Durham West Junior Farmers’ Association brought documentary filmmaker Dylan Sher and his project to the Roxy Theatres of Uxbridge, on a recent Saturday afternoon, filling the small theatre with farmers and consumers eager to communicate about a subject dear to them all: Food. In charge of a prestigious restaurant kitchen, on the 54th floor of a downtown Toronto office tower, cameras follow Chef John Horne, as he designed an entrée, based on ten ingredients available within a 100 km radius, then met the producer of each item. Produced by Sher, a city dweller taking his agriculture degree at the University of Guelph, the film drew chuckles from farmers, gasps from consumers and groans from everyone during the screening. No one liked thinking of honey as “bee vomit.” Promoted by the Junior Farmers’ as a fundraiser for a food bank and an agricultural education organization, film-goers were invited to a question and answer session at a local brewery following the film. Crop, dairy, beef and pork farmers donned named tags and made themselves available to answer questions about their livelihoods. Comments from viewers ranged from nods, the “fair treatment of animal welfare and plant engineering issues” to “awe at the amount of propaganda for industrial agriculture on display.”
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