Farmland Protection Project Manager, Deb Webster—Teacher at The Eddy School and Bonnie Pooley—Alan Day Community Garden board member.
 
Maine Farmland Trust’s Growing Local is a mid-length film in three parts that explores the growing pains of the local food movement and the uncertain fate of the farmers and farmland that keep it alive. While "buying local" is on the rise, these three poignant vignettes make clear that small farms and access to locally produced food is not a sure thing. In Growing Local, meet father and son organic dairy farmers struggling with the realities of producing a commodity food product to keep their farm going. The film also follows an artisanal butcher who illustrates how healthy, thoughtful meat production can be supported and sustained, and the series closes with the story of a young farm couple who, on risky sweat-equity, have revitalized a fertile piece of farmland into a thriving community food hub. These stories help to better understand the interconnected fates of farmers and farmland, consumers and the local food movement.