Ken Meter, all video
(0:00) Introduction
The threat of the draft during the Vietnam War (0:12)
The path to agriculture (0:51)
Connecting with SAVE (1:38)
Working with the dairy farmer (2:51)
(3:50) Learning from the farmers
Looking back (4:10)
“We could start to farm by starting to farm” (4:36)
“It was almost like a sin to go to a banker” (4:55)
Going to grad school (5:37)
Academic silence (5:49)
Predicting a credit crisis (5:55)
Writing Greenisle (6:00)
Producing information about the economics of local communities (6:23)
(7:45 ) Food economy studies
Are the farmers making money? (7:55)
What are the inputs and how much do they cost? (8:24)
What do consumers spend their money on? (9:02)
It all depends on cheap oil (9:45)
Taking a holistic approach (10:23)
(10:47) Using the food economy studies
- A myriad of people use these studies (10:52)
Creating local food infrastructure (11:30)
The ability of the country to run democratically depends on this (12:10)
(12:45) Findings
The pervasiveness of struggling farms (13:17)
An exception: Fruit Valley, CA (13:48)
Most areas are losing money (14:16)
Very few farm states feed themselves (14:34)
Farmers only sell 0.4% of their food to the ultimate customer (14:52)
A vibrant movement (15:40)
Extracting wealth from rural America (16:40)
Creating a Third World within America (17:39)
1/3 of Americans are food insecure (17:54)
3,000 people die a year from food poisoning (18:21)
A need for cultural ties to food (19:30)
Asking the hard questions (20:22)
(21:25) Policy solutions
Policy got us into this mess (21:34)
And policy will get us out (23:06)
(23:26) Farm to school
- A complicated issue (24:12)
A way to build community connections (24:27)
The case of North Dakota (24:54)
The responsibility of the public body (26:18)
A difficult political climate (26:43)
(27:38) The troubled state of the local organic farming industry
The “middle ground” presented by the Amish (28:26)
Reclaiming old knowledge (29:04)
(30:00) Any grounds for optimism?
“When America started out, everyone was a farmer” (31:11)
A system that encouraged de-localization (31:29)
What’s different now (32:19)
An economic opportunity (32:36)
Investing in good processing facilities (33:17)
“A terrific opportunity” (33:46)
(34:31) How to get started
It’s more than trust (34:56)
The space program case (35:13)
A lack of interest in investing (35:54)
Nothing could be more important (36:07)
(36:45) Food Policy Councils
The growth of food policy councils (38:49)
The Illinois Farm and Food Policy Council (39:05)
Creation of a dialogue (40:05)
Working together to make smart policy (40:55)
Very difficult work (41:17)
An essential foundation (41:42)
A very mixed bag (42:08)
In times of crisis (42:30)
(42:57) A problem with democracy
“This is bipartisan work” (44:16)
Creating a new politics (44:24)
No hope for democracy if we can’t feed ourselves (44:35)
Working towards a new vision of agriculture (45:12)
(46:07) Food store chains
An economic incentive to listen (46:52)
Cheap oil and its future (48:21)
An uncertain future (48:49)
The critical thing (49:12)
(49:47) Economic difficulties
A decades-long transfer of wealth from rural areas (51:33)
Subsidizing the wealthy (51:49)
Farming is expensive (52:02)
A big change from the 1950s (52:33)
Transfer payments (52:59)
An unstable situation (53:34)
Do we want feudalism? (54:22)
(56:23) Good policy thinking
Connecting at a local level (56:40)
No real policy at the national level (57:55)
Responding to grassroots initiatives (59:14)
Emerging social movement (59:45)
