FIlmmaker Severine von Tscharner Fleming spent two years canvassing the nation in search of young farmers. From Vermont to California, Mississippi to New York, The Greenhorns explores the advantages and challenges of being a young farmer today. She takes us to meet a cattle rancher in Mississippi and to a with-it organic restaurant in Athens, GA. We visit a dwarf citrus farm in California and in Vermont watch cheese be prepared. We see a couple bake bread for market. They’ve made it from the winter wheat they’ve grown. These farmers are all young—often well under 25.
The nation is in dire need of young farmers, who most often don’t have the money to buy the land. Fleming looks at the history of agrarian land use and the strategies being utilized today to put young farmers on existing farm lands.
Antonio Roman-Alcala, narrator and director of In Search of Good Food, appears in the film, speaking from his Bay Area farm. He also contributed music to The Greenhorns. Richard Heinberg from the Post Carbon Institute, Michael Pollan (Omnivore’s Dilemma), and Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) also make appearances. Truck Farm’s Ian Cheney served as one of The Greenhorns’ cinematographers and its senior editor as well.
Greenhorns Anya Kamenshkaya and Brooke Budner are featured in the film and will be on hand at its California premiere this Friday evening at the Nevada Theatre. Antonio Roman-Alcala and Ian Cheney are in town for the festival as well.