The Fall and Rise of Farmer John

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After Mexico, where he found an outlet in writing, Peterson lifts himself out of his depression and returns home, determined to resume farming on his remaining 22 acres, with his mother selling his organic produce from a roadside stand. Eventually, some Chicagoans convince him to adopt community-supported agriculture (CSA), a now-common system of small-scale farming in which food consumers make an up-front purchase of a share in the farm harvest.

Peterson's Angelic Organics has grown rapidly to more than 1,000 members -- one of the largest community-supported farms in the country. By connecting city consumers to the source of their food, CSA farmers like Peterson are performing a true service. Festivals and work days bring city folk to the farm, where they get a firsthand education in the struggles and triumphs of farming. People who understand what's involved in growing food may be more willing to pay for it -- a critical hurdle in replacing large-scale, subsidized, chemical monocropping with small-scale, healthy family farming.

Angelic Organics, Peterson and Siegel imply, is also reinventing the community spirit of 1950s-era farming. The end of the film intercuts scenes of Angelic's members raising the timbers on a new barn and clips of Peterson's father and neighbors building the farm's original barn. Conspicuously absent from the modern barn raising are Peterson's neighbors -- the sons and daughters of the men who had helped his father. Can the forces that uphold Peterson's community-supported farm also unite his own community?

Peterson's lingering rancor toward his neighbors is a personal blind spot that affects not only the film but also his apparent vision for the future of sustainable agriculture. Make no mistake, small-scale farming, natural inputs, and regional distribution have the power to save the planet and the family farm, and there's plenty of room for dreamers, artists, and eccentrics in that future. But we'd also be wise to make room for county extension agents, farm bureau wonks, and "conventional" farmers who might not make for riveting footage.

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