Panel discussion from the 2011 Cornell University screening of this great film posted above in "video responses", enjoy! We found this film offered many topics for a great community conversation about how we can better support beginning farmers. I would encourage others to include a panel of farmers and farming advocates at screenings in their towns.
Good for you!! Great Video so far, can't wait to see it!! In BC we have the Agricultural Land Reserve system and a gov't appointed Commission to protect agricultural land. Although over the decades since it's inception, we see a lot of land that is removed from the ALR to accomodate subdivisions, industrial land and what not.
We also see the plight of these aging farmers. Hope this will incite some new farmers to start here too!
Racism was a factor in the past, the facts show us, to what extent it's still a factor I don't know. I do feel that a sense of class of sorts is in play now. National & State Ag. policies for large land owner & those who can lease large amount of land. Not to mention the little value added middle men.
Eben prior to the Great Depression Ag. was loosing the ability to support it's own next generation. Not enough land that could provide the basic needs of a young family while creating a surplus that could be sold for cash. A condition that still exist today, though some are finding creative ways around it.
And for those using the race card here, keep in mind that all of the farmers I know either lease land, share land in a co-op or have distributed urban plots volunteered by home owners in the city. Very few have their own land.
So stop using race as an excuse to make you feel better about your own apathy.
"stop using race as an excuse to make you feel better about your own apathy." how bout we all work together and quit complaining. this movie isn't about promoting white people...let's move forward, not backward.
The people featured in this film and many others like them are standing in the way of the globalized industrial economy by fostering local economies and local sufficiency. The industrialists would have us all become dependents, white and black and everyone else alike; people such as the Greenhorns wish to counter that objective.
The Depression & WWII brought massive population displacement and an industrial focus, and Big-Ag became federal policy after WWII under Truman; these factors pushed many small farmers out of business, no matter their skin color.
Today, the globalization of the industrial economy is the greatest economic threat U. S. minorities face and is the greatest threat to non-white peoples worldwide. It is purely and strictly exploitation. It cannot exist otherwise.
Those of you who are concerned about white privilege or racial exploitation should be angry - not at white people, but at the industrial economy, in which power, profit, displacement, competition, and exploitation are not only acceptable but virtuous.
Look at land ownership around the turn of the 20th century - more acreage was owned by blacks then than now, even with a more than four-fold increase in population since that time.
Please consider replacing 'industrial economy' with 'capitalism,' which is really what our economy is. as you mention 'power, profit, etc.' are the basis of capitalism, with industrialization one result. And then let us look at who controls the capital and from who and how they accumulated it: slavery, genocide, imperialism, and further exploitation and consolidation as you mention. Standing in the way? They are creating viable alternatives. We need much more OPPOSITION to stand in the way !
Yes, we do need much more opposition to stand in the way - I happen to consider standing in the way of the urban/industrial economy to be a very good thing, as is, as you say, creating viable alternatives.
I intentionally do not use the term "capitalism" to discuss the urban/industrial economy. Yes, industrialism grew out of the amassing of capital - monetary, human, and resource alike;
however, what I dislike about the industrial economy - massive urbanization, the trading of skills for specialization, looking upon people as merely "human resources" - could have come to be in any number of economic systems, not just capitalism.
We can't really say that what we have in the Developed/Western World is truly capitalism. Yes, it is, but no, it's not. Capitalism could be said to be the most fair economic system ever devised -
it works in equal degree to whatever a person has to put in. Yes, those who start with more get more, but that only makes sense in fairness.
But, in order to be fair, capitalism requires a free market. A TRULY free market, and no person serious about economic realities could say that we have a truly free market. We have government and industrial "regulators" which, despite any good intention, ALWAYS create (or even choose) winners and losers with every regulative measure.
As for the US, the supposed bastion of capitalism, the economic system operative there is essentially a weak version of fascist national corporatism - the national economy is fascist corporatism, but capitalism is free to work on the small scale. Anyway, I digress.
The atrocities of the "capitalist" economy you mentioned - "slavery, genocide, imperialism, and further exploitation and consolidation" -
were inarguably byproducts of a power economy based in a capitalist framework, but all have been carried out to an even greater degree under economic systems other than capitalism. And, to be honest, the 16th-20th century examples of these were more the product of nationalistic mercantilism than of capitalism, as are the abuses of the current day.
For me, the problems of the global industrial economy are 1) its mercantilistic emphasis, which is imperialistic in nature;
2) its energy intensity, which wreaks havoc on environmental systems and leads to wars; 3) its de-emphasis on the rights and value of the individual; 4) its dependence upon and intertwining with national governments, which lead to all measure of political corruption and eventually to a fascist government/business marriage in which one is essentially inseparable from the other (what we have witnessed recently with taxpayer-funded or -guaranteed bailouts of politically-connected corporations).
And that is why I congratulate the Greenhorns, as white and privileged as they may be - their attempts at creating alternatives to the global urban/industrial model, added to the attempts at greater self-sufficiency made by others worldwide, will weaken the global industrial system no matter how much the banksters and politicians throw at it. And as they gain credibility, they can offer others a more effective route to curbing our abuses in the world than trusting big govt/big biz "solutions".
@JamesRCalloway I don't see how you can call them "white and privileged". Most of them started with nothing and were quite poor. Plus there's the obvious latino guy in the trailer. It sounds like his father was a migrant farm worker. The "white privileged" type tend to just shop at whole foods and buy carbon offsets while wasting loads of every other kind of resource.
@midtra52 You're right - the "white privileged" type do indeed often focus on the superficialities of modern conscience-soothing consumerist garbage such as what you mentioned (no, I'm not slamming Whole Foods; I just realize that shopping there doesn't automatically make me environmentally responsible).
To be clear, I wasn't calling them "white and privileged" - I was responding to the sentiment of some of the earliest comments that referred to them as such. I should have put that in "".
I am 16 and want to go to colledge for agriculture. I work on a farm now and know quite a bit but I would like to know what oppurtunities are out there for me. scholarships ex.
Good luck on the film, but can I request that you please include more DIVERSITY HERE??!!! You are not helping the image of American environmentalists as being white, white, white people only.
Young people of all backgrounds (Hmong, Guatemalan, African-American, Sudanese, Filipino, Japanese, etc. etc.) are going into agriculture (or never left), and you should make more of an effort to include them.
Whats so bad about white people? Forcing "diversity" is so last decade. How about we try to accurately portray the individuals involved in the project and worry a little less about setting the "right" image. If you really want color to not matter you have to make it not matter. Individuals matter, not colors of individuals.
Whats wrong with white people? White privilege, for one. Lets accurately portray why young white farmers are gaining access to land more than people of color: White supremacy! Do land trusts or landowners lease land to people of color or to white people? The color of individuals does matter. We need to look beyond diversity and acknowledging that white supremacy rules our country through structures that white people can't always see. White Privilege prevents goodhearted whites from seeing.
is skin color only visible to the eye, or do you you think that names may give away skin color? What if she had a spanish sounding name?
do you think that her manner of speech might have told the landlord about her skin color or at least her socioeconomic class? Would someone from the ghetto be able to make that same call with the same result? Do you think that because she lived in the building that the landlord knew her background?
Yes! socioeconomic class is a bigger factor than race anymore, not to deny that race if a factor in socioeconomic class. Not PC to bring up we are told the USA is a classless society.
@westkan Hey, I see what you are saying. I would say though that it's much easier to be poor and white than poor and black. Plus, there is a higher percentage of poor people of color than poor white people. Though, this is coming from a Detroit resident - and Detroit is the epicenter of racism in the USA. I think though that race is one of those things that needs to be at the forefront or just gets pushed to the side. So when dealing with issues of class, focus on how it relates to race.
White Privilege....what bull. In America, even this screwed up of an America, people of any color gain access to land by working their asses off to save up for a down payment and then continue to work their asses off for the next 30 years satisfying the terms of a ridiculously expensive loan. "The Man" is an equal opportunity abuser.
White supremacists certainly do exist but I have a hard time believing that any more than a a very small percentage of the loan officers and bank managers and land owners in this country are among their ranks. They kinda stick out ya know.
I know that the facts are not always easy to find in a white supremacist society where certain structures have the power.
"it was acceptable and routine for USDA officials at every level to persuade black farmers that farm services and loans werent available to them, that deadlines had passed, and to throw away applications for services."
The persistence of structural racism and white privilege prevents us from believing many things that don't 'kinda stick out' unless you are the victim!
People get scammed and defrauded and injured in all sorts of grievous ways by other people and the government all the time. It's really irritating to hear that it's somehow worse when it happens to women or Jewish folks or a bunch of black or brown people than it is if it happens to a bunch of white people. How is that progress? It's just the same ol racism, justified because "fill in the blank" people deserve it.
When it comes to racism in this discussion, wouldn't those less than overt racists be the topic rather than the extremists? Today socioeconomic class is more in play than race.
How many people of color have told you that white privilege is bull? Classic white privilege right there!
How many white people don't have to buy land, but have it handed down to them from their parents? And how many can trace that back to government policy that subsidized white settlers? Who was forcibly pushed off land to make it available to whites? And who were forced to work that land as slaves?
I would postulate that it is not really WHITE people on top, but sociopathic rich people. They pushed everybody out of the way to get there first, made sure they stayed there, used it up and eventually sold off the refuse as exotic insured derivatives.
Instead of seeing white farmers as the enemy possibly you might consider them as co-victims of government corporatism that conspired to transfer 95% of small farms into the hands of a few international corporations.
Most of the people who own good land in the southwest are old Hispanic families. Should I assume they are all native killers/land grabbers, and don't deserve the land their families passed on to them? They rarely sell to Anglos. Who is taking them to court? Also, unless my math is incorrect it is unlikely there are any black people alive today who were slaves. Just like it is unlikely that anyone alive today participated in one of the land grabs. "White Guilt" is for the guilty, not me.
"stop using race as an excuse to make you feel better about your own apathy." how bout we all work together and quit complaining. this movie isn't about promoting white people...let's move forward, not backward. btw, what are you doing to promote change? complaining? and just so you have no room to place judgement, mr. yang?, i'm black.
BRAVO !! A job very well done, i met you in Terra Madre and i am really proud of your good work, when will the movie be out ? Sami From Beirut, Lebanon
I think I will show this trailer to the students in my human geography class, in the unit about agriculture and urbanization. This year the trailer, perhaps next year, the entire film.
Panel discussion from the 2011 Cornell University screening of this great film posted above in "video responses", enjoy! We found this film offered many topics for a great community conversation about how we can better support beginning farmers. I would encourage others to include a panel of farmers and farming advocates at screenings in their towns.
AllisonLHJack 3 weeks ago
I speak hen too! love it!
megastarmedia 3 weeks ago
psychos
haken582 4 months ago
How Can i watch this for free???????????? any on line streem options??? please!!!
mrsreebz 5 months ago
YES SIRRRR! I just saw this movie for only 10 dollars at my local SB public Library. I would love to see more hispanics involve in this revolution.
aguafinatv 6 months ago 2
We'll be playing this film in the Houston Bay Area this Friday August 19th : )
ClearlakeTI 6 months ago
it's coming to portland PDXMILO!
jefforysimmons 8 months ago
I can't wait for this to be shown in Portland!
PDXMILO 9 months ago
This is an inspiring film. Well done!
sustainablesterling 11 months ago
Good for you!! Great Video so far, can't wait to see it!! In BC we have the Agricultural Land Reserve system and a gov't appointed Commission to protect agricultural land. Although over the decades since it's inception, we see a lot of land that is removed from the ALR to accomodate subdivisions, industrial land and what not.
We also see the plight of these aging farmers. Hope this will incite some new farmers to start here too!
toxicslix 1 year ago
Comment removed
theleelooy 1 year ago
CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THIS. the revolution WILL be televised...consistently! Cheers to you and this wonderful film!
theleelooy 1 year ago
Racism was a factor in the past, the facts show us, to what extent it's still a factor I don't know. I do feel that a sense of class of sorts is in play now. National & State Ag. policies for large land owner & those who can lease large amount of land. Not to mention the little value added middle men.
westkan 2 years ago
Eben prior to the Great Depression Ag. was loosing the ability to support it's own next generation. Not enough land that could provide the basic needs of a young family while creating a surplus that could be sold for cash. A condition that still exist today, though some are finding creative ways around it.
westkan 2 years ago
I love it. I love it, I love it, I love it.
And for those using the race card here, keep in mind that all of the farmers I know either lease land, share land in a co-op or have distributed urban plots volunteered by home owners in the city. Very few have their own land.
So stop using race as an excuse to make you feel better about your own apathy.
simplelivingskills 2 years ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@simplelivingskills well put...
"stop using race as an excuse to make you feel better about your own apathy." how bout we all work together and quit complaining. this movie isn't about promoting white people...let's move forward, not backward.
theleelooy 1 year ago
The people featured in this film and many others like them are standing in the way of the globalized industrial economy by fostering local economies and local sufficiency. The industrialists would have us all become dependents, white and black and everyone else alike; people such as the Greenhorns wish to counter that objective.
They are not so much privileged as principled.
JamesRCalloway 2 years ago
The Depression & WWII brought massive population displacement and an industrial focus, and Big-Ag became federal policy after WWII under Truman; these factors pushed many small farmers out of business, no matter their skin color.
Today, the globalization of the industrial economy is the greatest economic threat U. S. minorities face and is the greatest threat to non-white peoples worldwide. It is purely and strictly exploitation. It cannot exist otherwise.
JamesRCalloway 2 years ago
Those of you who are concerned about white privilege or racial exploitation should be angry - not at white people, but at the industrial economy, in which power, profit, displacement, competition, and exploitation are not only acceptable but virtuous.
Look at land ownership around the turn of the 20th century - more acreage was owned by blacks then than now, even with a more than four-fold increase in population since that time.
What happened? See next comment.
JamesRCalloway 2 years ago
Please consider replacing 'industrial economy' with 'capitalism,' which is really what our economy is. as you mention 'power, profit, etc.' are the basis of capitalism, with industrialization one result. And then let us look at who controls the capital and from who and how they accumulated it: slavery, genocide, imperialism, and further exploitation and consolidation as you mention. Standing in the way? They are creating viable alternatives. We need much more OPPOSITION to stand in the way !
richyang05 2 years ago
Yes, we do need much more opposition to stand in the way - I happen to consider standing in the way of the urban/industrial economy to be a very good thing, as is, as you say, creating viable alternatives.
I intentionally do not use the term "capitalism" to discuss the urban/industrial economy. Yes, industrialism grew out of the amassing of capital - monetary, human, and resource alike;
JamesRCalloway 2 years ago
however, what I dislike about the industrial economy - massive urbanization, the trading of skills for specialization, looking upon people as merely "human resources" - could have come to be in any number of economic systems, not just capitalism.
We can't really say that what we have in the Developed/Western World is truly capitalism. Yes, it is, but no, it's not. Capitalism could be said to be the most fair economic system ever devised -
JamesRCalloway 2 years ago
it works in equal degree to whatever a person has to put in. Yes, those who start with more get more, but that only makes sense in fairness.
But, in order to be fair, capitalism requires a free market. A TRULY free market, and no person serious about economic realities could say that we have a truly free market. We have government and industrial "regulators" which, despite any good intention, ALWAYS create (or even choose) winners and losers with every regulative measure.
JamesRCalloway 2 years ago
As for the US, the supposed bastion of capitalism, the economic system operative there is essentially a weak version of fascist national corporatism - the national economy is fascist corporatism, but capitalism is free to work on the small scale. Anyway, I digress.
The atrocities of the "capitalist" economy you mentioned - "slavery, genocide, imperialism, and further exploitation and consolidation" -
JamesRCalloway 2 years ago
were inarguably byproducts of a power economy based in a capitalist framework, but all have been carried out to an even greater degree under economic systems other than capitalism. And, to be honest, the 16th-20th century examples of these were more the product of nationalistic mercantilism than of capitalism, as are the abuses of the current day.
For me, the problems of the global industrial economy are 1) its mercantilistic emphasis, which is imperialistic in nature;
JamesRCalloway 2 years ago
2) its energy intensity, which wreaks havoc on environmental systems and leads to wars; 3) its de-emphasis on the rights and value of the individual; 4) its dependence upon and intertwining with national governments, which lead to all measure of political corruption and eventually to a fascist government/business marriage in which one is essentially inseparable from the other (what we have witnessed recently with taxpayer-funded or -guaranteed bailouts of politically-connected corporations).
JamesRCalloway 2 years ago
And that is why I congratulate the Greenhorns, as white and privileged as they may be - their attempts at creating alternatives to the global urban/industrial model, added to the attempts at greater self-sufficiency made by others worldwide, will weaken the global industrial system no matter how much the banksters and politicians throw at it. And as they gain credibility, they can offer others a more effective route to curbing our abuses in the world than trusting big govt/big biz "solutions".
JamesRCalloway 2 years ago
@JamesRCalloway
well said, man...really enjoyable reading.
theleelooy 1 year ago
@JamesRCalloway I don't see how you can call them "white and privileged". Most of them started with nothing and were quite poor. Plus there's the obvious latino guy in the trailer. It sounds like his father was a migrant farm worker. The "white privileged" type tend to just shop at whole foods and buy carbon offsets while wasting loads of every other kind of resource.
midtra52 10 months ago
@midtra52 You're right - the "white privileged" type do indeed often focus on the superficialities of modern conscience-soothing consumerist garbage such as what you mentioned (no, I'm not slamming Whole Foods; I just realize that shopping there doesn't automatically make me environmentally responsible).
To be clear, I wasn't calling them "white and privileged" - I was responding to the sentiment of some of the earliest comments that referred to them as such. I should have put that in "".
JamesRCalloway 10 months ago
Wonderful. Best of luck with the documentary :)
urbanpeacock 2 years ago
I am 16 and want to go to colledge for agriculture. I work on a farm now and know quite a bit but I would like to know what oppurtunities are out there for me. scholarships ex.
mossoak3 2 years ago
Good luck on the film, but can I request that you please include more DIVERSITY HERE??!!! You are not helping the image of American environmentalists as being white, white, white people only.
Young people of all backgrounds (Hmong, Guatemalan, African-American, Sudanese, Filipino, Japanese, etc. etc.) are going into agriculture (or never left), and you should make more of an effort to include them.
Thank you.
ninaneen 3 years ago
Whats so bad about white people? Forcing "diversity" is so last decade. How about we try to accurately portray the individuals involved in the project and worry a little less about setting the "right" image. If you really want color to not matter you have to make it not matter. Individuals matter, not colors of individuals.
martha113 3 years ago
Whats wrong with white people? White privilege, for one. Lets accurately portray why young white farmers are gaining access to land more than people of color: White supremacy! Do land trusts or landowners lease land to people of color or to white people? The color of individuals does matter. We need to look beyond diversity and acknowledging that white supremacy rules our country through structures that white people can't always see. White Privilege prevents goodhearted whites from seeing.
richyang05 2 years ago
One of the girls said that her building's landlord let her use the space before they ever met. So, obviously skin color wasn't an issue there.
missdarque 2 years ago
is skin color only visible to the eye, or do you you think that names may give away skin color? What if she had a spanish sounding name?
do you think that her manner of speech might have told the landlord about her skin color or at least her socioeconomic class? Would someone from the ghetto be able to make that same call with the same result? Do you think that because she lived in the building that the landlord knew her background?
richyang05 2 years ago
Yes! socioeconomic class is a bigger factor than race anymore, not to deny that race if a factor in socioeconomic class. Not PC to bring up we are told the USA is a classless society.
westkan 2 years ago
@westkan Hey, I see what you are saying. I would say though that it's much easier to be poor and white than poor and black. Plus, there is a higher percentage of poor people of color than poor white people. Though, this is coming from a Detroit resident - and Detroit is the epicenter of racism in the USA. I think though that race is one of those things that needs to be at the forefront or just gets pushed to the side. So when dealing with issues of class, focus on how it relates to race.
gaiablue24 1 year ago
White Privilege....what bull. In America, even this screwed up of an America, people of any color gain access to land by working their asses off to save up for a down payment and then continue to work their asses off for the next 30 years satisfying the terms of a ridiculously expensive loan. "The Man" is an equal opportunity abuser.
martha113 2 years ago
White supremacists certainly do exist but I have a hard time believing that any more than a a very small percentage of the loan officers and bank managers and land owners in this country are among their ranks. They kinda stick out ya know.
martha113 2 years ago
I know that the facts are not always easy to find in a white supremacist society where certain structures have the power.
"it was acceptable and routine for USDA officials at every level to persuade black farmers that farm services and loans werent available to them, that deadlines had passed, and to throw away applications for services."
The persistence of structural racism and white privilege prevents us from believing many things that don't 'kinda stick out' unless you are the victim!
richyang05 2 years ago
People get scammed and defrauded and injured in all sorts of grievous ways by other people and the government all the time. It's really irritating to hear that it's somehow worse when it happens to women or Jewish folks or a bunch of black or brown people than it is if it happens to a bunch of white people. How is that progress? It's just the same ol racism, justified because "fill in the blank" people deserve it.
martha113 2 years ago
When it comes to racism in this discussion, wouldn't those less than overt racists be the topic rather than the extremists? Today socioeconomic class is more in play than race.
westkan 2 years ago
How many people of color have told you that white privilege is bull? Classic white privilege right there!
How many white people don't have to buy land, but have it handed down to them from their parents? And how many can trace that back to government policy that subsidized white settlers? Who was forcibly pushed off land to make it available to whites? And who were forced to work that land as slaves?
Now, how many people of color inherit land?
Yes, The Man abuses all, but is the man white?!
richyang05 2 years ago
I would postulate that it is not really WHITE people on top, but sociopathic rich people. They pushed everybody out of the way to get there first, made sure they stayed there, used it up and eventually sold off the refuse as exotic insured derivatives.
Instead of seeing white farmers as the enemy possibly you might consider them as co-victims of government corporatism that conspired to transfer 95% of small farms into the hands of a few international corporations.
martha113 2 years ago
Most of the people who own good land in the southwest are old Hispanic families. Should I assume they are all native killers/land grabbers, and don't deserve the land their families passed on to them? They rarely sell to Anglos. Who is taking them to court? Also, unless my math is incorrect it is unlikely there are any black people alive today who were slaves. Just like it is unlikely that anyone alive today participated in one of the land grabs. "White Guilt" is for the guilty, not me.
martha113 2 years ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@richyang05
"stop using race as an excuse to make you feel better about your own apathy." how bout we all work together and quit complaining. this movie isn't about promoting white people...let's move forward, not backward. btw, what are you doing to promote change? complaining? and just so you have no room to place judgement, mr. yang?, i'm black.
theleelooy 1 year ago
I absolutely can't wait!!
emilyobooth 3 years ago
BRAVO !! A job very well done, i met you in Terra Madre and i am really proud of your good work, when will the movie be out ? Sami From Beirut, Lebanon
ssa31 3 years ago
really exciting.
tinytinymango 3 years ago
I can't wait to see the full movie! I know some people who remind me of those profiled here.
33sageonstage 3 years ago
Very inspiring. My friend, with whom i am planning to go live on a farm, showed me a NY Times article about young farmers, which led me to this. :)
godtvisken 3 years ago
I think I will show this trailer to the students in my human geography class, in the unit about agriculture and urbanization. This year the trailer, perhaps next year, the entire film.
ancientfusion 4 years ago
Looks good, way to go!
tpattersontx 4 years ago