Beyond Organic: The Vision of Fairview Gardens 2000
Distributed by Bullfrog Films, PO Box 149, Oley, PA 19547; 800-543-FROG (3764)
Producer n/a
Directed by John de Graaf
VHS, color, 33 min.
Adult
Agriculture, Environmental Studies
Date Entered: 11/09/2018
Reviewed by Buzz Haughton, Shields Library, University of California at DavisThis video chronicles the success of an urban agricultural experiment, Fairview Gardens, under the leadership of Michael Ableman. Fairview Gardens is a small (12-acre) farm enclave amid suburban sprawl in Santa Barbara County, California. The farm employs organic methods and many other techniques that Ableman learned during a five-continent journey to learn traditional ways of raising crops. Fairview Gardens has survived several threats, among them complaints from nearby suburbanites about noise from animals and smell from compost--Ableman handled this by inviting all his neighbors to a banquet, during which he educated them about the need to sustain land and soil through sustainable agricultural methods. When the land was threatened by encroaching urbanization, Ableman mobilized support to buy it and preserve it as a land trust and nonprofit corporation, the Center for Urban Agriculture.
This video is an outstanding glimpse into how the increasingly rapid tempo of destruction of rural land dedicated to raising crops could be slowed, resulting in a diversity of healthful food for our citizens. Highly recommended for libraries with nonbook collections in sustainable agriculture and ecology.