Film, Panel on Local Food Revolution at Berkeley Historical Society

A documentary on the growing urban agricultural movement in the Bay Area – including community and school gardens – will be shown by the Berkeley Historical Society Sunday afternoon.

The screening of the 70-minute film, Edible City: Grow the Revolution, will be followed by a panel with the director, Andrew Hasse, and four local gardeners.

The free event – which begins at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley History Center in the Veterans Memorial Building at 1931 Center Street – is being held in conjunction with the History Center's current exhibition, "Berkeley: From Farm to Urban Farming 1850 - 2013."

Here is an article about the Sunday program from the Berkeley Historical Society's cco-president, Jeanine Castello-Lin:

Edible City: Grow the Revolution

Sustainable Agriculture in the Bay Area
Film and Panel, September 22nd

The Berkeley Historical Society is proud to present the film Edible City: Grow the Revolution, on September 22nd, followed by a panel discussion with the director, Andrew Hasse, and local gardeners Tericka Franklin, Daniel Miller, Joy Moore and Christopher Shein.  In his film, Hasse explores “food deserts” of the Bay Area, where fresh and healthy food is hard to find.  In the process, Hasse discovers a resurgence of urban agriculture sprouting up in empty lots around the Bay Area.  As garden pioneer Willow Rosenthal of City Slicker Farms explains to Hasse: “Living in the community [I] saw that there were no grocery stores....and all these empty lots and...these lots looked to me like 'wow, gardens!' 

In the past, says Hank Herrera of Dig Deep Farms, “every neighborhood would have a corner store that sold fresh, healthy, organic food.  And these stores would be owned by people who lived in the neighborhood.”  As Jessica Practice from Three Stone Hearth community kitchen argues: “We need to look at putting new community institutions into place that are part of the solution instead of part of the problem.” 

Adopting a historical perspective, Hasse presents the new networks of community gardens, kitchens and stores as part of a return to the self-sufficiency lost following WWII.  Providing some deep history, Spiral Garden's Daniel Miller will contextualize today's urban agriculture against the backdrop of Native American sustainable land use in the Bay Area.  Looking forward, local author and teacher Christopher Shein will discuss permaculture as a path to a sustainable future.  

The event begins at 2 p.m. with a screening of the film, Edible City, continues with a panel discussion, followed by refreshments. The exhibit, Berkeley: From Farm to Urban Farming, 1850-2013, will also be open for viewing. 

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