Produced and Directed by
Consulting Producer Gurney Norman
In association with Media Working Group, Inc.
Film Website
Film Details
86 minutes
About the Film
Coming to Ground profiles a handful of Kentucky’s resolute farmers, businesses, and advocacy groups that have invested those funds in ways that allow them to cultivate healthy soil and seed, work within manageable scales, bolster local economies. In so doing, these farmers show that the short-lived industrial model isn’t the only way farming can be done. Coming to Ground uses Kentucky farmers’ experience following the dismantling of the tobacco economy to make a case that other governments should adopt policies that follow the Kentucky model of state investment in small-scale agriculture. In Kentucky’s case, those funds came from tobacco lawsuit settlements. The film foretells a change in farming and one state’s work to end 300 years of mono-cropping tobacco toward a sustainable, crop diverse future.
This film shows a classic drama of how change is made, the struggle of farmers, government officials, and policy makers as they try to move away from dependency on ‘traditional’ industrial, petroleum fueled farming methods and the global tobacco market to a more sustainable and sane agricultural economy. Since 2002 there has been an explosion of crop diversity, environmental innovation, sustainable and organic farms, along with sharp growth in farmer’s markets, regional infra-structure and agricultural enterprise. This is the story of how farmers, food policy reform and agricultural thinkers came together in an unprecedented movement to change agriculture in Kentucky.
Coming to Ground features Mary Berry, daughter of Wendell Berry and founder of The Berry Center, Wes Jackson, of The Land Institute, among others.
Praise for Coming to Ground
“In broad and beautiful strokes, the film draws attention to the urgent necessity of and positive models for revitalizing local food systems.”
Dr. Leah Bayens
Berry Farming and Ecological Agrarianism, St. Catharine College
“Coming To Ground features many depictions of agricultural change that are extremely valuable for classroom use, but I particularly liked the sections linking soil fertility and cattle grazing, and Mary Berry’s reflections on change, “didn’t think they saw any change occurring, but later realized it was going on, to get where they are today. Great job.”
Dr. Deb Nehr
Professor and Chair, Department of Plant & Soil Science, University of Vermont
“Coming To Ground is precisely the documentary the nation, needed. In broad and beautiful strokes, the film draws attention to the urgent necessity of and positive models for revitalizing local food systems. It does so by sharing stories of Kentucky’s most influential leaders in the shift to small-scale agriculture. The film shows the positive potential in the confluence of humane farming, politics, and economics, in part by describing the pivotal role the Burley Tobacco Growers’ Co-Operative had in facilitating stable markets for farmers and protecting them from the whims of the economy. These protections, in turn, encouraged sustainable land distribution and close-knit rural communities. By tracing the devastating effects of the Burley legislation’s demise—namely, rural outmigration and pressure to get big or get out— Coming to Ground provides a glimpse of what happens when farmers lose the mechanisms that guaranteed their leverage… “The film tacitly calls for policy and practice that support farmers in the way the Burley Tobacco Grower’s Co-op program once did. This, it suggests, is one way to ensure that farming remains a viable vocation and that young people can take over their family farms.”
Dr. Leah Bayens
Berry Farming and Ecological Agrarianism, St. Catharine College
Film Festivals and Screenings
2014 Screening, Biodynamic Association National Conference, Louisville, Kentucky
2013 Screening – Xavier University – Xavier Sustainability sponsored Coming to Ground in collaboration with Green Umbrella, IMAGO, InterFaith Business Builders.
2013 Screening – The Living Room Theater, Portland, Oregon
2013 Official Selection Athens International Film and Video Festival
2013 Screening – Vernonia Grange, Vernonia, Oregon
2013 Screening – Dairy Creek Community Food Web Film Series at Forest Grove Grange Hall, Oregon
2012 Screening – BlueGrass Bioneers at the University of Louisville
2012 Screening – Community Farm Alliance’s “Farm Night Out” at Lazy Eight Stock Farm, Berea, Kentucky
Broadcasts
2012 Kentucky Educational Television broadcasts 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016,2015
Reviews
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