Tuesday 3 July 2007

Farmer John Peterson

John Peterson is a US Midwestern farmer who inherited a conventional farm from his parents. He had loads of struggles to continue in farming, but as he tried very hard to find solutions to the problems of his farm and wanted to be ecologically sustainable he found out about organic farming and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). The things going on on his farm were found to be very unusual and the neighbours mistrusted him. But nowadays he is a sucessful biodynamic farmer, running an apprenticeship scheme and spreading good practice. The film "The real dirt on farmer John" describes Peterson's life and how he was discriminated in the local community for doing things differently. US sentimentalism, sometimes, but overall excellent and a great tool to spread the word about organics and CSA ;).
The song by Lesley Littlefield gives a fun overview of the farm and the story... http://www.angelicorganics.com/aomedia/lesleyJohnSong.htm
"Know your food. Know your farmer!"

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