Sustainable Bainbridge’s ‘Green October’ culminates with two screenings of Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin’s documentary ‘Good Food,’ Oct. 18-19 at the Lynwood.
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND — The trip to the grocery store is changing.
Deadly outbreaks of e-coli and salmonella in produce nationwide, combined with a growing environmental awareness of the number of miles food products actually travel before reaching our dinner tables, is causing the common consumer to question where his/her food is coming from.
You tend to see things a little differently when you pick up that packaged chicken in the frozen aisle and ponder the journey it has taken before arriving in that freezer — from the chicken coop, to the processing factory to the packaging plant to the back of an 18-wheeler?
Oftentimes at a corporate grocer, the consumer is left to wonder, or research.
What’s more, think about where that McDonald’s Big Mac has traveled, as the cash register attendant hands it through the drive up window in a paper bag.
That typically uneasy sentiment has led to a boom in buying locally over the past five to 10 years, especially so here in the Pacific Northwest, with its growing list of small regional farmers, local farmers’ markets, and food co-ops. The Northwest’s crop-friendly climate, matched with increased communication between buyers and sellers and retailers who are beginning to prioritize local food make up one of the nation’s leading regional sustainable food systems.
In their latest documentary “Good Food,” veteran Northwest filmmakers Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin feature the nuts and bolts of that developing system through the stories of the people who make it happen — the farmers and farmers’ market vendors, food co-op organizers and civic policy activists.
It provides ample, dare I say, food for thought.
“It tries to look at what are the different actors in making a more regional food system,” Young said, adding later, “What we really hope with the film is that people will see that growing more of our food and consuming more of our food regionally is really possible and it’s a very good alternative.”
“Good Food” premiered to rave reviews at the Seattle International Film Festival earlier this summer, and the producers have been traveling with it for screenings and discussions across the nation since.
Once again with filmmakers in attendance, “Good Food” will show during two matinees at the Lynwood Theatre — 5 p.m. Oct. 18 and 19 — as part of Sustainable Bainbridge’s “Green October.”
Green October — a month to remind people that being “green” is a year round commitment — kicked off with a special guest panel discussion about thew best sustainability initiatives in action in the Puget Sound followed by a presentation by Seattle City Council president and founder of Sustainable Seattle Richard Conlin on “What Bainbridge Can Learn from Seattle’s Green City Initiatives” last week.
It continues this weekend with an electronic recycling depot from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 18 at Bay, Hay and Feed, 10355 Valley Road in Rolling Bay, and, of course, the special screenings of “Good Food” at the Lynwood, 4569 Lynwood Center Road — both on Bainbridge.
To make the sustainable evening complete, the Treehouse Cafe (located next door to the Lynwood Theater) will be serving a special pizza, soup and salad made of locally grown ingredients both nights.
• For more on Green October: “Good Food” and environmentally friendly electronic recycling —go to www.sustainablebainbridge.net, www.goodfoodthemovie.com and www.3rtechnology.com, respectively.
• For more on locally grown produce: Visit the final day of the summer farmers market season — at 7th and Iverson in Poulsbo and at the city hall parking lot on Bainbridge — from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.
• Also Check Out: The Sustainable Bainbridge-born local co-op Sound Food at www.soundfood.org and a countywide co-op at www.kitsapfoodcoop.org.
‘GOOD FOOD,’ the preview
