Fresh

Fresh

72 Minutes

Fresh could very well have succumbed to the pretension, browbeating, negativity and other pitfalls that all too often punctuate liberal-driven efforts in defense of our beleaguered planet. But it didn't. Instead, director Ana Sofia Joanes took a hot topic - sustainable food - and swept away the trendy, buzzword glitter to explain a simple but incredibly serious problem and then, refreshingly, articulate a practical solution. Joanes has an eye for power and grace in the everyday: nothing here feels constructed, unrealistic or overly shiny, like some kind of EcoDisneyProduction. Her subjects, the farmers and co-ops taking a stand to create change, are utterly real, their alternative practices relatable. And as a result, Fresh is a beautiful, genuinely inspirational and potentially revolutionary film.

Joanes' story begins with the problem at hand: big agriculture is unnatural and un-sustainable. The news isn't actually all that new, and it isn't rocket science. We've all heard at this point that pesticides are bad, that industrialized agriculture leads to mistreated and unhealthy animals and, subsequently, nutritionally depleted products. But somehow, when a bespectacled Michael Pollan (a brilliant, compelling and clear speaker who lends the film outstanding credibility) explains why pesticides are bad, and just how depleted and dangerous our conventional food sources have become, we listen. We have to. It's too clear, too substantiated to ignore.

Thus chastened for our bulk and bargain-shopping ways, we now meet and take comfort in the friendly aspect of Joel Salatin, one of the film's chief standard-bearers for sustainable practices and healthy products. A family farmer from the fields of Swoopes, Virginia, Salatin is unquenchably cheerful as he demonstrates the workings of a sustainable, free-range operation (he produces beef, chicken, eggs, turkey, rabbits and forestry products at Polyface Farms), living proof of the happy, wholesome goodness that comes from working and eating ethically. Joanes interweaves Salatin's narrative with that of several other eco-minded businessmen - non-profit coop director and farmer Will Allen, Ozark Mountain Pork Coop founder Russ Kremer, and Hen House independent supermarket owner and "Buy Local" advocate David Ball, to name a few - to show viewers the direct effects of the industrial model versus the sustainable model upon business, individual and animal health, product quality and the environment. And then, after almost an hour's worth of rich green vistas, gorgeous produce, cavorting cattle and the like, she takes us back to those poor cage-raised chickens. Just for a moment. And it's enough. It's sad and disgusting and, thankfully, there are plenty of accessible, affordable actions that even the most cash-strapped idealist can take to change their lot, and our food, for good.

For instance: according to Diana Endicott, founder of the Good Natured Family Farms Coop in Kansas City, if consumers spend a mere $10 per week on locally grown foods they create exponential profit growth not only for small farms but for struggling rural economies as well, thus supporting those taking a stand against industrialized agriculture and helping to weaken the destructive dominant system. Ideas like Endicott's blow financially driven arguments against buying local out of the water -- and yet, to Joanes' credit, this fact isn't emphasized. Resisting the urge to rub stuff like this in - and, by that token, to potentially rub viewers the wrong way -- is her glorious achievement: Fresh doesn't vilify the farmers stuck in the industrial system, and while it rightly points to the real culprit (massive corporations that have monopolized distribution), it doesn't belabor or dramatize their crimes. What Joanes has figured out (and what, sadly, the Michael Moores of the world haven't yet) is that the truth speaks quite eloquently for itself. Speculation, conspiracy theories and excessive drama reek of desperation and alienate the opposition. So instead, Fresh keeps the tone positive, upbeat and good-natured. No one talks down or talks too fancy about food; they just successfully express, as the film's tagline puts it, "new thinking about what we're eating."

by Lauren Westerfield