***SAVE THE DATE - King Corn and Big Water screenings at the UNM-SAAP***

This is a "Save the Date" announcement. A flyer including additional information will be sent out soon.

WHAT: Film screenings of King Corn and Big Water 
(You can see trailers on the websites)

WHY: There are numerous recent studies illustrating that industrial agriculture is not only toxic and destructive in many ways, but also fails to feed the number of people that it suggests it feeds. Not only that, but traditionally grown, non-industrial, local, organic food is far healthier for our bodies and the planet. Let's talk about how to move away from a system that supports industrial modes of food production to one that encourages localized, small-scale and diverse agricultural practices. The student chapter of the NMAPA (American Planning Association of New Mexico) is showing these films to raise awareness and to facilitate a discussion about how citizens, professionals and academics can become more informed, take action and become better food system planners.

HOW MUCH: A $3 suggested donation. The funds generated will be helping to supplement travel costs for students attending the National APA Conference in April.

WHEN:
King Corn - Thursday, 2/25/10 at 7:00PM (Doors open at 6:00PM)
Big Water - Thursday, 3/11/10 at 7:00PM (Doors open at 6:00PM)

WHERE: The UNM School of Architecture and Planning Auditorium

WHAT ELSE:
This event is open to the public!!!
We will be setting up a bake sale at 6:00PM to raise additional funds.
We are currently working on putting together a panel that will follow each screening. Details regarding the panel will be released once panel participants have been confirmed.


About King Corn:
Synopsis (per the Press Release) - King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat—and how we farm.
Website: http://www.kingcorn.net/

About Big Water:
Synopsis (per the Press Release) - Following up on their Peabody winning documentary, the King Corn boys are back. For Big River, best friends Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis have returned to Iowa with a new mission: to investigate the environmental impact their acre of corn has sent to the people and places downstream. In a journey that spans from the heartland to the Gulf of Mexico, Ian and Curt trade their combine for a canoe––and set out to see the big world their little acre of corn has touched. On their trip, flashbacks to the pesticides they sprayed, the fertilizers they injected, and the soil they plowed now lead to new questions, explored by new experts in new places. Half of Iowa’s topsoil, they learn, has been washed out to sea. Fertilizer runoff has spawned a hypoxic “dead zone” in the Gulf. And back at their acre, the herbicides they used are blamed for a cancer cluster that reaches all too close to home.
Website: http://www.bigriverfilm.com/


Contact Lora Roberts for more information or to get involved.
Lora Roberts
Graduate Student, Community & Regional Planning
University of New Mexico
Student Representative, NMAPA
Cell: 505-414-2723
E-Mail: flutterbyldr1@mac.com

"You are not Atlas carrying the world on your shoulder. It is good to remember that the planet is carrying you" - Vandana Shiva