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Film, TV and Streaming

New stewards sprout on farms

Film, panel to feature Colo. farmers
This photo collage from the film “Resilient” shows Mancos farmers.

Farmers in the West are faced with daunting water issues – among them increasing demand on watersheds, major droughts and navigating the complex world of irrigation rights.

Instead of shying from the challenge, many farmers and ranchers – including people in Durango – have stepped up to play a role in solving the Western water conundrum by sustaining soil health, employing efficient technologies and pioneering innovative approaches to growing food.

Several such farmers are featured in the film “Resilient: Soil, Water & The New Stewards of the American West,” which will premiere today at the Powerhouse Science Center. The short film looks at solutions unfolding right now on the fields of Colorado farms and calls on everyone who cares about the West to help conserve its precious resources.

The film screening, which will be paired with a panel discussion, is part of a three-day farm tour being hosted by the National Young Farmers Coalition and Family Farm Alliance.

National Young Farmers Coalition Western Organizer Kate Greenberg said the tour aims to foster productive dialogue.

“It’s really about bringing farmers and ranchers together to discuss on-farm opportunities for water conservation,” Greenberg said.

The film, which was made by the Young Farmers Coalition in partnership with Rumplefarm Films and the Lexicon of Sustainability, illustrates these solutions through the stories of Western farmers. It features people like:

Brendon Rockey, a third-generation potato farmer in the San Luis Valley who has developed an approach to soil health that saves several inches of irrigated water a year.

Dan James of Durango’s James Ranch, who uses rotational grazing to help store more water as well as carbon in the soil.

Members of the local chapter of the National Young Farmers Coalition gathering in Mancos, who are banding together to build a stronger agricultural community.

“We really wanted to create a visual that would allow people to connect emotionally with the topic,” Greenberg said of the movie.

The screening of “Resilient” will be paired with a panel of farmers that will include Mancos growers Mike Nolan and Travis Custer as well as Brendon Rockey and George Whitten, another San Luis Valley farmer, and Ann Adams, director of Holistic Management International.

Although soil health and water conservation are subjects that can get wonky, Greenberg said the event is an effort to break them down in a digestible way that the public can relate to.

“The other part of the film is asking people everywhere to do their part,” she said. “So it’s a call to action to the public as well.”

kklingsporn@durangoherald.com

If you go

The National Young Farmers Coalition will host a screening of “Resilient: Soil, Water & The New Stewards of the American West” at 7 p.m. today at the Powerhouse Science Center, 1333 Camino del Rio. Afterward, a panel of farmers and ranchers will hold a discussion.



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