Sustainable

"We want to feed people for thousands of years, not just 50 years." When American agriculture was industrialized, it would stand to reason that it would be able to sustain itself, but instead the country faces a food crisis driven by profitability and a lack of consumer education. We overfarm to achieve the highest yield, and in turn the quality of the food goes down, chemicals enter our bodies, and health problems rise exponentially. But that doesn't mean agriculture is unsalvageable. Enter Marty Travis, a seventh-generation farmer and owner of central Illinois' Spence Farm, who has worked with Chicago's top chefs to pioneer a new sustainable-food movement, keeping his business local, organic, and personable. To help educate people about where one's food comes from and how to fix our current economic and environmental instability, Sustainable uses Travis as a central point of orbit for a number of experts—scientists, farmers, authors, journalists—who look to the future: a shift away from America's obsession with corn and soybeans; cattle-raising methods that don't torture the animal during its lifespan; a pride in work where "measuring wealth is not about counting your dollars." Sustainable is a story of hope and transformation, about passion for the land and a promise that it can be restored to once again sustain us. (Seattle International Film Festival)