WEBVTT

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[music]

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A hundred years ago, half
the people in North America

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lived on farms. Today, there
are so few family farms left.

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The US no longer counts them in the census.
$10 getting on, (inaudible).

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The number one cause of death for the
American family farmer is suicide.

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Family farmers have to exploit farm workers

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in order to make the profit. They
have to exploit the water in the land

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in order to make that profit. And I
think real farmers know that’s wrong.

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Small farmers were put out of
business by cheap food raised

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by giant factory farms in places
where crops are grown all year.

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But, the bounty of this industrial
agriculture has a hidden price

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and the bill is coming due.

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When you have like, huge grand size farms that are trying to, you know, provide for the
entire United States coming from one area, you’re just not gonna get quality product,

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you’re not going to get
a nutritious product.

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You need to eat fruits and vegetables, but
it’s where those fruits and vegetables

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came from that’s equally as important
in terms of freshness and nutrition.

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Food is such a fundamental need

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and the way that modern industrial
uh… societies have evolved,

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we seem to be so disconnected

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from our relationship with food. Most kids today don’t
know that every bit of our food was once alive.

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It’s this system

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that is so centralized and so vulnerable.

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The recent example where…
several people were killed,

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100 sickened by spinach grown on one farm

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and processed in one packing plant in
California that sickened people in Michigan,

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in New York, in Arizona,
in Washington, Oregon.

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It really woke people up.

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In the Pacific Northwest, the more sustainable
food system is beginning to emerge.

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Small farmers are making a comeback.
They’re growing much healthier food

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and lots more food per acre by using less
energy and water than factory farms.

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And most of this food is organic.
A market that’s increasing

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by 20% to 30% each year.

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More and more products are
becoming organic than ever before.

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Half of this food (inaudible) is organic
and the other half is conventional.

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Every one of our retail customers
buy some amount of organics

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and before even eight years ago, to many people
organics was still kind of a four letter word

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and now they think it, it’s just part of the regular
economy, they wouldn’t think of doing business without it.

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Huge stores are carrying it and
huge growers are growing it.

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[sil.]

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Mike Schmidt is a third
generation dairy farmer.

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A few years ago, he converted
this farm to organic

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and became part of the
Organic Valley cooperatives.

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I think this is the best thing we ever did. We
really notice our cows lasting a lot longer.

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Our land is a lot healthier.
Umm… Our crops are good

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and we’re producing a healthier product.

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The cows are of course on organic ground.
They harvest their own food

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and they actually fertilize the ground.

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They eat what they need and then they
lay down and start chewing their cud,

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so they’re real content out here.
Before joining Organic Valley,

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Mark couldn’t treat his animals so well.
He had to compete with giant dairies

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to keep their cows inside and
feed them whatever is cheapest.

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When we were conventional, it
was always we were worried

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how much we’re going to be paid month by month trying
to make ends meet and uh… needing more machinery

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or facilities and couldn’t do it.

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Organic Valley pays you a
base price every month. Umm…

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We know we have coming and uh…
it’s a lot less stressful for me.

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Producing in more natural uh… healthy
uh… product is uh… been huge for us.

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It’s nice to us keep in a local and family.

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So uh… it’s been good, really good.

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If growers can

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produce a crop without horrible pesticides
and without sterilizing the soil, they will.

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In the 1970s, Anne Schwartz

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was a pioneer organic farmer
in Washington, Skagit Valley.

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Learning how to grow good food, learning,
being the experimenters, taking the risks,

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trying to reinvent our food system and
it was more than just growing food.

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It was, how the land was treated? How the
food was shipped? Who it was sold to?

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It took years to learn
how to farm productively

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without the chemical she was taught
to use in agriculture school.

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Trying to grow organic
crops without herbicides

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is a lot more handwork, it’s a lot more equipment
work. There’s a lot more cost associated

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with removing weeds from a field situation than simply
being able to make one or two passes with an herbicide.

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And to this time, a fraction of the money

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that’s gone into research has gone into

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sustainable, biologically intensive production.
It’s all gone into chemical production

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since World War II.

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For decades Northwest agriculture has
focused on a few big crops for export.

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But, with climate change and
an end of cheap energy,

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each region needs to produce more of its own
food and to grow food more sustainably.

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This was (inaudible) and peas.
We’ve got greens and the potatoes.

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These students at Washington State University are part
of a new program in organic and sustainable agriculture.

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One of the first in the nation.

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The raspberries, and the beans, and garlic. So all of those will
flow around in the garden basically in a clockwise rotation, so we…

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we won’t ever be planting the same thing

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umm… year after year in the same spot.
All the cabbages

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get hit really hard by insects here. So by putting that
row cover on, we’re just creating a physical barrier

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to keep the insects off the plant
and it works really well actually.

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When you look at soil and crop quality

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and when you look at economic viability
and when you look at energy efficiency,

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Organic AG seems to almost always went out. And it
shows that our traditional model of conventional AG

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is not the best model that we
really need to start looking

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at these more integrated
in organic approaches.

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Scientists are breeding new high yield varieties of
wheat that use less water and can be grown organically.

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Sustainable and organic growers
are doing a very good job

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of their own research, how can we help them?
How can we get out and work with them?

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Uh… The (inaudible) universities have been criticized
and rightly so for ignoring the smaller farmers

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over the decades. And… and really going
towards a more industrial agriculture.

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Well, in… in our program and
many others at this university,

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we see, what can we do that’s different than
industry? What can we do that helps people directly?

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This experiment is done in organic system,

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but it could be a benefit to anybody
that wants to protect their resources

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and also reduce the amount of fossil fuel and
fertilizer that they use. Uh… well, the annual…

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My hope is that the research
I’m doing will help farmers

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to… re-localize food systems to make them more
sustainable whether it’s organic or low input

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or… or just local and help… help everybody

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have access to good quality food.

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[music]

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I grew up on a cherry orchard

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that used a lot of pesticides
and I left there feeling like

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I, it was a complete insult
an attack on the environment.

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And… and realized that that was
something that I… I would not continue.

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I know, at the farmers markets people are
like, \"God, we’ve been dying to get a hold

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of Washington ground grain.\" Which seems
bizarre since Washington’s like number four

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or fifth in the Union.
But, very little organic

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and it all leaves uh… port of Seattle.

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Most organic farmers grow
fruit and vegetables,

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but Sam and Brooke Lucy raise wheat, rye
and flax. … example of what it looks like…

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Their specialilty is in ancient wheat
called, ‘Emmer.’ This grain dates back

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to the first five thousand years of
Agriculture. It’s very well adapted

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and suited to growing in the climate that we live
in. The protein will range anywhere from 16% to 22%

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and the germ and the bran are bigger in
the emmer and so you get more fiber.

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I hear from our customers

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that they’ve just never experienced anything
like this before because they… they chew it

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and they feel like the grain sustains them, they
don’t feel bloaty or feel like they’ve got a bomb

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in their gut, that’s what I hear a lot
of people say when they eat wheat.

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We grow stuff that’s tasty. Ideally,
with taste comes nutrition.

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That’s what food is. I
mean, otherwise, why eat?

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It doesn’t taste good and it’s not good for
you. Then it’s just sort of a bad habit.

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We didn’t inherit family farm,

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we’ve created our family farm.

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The land that we farm, it’s an agreement
between us and the land owner

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that we’ll take care of their land,
we’ll use their water rights

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so they don’t lose them
in exchange for farming.

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I want the ground sustaining
itself through what it grows.

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And all these fields were in pretty rough shape when I
started and I would say, maybe in another four or five years

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they’ll be there.

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In this field, it was all
quack grass five years ago.

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I’ve been seeded this clover.

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It’s good for wheat suppression plus. It
gives about 80 pounds of nitrogen back,

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I have that to turn under with the straw.

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First year, I had emmer, second
year emmer, third year uh… flax,

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fourth year peas, this year back to wheat.

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And I might put this all that far for
four or five years, they could use it.

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That’s a good developed head of red wheat.

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And you can tell it’s ready
to thrash by going like that.

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[sil.]

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This is a gravity deck. It’s gonna
sooth your grain by weight.

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So plenty of the un hold emmer

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which is all in certain percentage,
this table completely winnows it out.

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And that’s the only way to assure quality
really is to view everything yourself.

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Knowing from seed to table, what
all the steps are met here,

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paying attention to those steps.
That’s how you get quality.

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This is our signature grain.

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It’s probably our biggest seller, it’s what
people want the most, just cook like a rice,

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it’s umm… used in peel offs(ph), salads.
And then all of our flour

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is packaged order, this is an
order that’s going out today

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and it’s going to a retreat in Oregon.

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There’s a new pizza joint that’s just
opening up and he called yesterday,

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we happen to be milling. He wanted to get his
dough going, he’s hoping to open this week.

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And when I hand it over, I say, you know, it’s not going
to get any fresher than this, it was combined Sunday,

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milled today. So that’ll be a great
way to start our business off,

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so those are the things in the long
run that make a business enjoyable.

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Obviously, being able to
make some money out of it,

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makes it sustainable.

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I like interacting with people, I like hearing
people stories whether it’s the new recipes

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that they’ve come up with, or how it’s worked for
their child that’s had a wheat allergy for years

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and now they can use this grain. And the
local support within Washington State

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has just been phenomenal.

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So what we’re doing, there aren’t a lot of umm…
examples and you got Archer Daniels Midland

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and general mills and, you know,

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there is this far removed

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from farmer directives is against.

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What’s happened

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in our lifetime since World War II

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was the depopulation of the countryside. I
mean, the industrialization of agriculture

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based totally on cheap fossil fuels for
every calorie of food energy we get,

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10 calories of fossil
fuel energy are invested.

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And those that… that fossil
fuel energy is rapidly

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umm… becoming more expensive.

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It always amazes me

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that we seem to feel that it makes
economic sense to grow sheep

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in British Columbia and yet by the sheep
that have been grown in New Zealand

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and shipped all the way here. And the
reason of course is that the global economy

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renders the biosphere or earth air,
fire, and water as an externality.

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They’re not included in the costs.
So you have this efficient system,

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but it… it doesn’t make
any earth sense at all.

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The average product travels 1,500 miles,

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so if one is concerned
about global warming,

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umm… you’re going to want to buy it locally. Uh… you
cannot say, \"I’m concerned about global warming

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and not buy it locally.\"

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What we’re doing is really
connecting our customers

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to where their food is coming from.

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We do have all the conventional
grocery products on our shelves,

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but then we also have umm… natural and organic and
locally produced alternatives right there with them.

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Customers can really quickly,
and easily identify products

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that were raised, grown, produced,
fished in our local region.

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We make all of our sausages right here

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in the meat department, we support
from Oregon family farms,

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they’re all fed vegetarian diets uh… without
the use of hormones or antibiotics.

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These apples here are all grown by the
Stewart family, Columbia Gorge Organics.

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And the secret to their incredible
fruit is the care that they take

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in building the soil. Every year
we take a group of our staff up

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to hill river to visit the farm, we
get to walk through the orchards,

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uh… see the packing line, we can
meet uh… the Stewart family.

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Another one of their great products that we’ve got
right now is uh… this beautiful organic spinach

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that’s coming from uh… Syrian, Sun Farm.
And because of their experienced farming,

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uh… because of the scale of their farm,

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they’re able to just produce umm… wonderful
products at… at a real reasonable price.

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What I do when I sit down with them,
my question to them is… is, you know,

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what… what price do you need to make a decent living on…
on this crop? And I can know from a retail perspective,

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how much I need to charge for it and if
we can come to an agreement on that,

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they know exactly how much they need to grow, they know
exactly what price they’re going to get for their product.

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I know that I’m going to get the
freshest, best locally grown product

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’cause that’s why I sought that grower out because they were the
best, and I know how much I’m going to pay for it and so it becomes

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a win-win relationship for both sides.

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A lot of people have started making

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efforts in their lives to buy local, but they don’t
think it all the way through, myself included.

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I mean, I love avocados, I’m still buying
avocados. When do I stop buying avocados?

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Because they’re all being shipped from
California, I haven’t made that choice yet

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to eliminate avocados from my diet.

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Given that probably less than 1% of our food is grown
locally that we consume here in the Puget Sound,

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we would make such a huge impact

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if people just increase their percentage
of… of Washington grown products.

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Is a 100 mile diet reasonable?
We’re really fortunate here

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because we have such a bounty of stuff
that’s here, you know, shellfish,

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shin fish, and pasture based meats
and lots of fruits and vegetables,

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and stuff that go all year. Legislature’s
doing something really good which is saying

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that the school should have a preference for a
locally grown product. Umm… And that would be huge

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umm… because again that would
continue still make the sector,

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and would get product into those schools all year around and
we’re gonna ask that, you know, do so that all those people

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to what fresh food tastes like.

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We have very few repetitions on our menu and because
we have different products coming in always

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and I’ll try something new. The
challenge is creating menus

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that reflect seasonality and
not umm… being trapped into,

00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
\"Oh, my customers really love this dish and
I have to keep them happy all the time.\"

00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
Well, I think the challenge for the chef is to
create dishes using the seasonal ingredients

00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
and making those uh… really feel like you’re in
the season in the moment when you’re eating it.

00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
It’s kind of a bit of a juggling act
to make sure that you’re getting

00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.999
all the product that you need in when
you have a long list of purveyors.

00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.999
A lot of other chefs have one stop shopping they
can call and get everything done at one time,

00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.999
everything is going to come reliably the next
day, and therefore they’re predictable menu

00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.999
is going to be in place for a long period of time.
Our menu might have to change and fluctuate each day

00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
because, \"Oops! The farmer’s truck broke down
on the way to the market or it rained too much

00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
and we lost all the berries.\" And other
chefs are I think catching on to that

00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
that they need to be flexible
and that way we’re creating

00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
a local food economy that
will perpetuate itself.

00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
[sil.]

00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
The warehouse it’s all refrigerated, so that the product
doesn’t sweat any time. We’ll be selling it tonight,

00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
on tonight’s trucks going out to the customer in the
morning and we wanna rotate it as quickly as possible,

00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
get it in and out of here as fast
as we can. We’re the middle guys

00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
that go between the grower and the store and
there’s a, you know, a strong role for us

00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
because not every grower can deliver to the store,
nor does the store have time to receive from it

00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
all these different growers. This is a
local grower that we’re working with.

00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
So this is a step typical salad mix.

00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
Farmers own is all organic,
we contract with anywhere

00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
from 12 to 20 growers and typically
we’ll have umm… one grower…

00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
one or two growers per commodity so we don’t
overlap. And we try to have a full balance

00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
between fruits and vegetables, all in the farmer’s
own label. It’s kind of known as a preferred label

00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
because of the quality and it’s
all Oregon and Washington grown.

00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
Potato grower from eastern Washington,

00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
new crop this year. There’s strong
interest from universities,

00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
in schools and all kinds of
institutions to buy local products.

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
Sometimes a local product can cost more.
Growers labor costs are much higher

00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
than anywhere else. Petroleum
costs have gone up so I think

00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
one thing that people need to get over the
idea that, \"Local food should be cheap.\"

00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
Yeah, aren’t they beautiful?

00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
And a lot of these peppers are
ones that he’s propagated himself.

00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
So I know he’s… when I go visit him, he’s like,
\"150 kind of peppers, any kind of pepper you want,

00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
I’ll fill up your whole truck.\"

00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:08.000
[music]

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
And all this is organic, so we
make a pretty good money on this.

00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
We sell good luck to the people and it’s nice
selling that directly people get to know

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
out of the customers. We got our 70 acres out
there. We grow little bit of everything,

00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:35.000
we even grow peanuts, organic
peanuts, salted, unsalted.

00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
This is the (inaudible),

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
they got a beautiful color of the pepper.
This one is (inaudible) pepper

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
and when they turn in ripe,
they turn in red color.

00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
When Hilario Alvarez first
came to the United States,

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
he worked for other farmers. Today he’s one of
the most prolific growers of organic vegetables

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
in the Pacific Northwest.

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
Too many different kinds like plant
all the feast (inaudible) green beans

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
and the wild kinds of potatoes.
And pull this up,

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
straight up and then you can

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
pick it up the peanuts like this.

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
Alvarez is best known for
his organic peppers.

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
[music]

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
We got a hundred varieties now. Pretty soon I
might make may be 200 varieties of pepper.

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
Jalapeno sweet,

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
yeah sweet, lot of people, they don’t want to taste
them because they say, \"No, you’re cheating me.\" No,

00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
that’s sweet and they taste it

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
and no hot. Lot of farmers

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
they grow in uh… with the chemicals and pesticides
in California. Lot of people they got cancer,

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
they got a birds affect. I want to
keep in my customers very healthy.

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
And for that reason I grow organic.

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
In the organic, you have
to pay for certification.

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
You have to do everything by hand.

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
Everything go of everyday. And my
vegetables, I sell them for over 10 year

00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
the same price. And… and when I try
to raise the price little bit over,

00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
the people don’t buy.

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
Antonio. I like my job

00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
because I want to… to feed in so many
people then I want to… to give job

00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
for… for the lot of workers.

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
You can see, white, green
one, purple, this is the

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
new one, that’s the silver white.
This one is the type, big plant.

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
This is another variety.

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
A lot of people when they go picking apples and
they got a problem for the pesticides, the sprays

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
in the orchard and then the
people working here in my farm

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
never get that problem, because I don’t
use any chemical, any pesticides.

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
This pepper over here,

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
this is my own seed, they grow in…

00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
in the Alvarez farm. Nobody
have this kind of pepper.

00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
Here is the mango sweet.

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
[music]

00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
Small farms are more labor intensive
and they require more knowledge

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
and skill on the part of farm workers.

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
If there wasn’t farm workers, there would be no family
agriculture left in this country. It would be a rarity.

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
It would… better thing to
do than to grow something

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:20.000
that’s going to go into somebody else’s body
and make somebody happy and healthy, you know.

00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
The future Agriculture here in this state
is in the hands of the Latino farmers.

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
Because they… they… they have
been here for 20, 30 years.

00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
Now, they are legal residents.
They are U.S. citizens.

00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
You know, Marie was working with an
Anglo farmer that he didn’t have

00:27:55.000 --> 00:28:00.000
any… anybody else to leave the farm.
So he said, I’ll sell it to you.

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
[sil.]

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
Latino farmers or Hispanic farmers.
Uh… When they come to this country,

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
they come as farm workers. Now,
they’re in a different situation

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
because now they have to worry about all the
expenses and all the inputs that they have to use

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:50.000
to produce whatever they’re producing.
And that’s a big challenge for them.

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
[sil.]

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:38.000
[music]

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
We’ve got about 400 more
the cows on 30,000 acres.

00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
Doc Hatfield and his family have
been ranchers all their lives.

00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
They raise cattle in the high
plains of eastern Oregon.

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
We respect our animals and they respect
us, you know, as they aren’t scared

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
with us being here. Bulls and
cows and we raised everywhere

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
and their role is to harvest
products that people can’t eat,

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
they wander around and graze
what nature provides.

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
And we want to kind of perform like they
would be, if they were a Deer and Elk.

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
But, the Hatfields don’t just leave
their cattle to make it on their own.

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
They manage their livestock
in an intensive hands on way.

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
Not only do we feed them to evaluate, how they’re feeling and
how they’re doing. To make sure no way they slipped on the ice

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
just like we can and… and may have hurt themselves,
somebody may have may have got into something

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
they shouldn’t have eaten. Because of the way
they are managed, when these animals graze

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
they actually improve the desert environment
and their meat is healthier to eat.

00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
It’s produced without hormones, without
antibiotics and it’s short fat,

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
it doesn’t have all that excess fat. If my family
had been in the tobacco business for instance,

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
uh… we wouldn’t be able to be raising
that today because we really believe that

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
they have found out that that isn’t very healthy,
but red meat. And here in our natural environment,

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
it just all goes together and
we felt really good about it.

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
We follow the cattle around to
where the seasons are right

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
for the nutrition of the animal and where the
animal enhances the… the growth of the plant.

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
During the dry season we bite each
plant once and then we move on

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
and we don’t return to that plant until
it’s recovered and if you do it that way

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
then the animals (inaudible) removal
of the grass charges the rich,

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
rich grow and… and recover and
grow and recover and make soil,

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
they… if it just sits there and it’s
never gazed, the richness sit there too.

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
So that’s where proper grazing is beneficial
to the plant and build soil and feeds

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
the animal and balancing all
that is just an ongoing arc

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
as much as it is a science.

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
You got how many bulls left? Four. Well, we’ll
feed two more and we’ll leave the other two.

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
Okay. I call this a cup of coffee
and donut they get in the morning.

00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
So the main thing about alfalfa hay is I still want
them to graze out and find grass on their own,

00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
but I want them to use this as a piece to
help them fulfill the needs of their diet.

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
By (inaudible) how much I feed
and the times a day I go there,

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
I learn from the cattle what they’re doing. What
I find is, the faster they come to hay truck,

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
the less that means they found eating the pasture and that to
me is an indication, probably we need to go to a new pasture

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
and give them a new… new menu
to work with, so to speak.

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
Small ranchers are a dying breed.

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
The Hatfields have survived by
joining other family ranchers

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
in a marketing cooperative. The
ranchers stay independent.

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
If the co-op is big enough to supply the northwest
with sustainable beef at price consumers can afford.

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
These eighty family ranchers
are people who survived

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
and maybe around them there are sub divisions or
there’re trophy homes or there are recreation ranches

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
and here they are, their income
comes from raising cattle

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
in harmony with the land. And if they were in harmony with
the land then they would have gone broke a long time ago.

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
Our ranchers once they meet the people

00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
in town find that the folks
who are buying our products,

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
they have lots in common with. Our respect for the land,
the respect for the food, the respect for the animals

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
and the environment and whole
connection that the meal has more value

00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
if you know the people and
how the food was raised.

00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
Somebody will buy some of our meat and
I’ll go up and I’ll say, \"Excuse me

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
but, I wanted to thank you for buying some of
our meat, I am one of the ranch families.\"

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
And they turn around and there’s, \"Oh,
please.\" What is done for us has brought back

00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
the pride that we kind of lost from
never knowing where your product went,

00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
because it just went into the
whole big chain of… of supply

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
rather than now when we take responsibility for
what it is and… and go all the way through with it.

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
Umm… We have given part of ourselves

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
and our land to the people and
they… they appreciate it.

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
Thank you. One of the co-ops best customers

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
is a chain of quick food restaurants
in Oregon in Washington.

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
The brand identity that’s emerged for
company is fresh, local and sustainable.

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
So to us that means, a
commitment of fresh ingredients,

00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
high quality good flavors, local
sourcing as much as is possible

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
with the commitment to sustainability at
the same time. And so for… for ranchers

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
that in many cases are family owned hundreds of years
old, you’re ensuring that they actually can stay vital

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
in a community in rural northwest.

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
They wanted to differentiate by providing high quality beef,
umm… all vegetarian fed, no hormones, no antibiotics,

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
that they wanted to humanely
manage the cows, at the same time,

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
manage the land on which the cows are being
raised. If they’re all vital and thriving

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
that means that they’re driving dollars into that local
economy, so everybody else actually gets money as well.

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
(inaudible) health care program focused on
providing affordable, accessible health care,

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
so that all of our hourly employees can
have really affordable health care for

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
medical dental and vision. 100% wind power

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
to all of our restaurants, a commitment to recycling all
of our waste oil and grease into bio-diesel production

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
which takes a cost stream for
us and creates it into a minor,

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
but still a revenue stream. But also
creates a business base for the northwest

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
that didn’t exist before plus creates a
product that doesn’t pollute the northwest.

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
We love coming to Burgerville, it’s an
awesome place. The community gathers here,

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
the kids have grown up on it. Simple,
so I just like a hamburger and fries.

00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
Uh… I really like the seasonal
shakes like they are best.

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
I can be here like every summer and get
strawberry shakes. Like right now,

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
we are running pumpkin shakes, but all of those
resourced locally with the local farmer,

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
uh… again the relationship is a very strong one. As
these are farmers we work with for years and years.

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
Because we get all of our ingredients from world rural
locations throughout the Northwest for are berries

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
or all of our fruits for our
turkey, for our umm… onions.

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
You know, for us if those places aren’t
thriving then the source of supply disappears,

00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
if the source of supply disappears
we no longer have a business.

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:08.000
[music]

00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
This weekend there will be close to a hundred
thousand people shopping in farmers’ markets

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
across the state. And on that same day

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
by extrapolation across the country, there
will be millions of people at that moment

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
shopping in farmers’ markets. Thank you very much
have a good day. What is it that draws people?

00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
I really think it’s something
really deep inside us

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
to connect with our neighbors, with the sources
of our food with the land through the food.

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
Don’t be shy. This past
several weeks we pulled out

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
box after box after box of cauliflowers that were two
to three pounds magnificent perfect cauliflowers.

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
And they flew off the standard markets,

00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
we put them on a table and I mean in 10
minutes we were getting out another box,

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
and another… I… just people loved
it, people really love our carrots.

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
The soil grows beautiful carrots. I’ve been
known for growing carrots for 30 years

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
and they come back and they say, I want three
bunches this week, my kids ate a carrot

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
every single day in their lunch box, I can’t
ever get my kids to eat carrots. And every year

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
sales go up and every year
more people come and say,

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
I can’t believe, I’m going to have to
go back to buying at the supermarket

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
when you aren’t here any more.

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
[music]

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
What happens here is we sell
almost everything we bring.

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
We get a fair price.

00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
We’re developing a regional
sustainable food system.

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
It seems insane

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
to be dependant on an outside food source,

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:10.000
when we actually have the potential
of treating ourselves year around.

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
[music]

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
Those things that are your everyday
vegetables and the fruits,

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
the extra care that we’re able to give them
gets you a much higher quality product.

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
We do a lot of research about varieties that
taste good, that look good and that will

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
don’t have to ship very far, just, you
know, 100 miles is as far as we go.

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
I think we have around
35 acres of, you know,

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
a lot of it is double cropped or triple cropped
throughout the season, uh… for example,

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
where fall of broccoli is before
that it was peas or beans.

00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
Greenhouses are such a wonderful tool,

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
when you can have the weather outside and you can
have a different climate inside a greenhouse

00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
and the beans don’t really mind
the rain, it’s raining outside,

00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
and with a clear plastic roof, I
think it’s 46º outside right now,

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
and I’m sure it’s least 10 º warmer inside.

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
Well, we had as period of about 10 years
where we were not organic growers

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
and then umm… when we were at the markets
and people would say, \"Are these berries,

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
are these tomatoes organic?\"
And I’d say, \"No.\"

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
And before I could explain, they’d walk away, so sort
of we were kind of moving with the trends of the times.

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
Consumers really were asking
for that organic product.

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
With the technology and the information that we have
these days, farming, how we farmed 30 years ago

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
is almost like the horse and
carriage to what we can do today.

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
A lot of our raspberries are under tunnels,

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
we uh… grow basil, or beans
or Zucchini or other crops

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
along with that early in
the summer or late spring.

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
It’s almost year around. We have a little bit of time
in November when we won’t have much stuff, but umm…

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
then we come back in at thanks
giving with Christmas wreaths

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
and this green house that has beans and the basil
will be turned into a forcing area for the tulips.

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
[sil.]

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
Umm… I’ve not come around a plant like this

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
who wants to pick all at once. Growing
things is my reason for being here.

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
I really love it, most of the time I get
up happy in the morning to go to work.

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
When the berries first start, we send those people
who don’t like raspberries out to pick raspberries.

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
And I had one woman who’s allergic to
peas, so she is the first pea picker.

00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
After they’re plenty, it doesn’t matter,
people eat all the time that they’re picking,

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
but when we don’t have too many it’s
really nice if they won’t eat them.

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
Almost everything gets weeded

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
at least once. We hope not more than twice. We
use everything from the whole to cultivator,

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
to flaming, we have a lot
of different techniques

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
depending on what the crop is. We
actually burn weeds with… with fire.

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
And that also helps us control a fungal
problem that we have in our blueberries.

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
One of the best parts about
our level of farming

00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
is that there are people walking around
on the land and looking at the crops.

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
Most of the people that we work with know each other
and they’re from the same small town in Mexico.

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
Lot of a workers now stay year around
and are bringing their families up

00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
and they’re great neighbors,
very umm… interested in the kids

00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
getting a good education and, you know,
having better lives than they had there.

00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
You know, I actually pay or help better
than Wal-Mart pays their help in…

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
That’s not saying much. Well, that’s
not saying much, but it’s, you know,

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
we’re certainly paying them uh… living
wages. Farm workers are so underpaid.

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
They are doing the most
important job in this country

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
and that’s providing food, and we just take
it for granted and we just don’t respect

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
the people who do it. And it’s, it needs
to change and that’s what it really helps

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
also with the farmers markets is that,
we are able to get a better price

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
for a product which in turn we have two
choices. Keep all the money for ourselves

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
or share the wealth with our employees.

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.999
The small communities can stay alive with
small farmers because we all need mechanics,

00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.999
we all need equipment, equipment
repair, uh… we need more employees

00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
which keeps the money
circulating in the small area,

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
and… and we sell locally
so the money stays local.

00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
Local farmers grow food for nearby food banks
and some open their fields to gleaners during

00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
the growing season.

00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
Last year I think we gleaned eighty
five thousand pounds of food

00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
from about 13 farms and backyard orchards.

00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
Well, there’s so much food that isn’t quite perfect
or food that’s left after we can really economically

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
come through and pick,
that is good food that

00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
I… I hate to see go to waste. We can offer, you know, top notch organic food to the
homeless shelters, to food banks, and, you know, everybody deserves to eat that good food.

00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
I’d like to think that the farmer’s market

00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
throws a big net over the entire community
and all levels of income and all people.

00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
Every farmer here is registered to take
food stamps from… from food stamp plants.

00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
We also have a wonderful relationship with our
local food banks which I’m very proud of.

00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
Food banks in every neighborhood show up at the end of
market day and market farmers make a generous donations.

00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
We get a nice variety of vegetables and some
of them not too many people know about.

00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
[sil.]

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
Last year we donated through the six
farmer’s markets close to 40,000 pounds

00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
of fresh fruits and vegetables
to local food banks

00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:30.000
and the food banks tell me that that’s
their largest source of fresh produce.

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
It’s like Zucchini from Marra farm.

00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
Uh… They come in every week, sometime
more, sometime less, it depends,

00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.999
how much they raise. And that
different kind of pumpkin

00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:58.000
or squat you can get the matter out and you’re just
dipping in uh… with tea or milk and put in oven and bake.

00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.999
This food bank is very fortunate than that
we have local organic food going every…

00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:09.999
most of their vegetables that are there are kind of
beat up for the left over’s from the grocery store.

00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.999
The Marra farm actually helps with security in a couple
different ways. We get actually food to people in need.

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.999
Trust me you would not go to the
food bank unless you were in need.

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
The other way that we’re
helping, adjust food security

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
is by teaching children about food and
about health and where food comes from.

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
The kids who come down here for the program are completely
in awe, when they can pull a carrot out of the ground.

00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
Every year I hear and see more of,

00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
you know, food justice work
going in the right direction,

00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
trying to, you know, I see poor
people building urban gardens

00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
and growing their own food and
rising up, and organizing themselves

00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
into communities that are growing their
own food so there’s a lot happening.

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
All that we know right now
about agricultural product

00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
that’s grown locally is people trust
it and where it’s not processed.

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
Uh… They are not worried about to be
over sprayed uh… and over chemicaled.

00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
The issue of fresh foods and buying locally

00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
is in fact a very significant major
health care issue. And what you eat

00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
is a significant factor in your
health outcome and if we want to get,

00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
you know, we’re desiring here
to do that to finally reduce

00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
the number of people here with diabetes and… and to
reduce the number of people here that are obese.

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
We have to increase availability of fresh
foods uh… in all of our neighborhoods

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:50.000
and so it is to us a public health issue and we
have people assigned to work it out all the time.

00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
Our shoppers want to know, where
their food’s coming from?

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
And they want to know, what’s in that food?
How it’s being grown?

00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
We emphasize the locally grown things.
So when apples are in season

00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
we’re going to find apples. And when it’s a
different season for a different food, you’ll find

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
those foods being featured more. Well,
our role is to help the consumer,

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
when they buy something here, they can rest assure
that it’s been screened by a variety of people

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.999
who have asked some pretty hard questions
and the products have met some standards.

00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.999
Here’s (inaudible) Kale. Here’s Dave

00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.999
and Tom Lively’s(ph) collards, you know, these
guys have done in Oregon, they’re real food.

00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
This kale is from Joni and Mike Mclntyre
those guys live up in Stanwood.

00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
PCC helped provide guarantees so they could
expand their acreage and grow more organic foods.

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
Having relationships with local farmers,

00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
it’s more nutritious food, it’s fresher
food, it helps build our local economy,

00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
we know how the food’s being grown
and it also builds a community.

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
I look at the packages and I
see the farmers, I see Doc

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
and Connie Hatfield and the cooperative of
ranchers that they work with from Oregon

00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
and southern Washington. I look at Yampa(ph) valley
lamb and I think of (inaudible) out in Oregon

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
and her pastures of clover. We know
what they’re feeding their animals,

00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
we know how they’re raising their animals and pasture. You
can walk up and you could choose pretty much anything here,

00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
and feel confident that you’re going to
be buying something that’s sustainable.

00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
So the idea is to have delicious
seafood and healthy oceans

00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
at the same time and it is possible. One reason
these stores can be as of service to consumers,

00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
is their owned by people who shop here.

00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
Our shareholders are our customers, our
profits are turned back to the members

00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
in proportion to the amount of business they do here. So if
you… they buy more food they get more of a discount vat.

00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
We focus on local farmers,

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
we focus on trying to keep our circles of
dependants smaller than in a mass market,

00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.999
supermarket where food’s
traveling 1500 miles.

00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:19.999
Shipping food from far away into a retail
operation isn’t going to be sustainable

00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.999
that much longer with the kind
of fuel costs that we’re seeing

00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:29.999
and just 1500 miles isn’t
sustainable to bring our food.

00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:35.000
[sil.]

00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
This is the first picking up of these plants
and so they’re going through really gently

00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:49.999
and just removing the largest ones
and they’re really beautiful today.

00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:54.999
Food that travels most directly
from farmer to consumer

00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.999
comes from places like,
Helsing Junction, CSA.

00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.999
In what’s called Community Supported
Agriculture, consumers pay farmers in advance

00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.999
to receive a box of fresh produce
each week during the growing season.

00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:14.999
We’re feeding about 4000 people a week. We
know ahead of time exactly how many bunches

00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.999
and heads of everything that we’re
going to need, so it really limits

00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:24.999
the amount of waste that is produced.
Everybody gets garlic every week,

00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:29.999
really good garlic, it’s a roja type. You
know, you want to finish the garlic off

00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:34.999
with no watering for like full month before you harvested
and sadly the week before we normally harvested,

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:39.999
we had a full week of rain, so umm… that hasn’t
turned out, it’s actually looking pretty good.

00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:44.999
[music]

00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:49.999
This is a bibb lettuce, this is called, \"The
Summer crisp\" which is a cross between an iceberg

00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:54.999
and a Romaine. And over the
course of the 18 weeks umm…

00:51:55.000 --> 00:51:59.999
we’ll have maybe five or six lettuce plantings, each one
different… different kinds of lettuce and so every week,

00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:04.999
you’re getting a different
combination of lettuces and greens.

00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:09.999
But the CSA model has basically saved the
family farmers as far as I can tell.

00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:14.999
In the past when we’ve done most people selling,
you know, you plant acres of whatever vegetable,

00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:19.999
you know, call whole seller, try to sell to them,
they might not take all you have ready that week.

00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:24.999
They might drop the price, but the CSA
that’s eliminate all of that risk.

00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:29.999
And the… the members are actually
taking that risk along with you.

00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:34.999
Umm… And because we grow so many different varieties of vegetables, even
if a few varieties don’t work out, we’re covered with all the others.

00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:39.999
[sil.]

00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.999
We’ve got lettuce this week

00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.999
and peppers are new for this week.

00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.999
Fresh organic tomatoes.
You’re receiving products

00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:59.999
that is harvested either the day before the day out. They’re getting
a pretty good price for the quality of what they’re receiving.

00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:04.999
And they get to come to the farm, they
get to bring their children to the farm,

00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:09.999
see the food growing the field, pick the food literally out
of the field, taste it, you know, see the differences between

00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
what they’re seeing here and what
they’re seeing in the grocery store.

00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
That’s a big one.

00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.999
A lot of times

00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:29.999
sustainability is phrased in
terms of what we have to give up

00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:34.999
or losing the pleasures that we have had
in fact it might mean more pleasures.

00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:39.999
At this point, we’ve probably made
close to 400 flavors of ice cream

00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:44.999
and there’s no reason, why we would stop?
Fresh basil, fresh mint,

00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:49.999
fresh Cayenne, lavender, rose, cardamom.

00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:54.999
Every year we purchase a higher percentage

00:53:55.000 --> 00:53:59.999
of our ingredients directly from farms.
And for the last couple years

00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:04.999
the majority of our
entire ingredient expense

00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:09.999
has been paid directly to farmers. By sourcing local
ingredients, I’ve been able to meet local farmers,

00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:14.999
buy their products directly from
them, able to put a phase with food,

00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:19.999
eat seasonally and so that we’re able
to really notice what happens when food

00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:24.999
comes into season and peaks and what
it’s like to enjoy different foods

00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:29.999
at the peak of the season. If you
want to talk about sustainability,

00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.999
there are other ways of doing things.

00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:39.999
It’s not that climate change represents
this absolute disaster to the economy

00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:44.999
it represents a chance to redesign the way we’re living,
rediscover new values, there are enormous opportunities,

00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:49.999
what lies at the end is a richer,

00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:55.000
fuller, healthier life.

00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:09.999
Billy Allstot grew up on his
family’s apple orchard.

00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:14.999
I used to change the water up here when I was 10 years old
with sprinkler pipes, move them every day, twice a day.

00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:19.999
You can look out over there, the valley and here
you see all these patchwork of orchards that are,

00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:24.999
that are eliminated in the last 10 years.

00:55:25.000 --> 00:55:29.999
A lot of families have lost
their farms and they’re gone.

00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:34.999
When global competition caused
the apple market to collapse,

00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:39.999
Billy pulled up his trees and planted
vegetables, herbs, and flowers.

00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:44.999
This is a (inaudible), really
good roasting variety.

00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:49.999
And in also the anaheim here, very
good roasting. This just shows you,

00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:54.999
the quality of products that you can raise
organically. They’re good (inaudible).

00:55:55.000 --> 00:55:59.999
There’s not been one spray put
on either fields of tomatoes

00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:04.999
or the peppers this year, not one. And it’s
due to the plants being healthy enough

00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:09.999
to withstand disease

00:56:10.000 --> 00:56:14.999
and our production is phenomenal.

00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:19.999
This variety gets spider mate, really bad.
And we do use predator,

00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:24.999
you know, bringing ladybugs, lace wings.

00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:29.999
We can see like, once a
week and release some.

00:56:30.000 --> 00:56:34.999
Small farmers get a much better price

00:56:35.000 --> 00:56:39.999
by selling directly to restaurants and
consumers. And they get something more.

00:56:40.000 --> 00:56:44.999
While I used to be in the apple business, you take
your fruit to this warehouse and they would sell it,

00:56:45.000 --> 00:56:49.999
and you would never even hear
any compliments or criticisms

00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:54.999
about what you were doing. But now, to go
and meet maybe 500 people every weekend

00:56:55.000 --> 00:56:59.999
and, you know, and have them give you the
feedback that you need to improve what…

00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:04.999
what you’re doing. Organic peach, how
does that look. There’s more to this,

00:57:05.000 --> 00:57:09.999
I’m just trying to make money, you know,
it gives some other kind of satisfaction.

00:57:10.000 --> 00:57:14.999
[music]

00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:19.999
We have… summer savory,
little bit of mushroom(ph),

00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:24.999
uh… wild oregano,

00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:29.999
lemon balm, lemon verbena, epazote.
You know, over in Seattle especially

00:57:30.000 --> 00:57:34.999
people just hate that jobs, you know, they
just like uh… they have these wonderful jobs

00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:39.999
but they hate them, you know, and it’s so sad
to see that, really is, just uh… for people.

00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:44.999
[music]

00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:49.999
We planted the seeds in December

00:57:50.000 --> 00:57:54.999
and then moved them in
hear in end of February.

00:57:55.000 --> 00:57:59.999
We could get more production if
we use greenhouse varieties,

00:58:00.000 --> 00:58:04.999
but we don’t, we use outdoor varieties to
get the flavor and then we adapt to them.

00:58:05.000 --> 00:58:09.999
It just takes away and
transfers it to that wire.

00:58:10.000 --> 00:58:14.999
So it can just sit there in suspension and stay
without any weight against this rib system.

00:58:15.000 --> 00:58:19.999
And these are (inaudible).

00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:24.999
These greenhouses are heated during the
winter not by a wasteful hot air furnace,

00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:29.999
but with warm water pumped on to the ground. Just
half inch PVC pipe every 18 inches in the ground,

00:58:30.000 --> 00:58:34.999
14 inches deep, so we can bring the
tractor in here, we can rotovate

00:58:35.000 --> 00:58:39.999
and never hit the… the lines, and your down with the
red zone. Is more than just heating the building,

00:58:40.000 --> 00:58:44.999
it’s getting the soil the
perfect temperature,

00:58:45.000 --> 00:58:49.999
the way microbes go to… go to work and… and the roots
will actually feed there. If you heat from the top,

00:58:50.000 --> 00:58:54.999
then the roots come up to the top and feed.
Our greenhouses are very labor intensive.

00:58:55.000 --> 00:58:59.999
I see nothing wrong with it. I
mean, it gives people jobs.

00:59:00.000 --> 00:59:04.999
These two greenhouses, I’ll grow as
much as I did in that whole four acres

00:59:05.000 --> 00:59:09.999
or five acres out there and, you know,
I know I won’t get profit here,

00:59:10.000 --> 00:59:14.999
I know I won’t get hail, I know I won’t get rained
out. You know, you see a lot of success here,

00:59:15.000 --> 00:59:19.999
but a lot of problems too. There’s an
experiment with eggplant, it didn’t work.

00:59:20.000 --> 00:59:24.999
They grow too big, they shade
themselves, the mites led them,

00:59:25.000 --> 00:59:29.999
didn’t even cover their cost, you’re
always paying for your education,

00:59:30.000 --> 00:59:35.000
formal or otherwise.

00:59:40.000 --> 00:59:44.999
You know, funny, how they just
come to you after a while.

00:59:45.000 --> 00:59:49.999
These are a four way cross,

00:59:50.000 --> 00:59:54.999
they’ve got one quarter wild boar in them. And…
and that gives them a hearty immune system

00:59:55.000 --> 00:59:59.999
and since he doesn’t sweat, pig
doesn’t get rid of biological toxins

01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:04.999
like we do. It comes out, he eats the dirt,

01:00:05.000 --> 01:00:09.999
and he runs that carbon through the inside like a
carbon filter and it detoxifies them from the inside.

01:00:10.000 --> 01:00:14.999
And they’re healthy, they’re
(inaudible), they’ll frolic,

01:00:15.000 --> 01:00:19.999
these are happy animals. These are the
way pigs should be raised on dirt.

01:00:20.000 --> 01:00:24.999
Really good today, recode for the day.

01:00:25.000 --> 01:00:29.999
It’s my birthday and it’s record. Good for
you. We basically chose to become farmers,

01:00:30.000 --> 01:00:34.999
we were born… we are not born farmers, we,

01:00:35.000 --> 01:00:39.999
this is what we wanna die doing. We wanna
take care, be a good steward of the land,

01:00:40.000 --> 01:00:44.999
we want to be organic, we want to watch our daughter
grow up, and we want to be together farming

01:00:45.000 --> 01:00:49.999
a healthy food for our neighbors. Eiko started
loading this van at 03:30 this morning,

01:00:50.000 --> 01:00:54.999
and now she’s home at six,

01:00:55.000 --> 01:00:59.999
and will start unloading all the ice chests.
And it will be bout 8, 9 o’clock tonight

01:01:00.000 --> 01:01:04.999
finishing up ready for tomorrow again
to shove off at 5 o’clock, you know.

01:01:05.000 --> 01:01:09.999
So that’s our weekends, we do eight farmer’s markets. And
then we do restaurants. Now there are some local restaurants

01:01:10.000 --> 01:01:14.999
in Seattle area that are very committed to

01:01:15.000 --> 01:01:19.999
supporting local farmers and especially
sustainable organic farmers.

01:01:20.000 --> 01:01:24.999
And they would work with you.
When you buy from a small farmer,

01:01:25.000 --> 01:01:29.999
you buy all different parts of the pig, or
the cow, you don’t just buy alone stake

01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:34.999
because the farmer has to sell the other
parts. With a give and take relationship.

01:01:35.000 --> 01:01:39.999
Yeah, so, you know, we have grass fed beef,

01:01:40.000 --> 01:01:44.999
so that means you butcher during
the sun months of the year where

01:01:45.000 --> 01:01:49.999
there’s nutrients in a grass. So it comes
February, we have to work out of the inventory,

01:01:50.000 --> 01:01:54.999
so you can’t just say, \"Well I want this slaughtered in February.\"
Because meat is not going to be good for nutritionally,

01:01:55.000 --> 01:01:59.999
you know, environmentally for the
animals sake. Some chefs already know

01:02:00.000 --> 01:02:04.999
that… about… about that, and understanding
about that which is pretty kind of cool

01:02:05.000 --> 01:02:09.999
and there’s a whole community
of people who get to know.

01:02:10.000 --> 01:02:14.999
Yoo… look at their heads pop up.

01:02:15.000 --> 01:02:19.999
Yoo… come on. I can go out in the field

01:02:20.000 --> 01:02:24.999
and I can call cows and for as far as you can
see, if they can hear me they’ll come running.

01:02:25.000 --> 01:02:29.999
They come because they think I’m going to move them
to another field. We live in this wonderful area

01:02:30.000 --> 01:02:34.999
where we have good soil and the
rain to keep the grass green

01:02:35.000 --> 01:02:39.999
so we can produce a tremendous
amount of sweet grass.

01:02:40.000 --> 01:02:44.999
And we found out if we raise this
beef on grass only with no grain,

01:02:45.000 --> 01:02:49.999
that the fat was actually omega-3 like
wild salmon, that the vitamin A and E

01:02:50.000 --> 01:02:54.999
were high and it had an
anti carcinogen in it.

01:02:55.000 --> 01:02:59.999
You know, for two years old, he is a
nice sized animal. Look at that belly,

01:03:00.000 --> 01:03:04.999
how big that belly is, that’s the grass processor.
And look at the grass we have in the field,

01:03:05.000 --> 01:03:09.999
you know, we’ve clovers, grouse,
(inaudible), beautiful.

01:03:10.000 --> 01:03:14.999
We have to do sustainable, environmentally

01:03:15.000 --> 01:03:19.999
and physically on a farm, but you have to economically
sustain yourself too which is the hardest part for farmers.

01:03:20.000 --> 01:03:24.999
All the expenditures in the
beginning part of the year,

01:03:25.000 --> 01:03:29.999
all the harvest and the
money comes in, goes again,

01:03:30.000 --> 01:03:34.999
of course you have some farmer’s markets money come in
during the year, but most big ones come in at the year end,

01:03:35.000 --> 01:03:39.999
so you have to manage that.
I’m a good chicken processor

01:03:40.000 --> 01:03:44.999
and I was cutting chickens
and whatever processing and…

01:03:45.000 --> 01:03:49.999
and George looks at me and said, \"You
don’t need MBA degree to do this do you.\"

01:03:50.000 --> 01:03:54.999
\"No, you don’t, but you do to run
the whole farm, you know, so…\"

01:03:55.000 --> 01:03:59.999
I think we need lot more of us,

01:04:00.000 --> 01:04:04.999
small farmers that are proud to be farmers.
You have really

01:04:05.000 --> 01:04:09.999
love farming in the land, you really have to
believe in what you do in order to do this.

01:04:10.000 --> 01:04:14.999
So these guys are broilers

01:04:15.000 --> 01:04:19.999
that you see on the left, they’re all in the
pasture. Some of them you see are roosters.

01:04:20.000 --> 01:04:24.999
They say one every 10 hens should
have rooster to be fertile egg.

01:04:25.000 --> 01:04:29.999
Some rooster don’t make it,
their hens don’t like them,

01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:34.999
my goodness, they’re mean to them.
We have total of 1,000

01:04:35.000 --> 01:04:39.999
yeah, yeah. But some of that
are old hens, you know,

01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:44.999
they went through the molting process.
Most commercial industry don’t keep them,

01:04:45.000 --> 01:04:49.999
that’s molting. You know, the… the production
goes start to go down their… their history,

01:04:50.000 --> 01:04:54.999
we’re going this is like some of that are three year old
birds, so they lay when ever they feel like laying.

01:04:55.000 --> 01:04:59.999
Yeah, you better go lay.

01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:04.999
How we treat the animals is going to
make a difference in the end product we

01:05:05.000 --> 01:05:09.999
and it’s gonna ultimately change your
health too and the earth, you know.

01:05:10.000 --> 01:05:18.000
[sil.]

01:05:20.000 --> 01:05:24.999
There’s a beautiful Rhode
Island Red Rooster right there.

01:05:25.000 --> 01:05:29.999
[sil.]

01:05:30.000 --> 01:05:34.999
These are our pasture poultry,
animals walking outside,

01:05:35.000 --> 01:05:39.999
eating grass in the sunshine where they
get vitamin D and they can scratch bugs

01:05:40.000 --> 01:05:44.999
and a natural environment to the bird.

01:05:45.000 --> 01:05:49.999
They’re not free range. Free range
is in a building with a door in it

01:05:50.000 --> 01:05:54.999
that does not have to be
opened to the outside.

01:05:55.000 --> 01:05:59.999
All the by products from the farm go into these
compost piles and we pile that up to start compost in

01:06:00.000 --> 01:06:04.999
and they’re just going to dig through that they’re
turning it for us. We do the same thing with pigs,

01:06:05.000 --> 01:06:09.999
we’ll put a pile like that in the pig
pan and the pigs will turn the compost

01:06:10.000 --> 01:06:14.999
for us, we go and pile it back
up they’ll turn it down again.

01:06:15.000 --> 01:06:19.999
The thing about compost is, it’s alive,
and this is what rejuvenates the soil.

01:06:20.000 --> 01:06:24.999
All life starts with the soil. We
feed the microbes in the soil,

01:06:25.000 --> 01:06:29.999
we do it with fish, and we do it with
molasses we give them a carbohydrate.

01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:34.999
It’s a combination that works. And
when the microbes are working

01:06:35.000 --> 01:06:39.999
for you, everything works in the soil.

01:06:40.000 --> 01:06:44.999
This has got 400 birds in it and we
can move that house in one hour,

01:06:45.000 --> 01:06:49.999
two guys and move all the fencing
and you want to move it,

01:06:50.000 --> 01:06:54.999
you want to keep your animals moving
on to new territory all the time.

01:06:55.000 --> 01:06:59.999
We’ll bring cattle in here and they’ll
come in and graze the grasses and…

01:07:00.000 --> 01:07:04.999
and then we’ll come and… and move chickens back
on. In that way, we’re using different animals

01:07:05.000 --> 01:07:09.999
with different Ph levels, so
you break that parasite cycle.

01:07:10.000 --> 01:07:14.999
A sustainable isn’t just raising
chickens or just pigs or just cows,

01:07:15.000 --> 01:07:19.999
it’s a combination. That’s the way the
family farm was a hundred years ago.

01:07:20.000 --> 01:07:24.999
We have a lot of people

01:07:25.000 --> 01:07:29.999
that come to us and she said cancer, and
he said cancer and the kids have autism,

01:07:30.000 --> 01:07:34.999
or crohn’s disease. And they’ve come to us
to get what they feel is the cleanest food

01:07:35.000 --> 01:07:39.999
they can provide for their family. And so
it is definitely a lifestyle choice for us

01:07:40.000 --> 01:07:44.999
and umm… you know, I have a MBA degree from University
of Washington, I read numbers from inside out,

01:07:45.000 --> 01:07:49.999
inside, you know, there is not a
lot of money to be made in period.

01:07:50.000 --> 01:07:54.999
That’s not the issue anymore for us. So
it’s… it’s been good life, what you say?

01:07:55.000 --> 01:07:59.999
Anything we sell on the
farm, we have to be able to

01:08:00.000 --> 01:08:04.999
umm… say we could feed it to our daughter, Perry.
That’s a basic rule. If we can feed it to our daughter,

01:08:05.000 --> 01:08:09.999
we can sell it to you, that’s the bottom line. And I don’t
think you can get any higher standard than that. Yeah!

01:08:10.000 --> 01:08:14.999
[music]

01:08:15.000 --> 01:08:19.999
Tonight, on Nightline drugged up,

01:08:20.000 --> 01:08:24.999
new safety concerns about
American livestock.

01:08:25.000 --> 01:08:29.999
As industrial agriculture becomes more of a
problem, a new and more sustainable food economy

01:08:30.000 --> 01:08:34.999
is coming into attorney. Yet, almost
everything people eat still comes

01:08:35.000 --> 01:08:39.999
from outside the region and from Northwest
growers, it’s a continuing struggle

01:08:40.000 --> 01:08:44.999
to remain in the land.

01:08:45.000 --> 01:08:49.999
Small farms are important
to local uh… economies,

01:08:50.000 --> 01:08:54.999
and not only that the small farmers are
the family farm, the U.S. family farm

01:08:55.000 --> 01:08:59.999
and we’re losing those very
fast to big corporations.

01:09:00.000 --> 01:09:04.999
The problem with that is
that once that big company

01:09:05.000 --> 01:09:09.999
is not making money, he’s
not going to produce.

01:09:10.000 --> 01:09:14.999
And then what are we going to do?

01:09:15.000 --> 01:09:19.999
My interest is to have
sustainable uh… farming here.

01:09:20.000 --> 01:09:24.999
I want to see agriculture flourish here. And if we are
able to show that you can have large metropolitan areas

01:09:25.000 --> 01:09:29.999
adjacent to areas that are
growing your food, that is smart

01:09:30.000 --> 01:09:34.999
whether it’s here or it’s in China.
Somebody’s going to demonstrate its value.

01:09:35.000 --> 01:09:39.999
Local food is in demand everywhere.
Farmer’s markets are booming

01:09:40.000 --> 01:09:44.999
with lots of delicious healthy things to
eat. And they also provide nourishment

01:09:45.000 --> 01:09:49.999
for the spirit as people meet local farmers
and learn how their food was grown.

01:09:50.000 --> 01:09:54.999
There’s a tremendous yearning
on the part of urban people

01:09:55.000 --> 01:09:59.999
to have some kind of connection
to that which sustains them.

01:10:00.000 --> 01:10:04.999
I don’t think it has been
articulated well enough

01:10:05.000 --> 01:10:09.999
for people to completely understand it.
But I think, we are so caught up

01:10:10.000 --> 01:10:14.999
in man made goods and the rush

01:10:15.000 --> 01:10:19.999
to be technically connected
that we have lost

01:10:20.000 --> 01:10:24.999
that connection with
that which sustains us.

01:10:25.000 --> 01:10:29.999
Most people eat three times a day,

01:10:30.000 --> 01:10:34.999
is our most intimate
connection with the earth.

01:10:35.000 --> 01:10:39.999
Our human beings have a real
fundamental survival instinct.

01:10:40.000 --> 01:10:44.999
They really want to know where
their next meal is coming from.

01:10:45.000 --> 01:10:49.999
And they want to know that their
food’s being grown with care

01:10:50.000 --> 01:10:54.999
and that the people who grew
the food are umm… secure.

01:10:55.000 --> 01:10:59.999
The challenge is reconnecting
people with the land.

01:11:00.000 --> 01:11:04.999
With that whole experiment based totally

01:11:05.000 --> 01:11:09.999
on cheap fossil fuels, but
that experiment coming soon

01:11:10.000 --> 01:11:14.999
to an end. How do you
come to a new balance?

01:11:15.000 --> 01:11:19.999
How do you come back to the repopulate

01:11:20.000 --> 01:11:24.999
the countryside, but in a new way?

01:11:25.000 --> 01:11:30.000
[music]