Food and Country | movie | 2023 | Official Trailer - video Dailymotion

Concerned about the impact of the pandemic on independent farmers and chefs, culinary maven Ruth Reichl talks to innovat | dG1fc0pWUGd5ckpYa2M

Transcript

00:00If there is one thing you could explain to the American consumer about your business, what would it be?

00:06I would like the consumer to understand that the person that does all the work and has all the investment

00:12is doing it literally for nothing, and that the middlemen are getting all the money.

00:17I've been writing about food for 50 years, trying to get Americans to care more about it.

00:22Ruth Reichel.

00:22The revered restaurant critic for the New York Times.

00:25Ruth Reichel.

00:26Gourmet magazine editor.

00:27I really can't send cameras to anyone, you know.

00:30That's right, that's right.

00:33COVID was the wake-up call.

00:34Our broken food system was exposed.

00:36You have restaurants all over the world, right?

00:39Had is a key word there.

00:41The big issue is keeping all of our purveyors alive.

00:47The CEO of Tyson said the American food system is breaking.

00:51Yeah, you're right.

00:53The majority of mass agriculture in the United States is all about how cheaply can you produce it.

01:00And that's what's gotten us to where we are.

01:02The decree for risk these folks take on is staggering.

01:07Go to any financial advisor and say,

01:09all right, I'm going to risk $8 million this year and I'm going to work 100 hours a week for a $50,000 return.

01:15Man, they're going to tell you you're an idiot.

01:18Farming economics has been stressful.

01:21We're at cost of production or less.

01:23You know, what is your worth? What's your value?

01:26We understand that model of economics and we don't want any part of it.

01:29If those senators and representatives are smart, you don't want this country's food supply in limited hands.

01:36When we hired a hundred and something young, educated, passionate people,

01:42they needed a place to eat and sleep and shop and play.

01:47And so we built.

01:48When you ask the ocean what to grow,

01:50the ocean says grow things that won't swim away and you don't have to feed.

01:53When I grew this tomato and I bit into it, it just rocked my world.

01:58And everything is tied to everything else.

02:00I don't think of this farm as a factory.

02:02I think of it as an organism.

02:04That biodiversity is just waiting for us.

02:08What resulted is a really nice community.

02:11It's still tiny, but it's gone from ghost town, literally, to destination in a decade.

02:19So I'm very proud of that.