Kanopy Videos
On-demand streaming video for over 16,000 films including content from the BBC, PBS, and Critereon Collection. Public performance rights for educational use are included.
These videos are searchable via the Cerritos College Catalog or directly through Cerritos.kanopystreaming.com
Our current industrial method of food production is increasingly viewed as an unsustainable system, destructive to the environment and public health. But what is the alternative? Fresh profiles the farmers, thinkers, and business people across the nation who are at the forefront of re-inventing food production in America. With a strong commitment to sustainability, they are changing how farms are run, how the land is cared for, and how food is distributed. Their success demonstrates that a new paradigm based on sustainable practices can be profitable and a model for our food system, if people choose to support it. Fresh opens with a short summary of the problems and consequences of industrialized food production, then focuses primarily on the individuals who are creating new approaches to address environmental, health, and economic challenges throughout the food chain. Joel Salatin is a world-famous sustainable farmer and entrepreneur who, by observing nature, devised a rotational grazing system for his animals that heals the land while making his operations many times more profitable than his conventional farming neighbors. Will Allen, a former pro basketball player and recipient of a Macarthur "Genius Award", is now one of the most influential leaders of the urban farming movement. He teaches people in the inner city the value of healthy food and how to grow their own. David Ball saw his family-run supermarket and a once-thriving local farming community dying with the rise of Walmart and other big chains. So he reinvented his business, partnering with area farmers to sell locally-grown food at an affordable price. His plan has brought the local economy back to life. Fresh also features a farmer in Iowa who illustrates the struggles family farmers face, a hog farmer in Missouri who stopped using antibiotics on his pigs, and commentary by noted food expert and author Michael Pollan.
71 mins / 2009
About 70% of the food we eat contains genetically engineered ingredients and the biotech industry is spending $50 million a year to convince us that this technology is our only hope. Using hilarious and disturbing archival footage and featuring interviews with farmers, scientists, government officials and activists, FED UP! presents an entertaining and compelling overview of our current food production system from the Green Revolution to the Biotech Revolution and what we can do about it.
FED UP! answers many questions regarding genetic engineering, the Green Revolution, genetic pollution and modern pesticides through interviews with Marc Lappe and Britt Bailey from the Center for Ethics and Toxics, Peter Rosset and Anuradha Mittal from Food First, Vandana Shiva from the Research Center for Science, Technology and Ecology, Ignacio Chapela from UC Berkeley's Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, Martina McGloughlin, Director of UC Davis' Biotechnology Program and many others. It also introduces us to local Bay Area organic farmers from Purisima Greens Farm and the Live Power Community Farm, presenting community supported agriculture (CSA) and small-scale organic farming as real alternatives to agribusiness and industrial food.
61 min / 2004
Food! We talk about it all the time. What shall we eat? Where can we buy it? What's healthiest, lowest in fat or carbs, cheapest, or just plain tastiest? But the aspect of food we usually discuss least may just be the most interesting and informative. Where does all this food come from?
Did you know that...
The average food item travels 1,300 miles and changes hands 6 times before you ever get to see it?
It takes 127 calories of energy to transport 1 calorie of lettuce across the Atlantic Ocean?
In just 60 short years, between 1920 and 1980, U.S. corn yields increased by a staggering 333%?
All true! In From Farm To Table, take a comprehensive look at modern agriculture and learn where, why and how. From the Neolithic Revolution and the dawn of farming to the rise of industrial agriculture and the Green Revolution, we look at the whole process of food production and distribution.
Using a simple sausage pizza as a springboard, we delve into the diverse worlds of our most basic foodstuffs, such as vegetables and wheat. Find out where different ingredients come from; how they're grown and harvested; how they're stored, shipped, and processed; and how they finally wend their way to your local restaurant or grocery store!
We talk to farmers, see how they do their jobs, and learn what initiatives have made their lives easier and what sort of issues concern them. Environmental problems, migrant workers, and irradiation are a few of the issues we touch on.
21 mins / 2007
Here, investigate the process by which late 19th-century food production became a vast industry. See how technological developments such as freezing, canning, and pasteurization gave large companies increasing control over food production. Trace the fortunes of the peanut from health food to junk food, and the global implications of industrial food processing.
31 mins / 2013
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, European colonialism expanded across the entire globe as a form of economic empire building. Grasp how Western powers came to control massive production of export crops in nonindustrialized countries, and how political maneuvering enabled large companies to dominate global markets in foodstuffs.
31 mins / 2013
Agricultural economists have come to realize that in the world of global trade, government policies have as significant an impact on food production as agronomic practices. "Food Policy" examines two nations where fundamental changes in food policy have brought about dramatic improvements in food production. In Pakistan, government policies toward privatization have unshackled free market forces and removed the inefficiencies of government support systems. In Bangladesh, thought less than a generation ago to be a "basket case," similar changes have lifted the nation from the point of food disaster to self-sufficiency. Insightful viewing for students of agricultural economics, international trade, government, and sociology.
23 mins / 2008
This inspiring documentary, presents three ecologically responsible farms in the USA and Canada. Their unique business plans eliminate the middle man, use sustainable methods and few fossil fuels and show a decent living can be made.
These new farming practices avoid the destructive trap of industrial food production and its financial burden. With the participation of Ban Ki Moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, and leading USA environmentalist, author and educator, Bill McKibben, this documentary provides critical information to develop an enduring, local food network in a time of climate change.
The 3 rock star farmers are:
53 mins / 2014
In its journey across the majestic Canadian countryside, The Family Farm explores the diverse agricultural pursuits of earnest farm families, and serves as a window into the food production process that modern day consumers have become estranged from.
The film begins in Nova Scotia with egg farmer, Aaron Hiltz, who was confronted by the provincial egg board and asked to get rid of the majority of his flock. Hiltz's story highlights the issues many farmers face and the flaws associated with what he considers an outdated system.
The Morgan farm crew of Quebec draw attention to another issue, land cost and inaccessibility, that many young, budding farmers encounter and discuss their proposed solutions to these problems.
On the other side of the country, organic farming pioneer, Raymond Loo discloses his dream of creating a chemical-free Prince Edward Island, full of clean, organic food and demonstrates how his farm serves as a stepping stone towards realizing this goal. The exploitative side farming is also exposed through Manitoba farmer, Carlyle Jorgensen's retellings of his experience working with an oil company who dug a well on his prime farmland despite his disapproval.
A season spent with these farmers and others reveals the key role they play in sustaining traditional farm knowledge, promoting environmental stewardship and maintaining food security. As 2014 marks the International Year of Family Farming, The Family Farm focuses on imbuing the importance of understanding where our food comes from and emphasizes the crucial role family farms play in ensuring the survival and well-being of local communities and environments.
71 mins / 2014
Two friends, Ted Caplow (an ecological engineer) and Andy Danylchuk (a fish ecologist) are concerned by how little consumers know about the farm-raised fish they buy. They set out to define sustainable aquaculture in Turkey to see how it could apply to the rest of the world. They are surprised by what they find. Between the food production and waste produced by offshore fish farms, Caplow and Danylchuck are concerned these methods are unsustainable. Follow these two friends as they search for a more sustainable and kinder future for the fish farming industry.
53 mins / 2012
Open Sesame: The Story of Seeds is an emotional film directed by the passionate, award-winning filmmaker Sean Kaminsky. It illuminates what is at stake and what can be done to protect the source of nearly all our food.
Providing the basis for everything from fabric to food to fuels, seeds are as essential to life as the air we breathe and the water we drink. Unfortunately, corporations are co-opting seed genetics and hiding behind patent law in the process. In the past, seeds were communal - a shared resource not unlike the water we drink. A century ago things started to change.
Open Sesame looks at the extraordinary challenges that seeds face, placing our food supply at risk and threatening our farms. In it you will meet a diverse range of individuals whose lives center around seeds. Farmers, renegade gardeners, passionate seed savers, artists and activists all work to plant the seeds of information and inspiration within this film that tells the story of one of our most precious resources.
It's not too late...yet.
83 mins / 2014