Lentil Underground: renegade farmers and the future of food (April 20) – Sustainable Food Systems Initiative

Lentil Underground: renegade farmers and the future of food (April 20)

Lentil Underground Book Tour & Lentil Dinner
Liz Carlisle, Ph.D
April 20 6pm
Trotter Multicultural Center Lounge (1443 Washtenaw Ave)

Author Liz Carlisle and “renegade farmer” David Oien visit the University of Michigan Campus to share about Carlisle’s recent book, Lentil Underground. The event will include a book talk, Q&A with the author and farmer, and samples of David’s lentils. Thanks to the Student Sustainability Initiative, we plan for this to be a zero waste event!

A PROTÉGÉ OF MICHAEL POLLAN TELLS THE REMARKABLE STORY OF AN UNHERALDED GROUP OF MONTANA FARMERS WHO HAVE DEFIED CORPORATE AGRIBUSINESS BY LAUNCHING A UNIQUE SUSTAINABLE FOOD MOVEMENT.

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Liz Carlisle is a fellow at the Center for Diversified Farming Systems at the University of California, Berkeley.  She holds a Ph.D. in Geography, also from Berkeley, and a B.A. from Harvard University.  A native of Missoula, Montana, Carlisle is a former Legislative Aide to United States Senator Jon Tester.

Forty years ago, corporate agribusiness launched a campaign to push small grain farmers to modernize or perish, or as Nixon Administration Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz put it, to “get big or get out. But twenty-seven year-old David Oien decided to take a stand.  When he dropped out of grad school to return to his family’s 280 acre farm, Oien became the first in his conservative Montana county to seed his fields with a radically different crop: organic lentils.  A cheap, healthy source of protein, rich in fiber, folate, Vitamin B1, and amino acids, lentils are drought tolerant and don’t require irrigation.  And unlike the chemically dependent grains American farmers had been told to grow, lentils make their own fertilizer and tolerate variable climate conditions, so their farmers aren’t beholden to industrial methods. Today, David Oien leads a thriving movement of organic farmers who work with heirloom seeds and biologically diverse farm systems. Under the brand Timeless Natural Food, this “lentil underground” has grown into a million dollar enterprise that sells to hundreds of independent natural foods stores, and a host of renowned restaurants.

Set in the farm belt of red state America, far from the farmer’s markets and haute cuisine of coastal cities, Lentil Underground confronts the global food system in one of the little known rural communities that will determine its fate. From the heart of Big Sky Country comes this inspiring story of a handful of colorful pioneers who have successfully bucked the chemically-based food chain and the entrenched power of agribusiness’s one percent, by stubbornly banding together. Unearthing the deep roots of this movement, Lentil Underground introduces readers to a memorable cast of characters, from gun-toting libertarians and Christian homesteaders to peace-sign-waving environmental activists.  Journalist and native Montanan Liz Carlisle weaves an eye-opening and richly reported narrative that will be welcomed by readers of food and farm memoirs, as well as everyone concerned with the future of American agriculture and natural food in an increasingly uncertain world.

This event is co-sponsored by the University of Michigan Sustainable Food Program, the UM Sustainable Food Systems Initiative, and Program in the Environment

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