TREATMENT for Uprooted

"…major threats to the planet such as climate change, the rate of extinction of species, and the challenge of feeding a growing population are among the many that remain unresolved, and all of them put humanity at risk."

—From an October 25, 2007 UN Environmental Programme report, later described as a "wake up call" to the world about how we currently use our resources to sustain ourselves.

"No copper" is spray painted on the boards nailed over the empty windows of a dilapidated house to deter vandals from breaking in to steal pipes and scrap metal – a typical inner-city Cleveland rustbelt scene. Miles away from any grocery stores and inundated with fast food, nicotine and alcohol, these communities – called food-deserts – have no access to fresh, healthy food.

A few blocks away in an otherwise lifeless mix of concrete, brick and metal, urban farmers work to grow change. By taking an empty parking lot, building raised beds and cultivating a rich layer of soil with mulch and organic compost, they grow fresh produce available for sale in this otherwise forgotten, food-desert community.

Throughout the Midwest, abandoned fields are overrun with rotting soybeans and inedible corn atop soil saturated with pesticides and depleted of essential nutrients for farming. Millions of useless acres left by an agri-business food system exhibit the result of unsustainable practices.

Down the road at the George Jones farm, students, community members and environmentalists are elbow-deep in fertile soil producing organically grown okra, peppers, watermelon and squash to feed the Oberlin community and college students.

Uprooted: Reconnecting Food and People uses these scenes of our food system's crumbling infrastructure and butts them against the green initiatives and active steps people across the US are taking to resurrect a sustainable system.

In-depth interviews with renowned academics such as David Orr (The 11th Hour, Oberlin College Environmental Studies chair), poet David Young (Pushcart Prize, U.S. Award of the International Poetry Forum, Guggenheim Fellow) and 13-year Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (senior-most woman in Congress) show the progressive steps our leaders are currently taking for betterment.

Commentary from everyday farmers, chefs, college students and even Michael Pollan (New York Times Bestseller Omnivore's Dilemma) add to the overwhelming evidence that everyday people do have a chance to improve their environment by making better decisions with what they eat.

Comprehensive, dynamic, and timely, Uprooted shows the ways that the whole of society can push for positive change in an environment that needs it. After all, everybody eats.