Crossroads Screens Film Focusing on American Food Production

A public screening of Sustainable, sponsored by Kewaunee CARES, is set for May 16, 7 pm, at Crossroads at Big Creek in Sturgeon Bay.

While the nation grapples with immigration, healthcare, poverty and climate change, politicians forget about the one topic that connects them all – our food system. Sustainable argues that solving these problems requires fundamental changes in how we produce food in America.

The film by Chicago based filmmakers Matt Wechsler and Annie Speicher takes a much needed, solution-oriented approach to discussing agriculture. “Change is happening right now,” said director Matt Wechsler. “We just need to implement those changes on a large scale before we run out of natural resources like water and top soil.”

The narrative of the film follows Marty Travis, a seventh-generation farmer from central Illinois, who transformed both his land and community despite pressures from big agribusiness. He now supplies some of the top restaurateurs in Chicago, including Paul Kahan, Stephanie Izard and Rick Bayless. “How am I going to make great food,” says Bayless in the film, “If I don’t have any connection to the people growing that food?”

Along with notable interviews from former New York Times columnist Mark Bittman as well as authors John Ikerd and Nicolette Niman, Sustainable investigates the human side of farming and how to create food security for generations.

For more information about the film, go to sustainablefoodfilm.com.