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The Media & Policy Center has received a significant grant to begin work on America's Family Farmers.

Harry Wiland and Dale Bell have received California Greenworks' Environmental Leaders Award for their "...outstanding work in raising awareness for environmental sustainability through the PBS series Edens Lost & Found."

The first in a series of Edens Lost & Found Town Hall Meetings was held in Philadelphia early in 2008, and was broadcast by WHYY (Philadelphia PBS) in April. More details and excerpts from the broadcast are available here.

Harry Wiland and Dale Bell have been elected Ashoka Fellows and Purpose Prize Fellows.

Harry Wiland and Dale Bell win First and Third Prizes in NAAEE Environmental Film Festival.

Media & Policy Center: America's Family Farmers

In Development

For most of the 20th century, family farmers across America disappeared by the millions as corporate farms, heavily subsidized by the government, maximized efficiencies to create an economic environment where smaller individual family farms cannot compete. The mass production of food has limited our varieties and reduced the overall quality of our food supply. The run-off generated by the prolific use of chemical fertilizers as well as the voluminous waste produced from factory farms have had a devastating impact on our environment, contributing to global warming.

These practices have had a deleterious effect upon the heath of our society. In response, new generations of ecologically minded family farmers have sprouted up throughout the country. This new energized movement, along with the organic food industry, farmers markets, specialty distributors, and a growing legion of environmentally conscious chefs, food critics and agricultural experts, are changing how we grow our food and distribute it throughout the country. The "green food" movement is allowing consumers to have a diversified menu of chemical-free, healthy and delicious food direct from the farmer — the way it used to be.

In order to ensure that progress continues, consumers need to be educated where this emerging source of quality food comes from and how it can be obtained. Consumers need to learn how to prepare food in a way that is both nourishing and satisfying.

The first season of America's Family Farmers will be a 13-episode, half-hour series and national outreach initiative. Our co-host and consultant for the series is Molly Gean, co-owner/operator of Harry's Berries, an organic family farm located in Oxnard, CA and known throughout the country for their premier strawberries. Her long-term clients include dozens of top chefs across the country, as well as their market stand loyalists from Southern California farmers markets. The stars of our series will be the American farmers who have begun to alter the agricultural and food landscape. Our series will move from farm to table with an outstanding selection of guest chefs as they incorporate their newfound quality produce into exciting recipes.

America's Family Farmers will be an engaging series with an after-market life well beyond the original broadcast. The program's web site and its array of informative supplementary materials will be designed to spread the word about a healthier and more fulfilling lifestyle.

"Why I want to do this: (and more importantly, why I CAN do this!). Trends toward healthful eating such as increased interest in organic foods and vegetarianism are now mainstream. The local, seasonal foods movement has grown tremendously in the past several years and shows no signs of slowing. It is estimated that the average distance traveled by the ingredients on a typical American dinner plate is a staggering 1,500 miles. Buying locally and eating seasonally not only provides better, fresher food and supports local agriculture, but also helps the environment by reducing transportation fuel costs and reducing air pollution. Farmers' markets are your local food sources and they have become valued and beloved institutions in communities all over California and across the country." —- Molly Gene

Other resources for America's Family Farmers: