Sad, but true ...

How a plastic bag gets from land to sea. All too often.

The Plastic Bag — a Mockumentary.

Market Philosophy

So, the tango metaphor may be stretched a little thin here, but, that aside, I wanted to share this video — it's a lovely piece about one of the big players at the All-Local Farmers' Market, Emile DeFelice of Caw Caw Creek Pastured Pork. I love Emile's philosophy on meat and food, and I love watching his pigs dig around for "protein" on his heavily wooded property.

RIDE THAT PIG TO GLORY from UM Media Documentary Projects on Vimeo.

Emile founded Columbia's All-Local Farmers' Market, and his philosophy is a huge reason I am an avid supporter. Says he: "I am not a revolutionary. I don't advocate overturning the system. I understand that Wal-Mart and Winn-Dixie will always be there, and that's fine. What I insist upon is providing a parallel food system so that folks have a choice. It goes beyond Emile's pig farm. What I'm trying to do here is offer folks a chance to get good food and to be able to talk with their producers and endorse with their dollar and their fork the production systems that they approve of."

As an added bonus, I will be at the market again Saturday, filling in for my sister at the Beautiful Briny Sea salt table. Swing on by: 8 a.m. to noon, 711 Whaley Street.

Perhaps precious baby piglet Juliette will also make a repeat appearance.

From 'trash' to art

I had a rare moment tonight, in which I got to listen to NPR — a favorite pastime of mine when I used to get stuck in hours of traffic on my way home from work in L.A.

I got to hear Kai Ryssdal's beautiful voice on Marketplace (he looks different in person than I would have imagined), but I also got to hear this interesting story about a documentary about men and women in Brazil who sift through the largest landfill in the world in Rio de Janeiro looking for recyclables, and the work of Brooklyn-based artist Vik Muniz, who photographed and created fine art based on the photographs and using trash from the landfill.

For the men and women in this documentary, this is a way of making a living — they sell the recyclables to wholesalers. For Muniz, his work is ostensibly a way to make a difference in these people's lives. It's inspiring to see something so beautiful coming out of/being inspired by the "pickers'" work.

Listen to the story:

Watch the trailer:

WASTE LAND Official Trailer from Almega Projects on Vimeo.

"Waste Land" opened in New York today. I enjoyed hearing about it. Now, I look forward to (hopefully) seeing it.

www.wastelandmovie.com

My new mentor: Jane Goodall

(This photo snapped by my lovely sister who happens to be in town.)

I have been volunteering during the Hamptons International Film Festival all weekend, and one of the movies I got to see was a German film called "Jane's Journey." Jane Goodall doesn't know it yet, but she is going to be my mentor.

I knew of Jane Goodall as the woman National Geographic had featured, way back when, for her work with the monkeys — and until seeing this film, I had never heard of her out of that context. Of course, I had no reason not to think of her as an extraordinary woman, but I just had no idea about all of the other things she's done and has continued to do beyond that one point in her life.

Jane Goodall is a fascinating, frank and inspiring woman who is committed to conservation and preserving what is left of this fragile world for future generations. And I can only hope to do a quarter of the good she's done in her life in my own.

If you get a chance, see this film.

Trailer here:

Learn more about one of Jane's latest endeavors at www.rootsandshoots.org.