Local Food Film Festival, Part II

Last night I went to see Eating Alaska at the Local Food Film Festival. This movie was really different from Food, Inc. For one thing, it wasn't as formal, or as uh, glossy. I mean the editing wasn't quite as good. But also, it wasn't as depressing.

The movie wasn't quite what I thought it was going to be. It wasn't really about a vegetarian trying to adjust to her new husband's lifestyle, it was more like a former vegetarian takes a look at what it means to live a subsistence lifestyle, with hunting, fishing and foraging in the Great State. She talks about how dependent we are on wild food, and the benefits and drawbacks of it. It was actually pretty cool, because the movie talks about some of the issues I've mentioned here about living in AK and eating locally. I felt like someone else "got it", you know?

Another neat thing was that they actually had the director there to answer questions, along with the State Director of Agriculture. And you know, there's actually a lot of cool things happening with the local food movement up here. For one thing, the number of farmer's markets across the state has grown exponentially over the past few years. Also, the number of farms has increased, and they are trying to push forward a bill that would allow meat inspections at the state level -- which would increase the amount of locally grown meat that could be sold in restaurants and stores. Our revamped Matanuska Creamery is taking off, and in spite of the fact that some of our farms use commercial fertilizer, AK is better off in the pesticide realm because the bugs can't survive. So that's pretty cool, especially since I feel like I am in the forefront of a (green) revolution!

One more installment of the Food Film Festival tonight, and that's Fresh. It's supposed to be kind of like Food, Inc. but with a more positive spin. I thought I was going to need a positive spin after Food, Inc. and I still think it will be cool to see, even though Eating Alaska was pretty positive (and actually funny in some spots)!

P.S. Kelly asked for pictures of my orchid. I am planning to take some more and post them, probably next week some time.