Interested in recent organic, buy local, and community supported agriculture? Want to learn more about the essential role of agriculture in Massachusetts’ past, present, and future? If so, the filmmaker Ian Scully’s Massachusetts Agriculture film series, presented in collaboration with the Belmont Media Center – www.belmontmedia.org, is a must see.

From the Berkshires to the North Shore, from the South Shore to the Worcester Hills, from livestock to vegetable farms, from orchards to cranberry bogs, from farmers’ markets to community supported and organic education based farms; filmmaker Ian Scully’s Agriculture film series documents the breadth, diversity, and vibrancy of Massachusetts agriculture’s past, present, and future. The film series consists of the following seven films:

Suzanne Johannet and Heli Tomford, two members of the market manager volunteer group, guide a tour of some of the market’s anchor vendors: The Farm School, Dick’s Market Garden, Sergi Farms, Stillman’s at the Turkey Farm, and Hutchins Farm. Johannet and Tomford explain how the Belmont Farmers’ Market started and became an integral part of the burgeoning “buy local” movement in which farmers sell directly to consumers. The Belmont Farmers’ Market received the first ever farmers’ market award “Best of Boston” given by Boston Magazine in 2009.

Buy DVD - $10

Via video clips from 2009 Summer agricultural workshops throughout Massachusetts, and the testimonials of teachers who attended those workshops, this film shows how the 501(3c) non-profit organization Mass Ag in the Classroom fulfills its mission of, “fostering an awareness and learning of the economic and social importance of agriculture to the State [of  Massachusetts], to the Nation, to the World, while also teaching teachers how to take basics of agricultural production and use those concepts in the subjects they teach”.

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Via video clips from 2009 Summer agricultural workshops throughout Massachusetts, and the testimonials of teachers who attended those workshops, this film shows how the 501(3c) non-profit organization Mass Ag in the Classroom fulfills its mission of, “fostering an awareness and learning of the economic and social importance of agriculture to the State [of  Massachusetts], to the Nation, to the World, while also teaching teachers how to take basics of agricultural production and use those concepts in the subjects they teach”.

Buy DVD - $19.95

Although agriculture arguably underpins everything, the history of agriculture is often neglected. In this :45 minute piece, Ed Hands, volunteer program coordinator of Sheep Pasture in North Easton, Massachusetts, explains how agriculture, from pre-colonial times to the present, has not only shaped much of the land and economics of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but also, how it will likely continue to do so.

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Listen to Lynda Simkins, director of Natick Community Farm, as she explains, and the camera shows, the purpose, philosophy, history and programs of the Natick Community Organic Farm. “We are about farming in the public eye, work, and teaching people how to work and be productive. [And] We are a community, and our name [Natick Community Organic Farm] means that we serve a community of people not limited by boundaries. It is not an exclusive South Natick entity down here. Whoever walks into the property is part of the community. So those are the people we serve….And you are only a visitor here once so usually if I see your face or your family here more than once I also then ask you, Would you like to do this? Would you like to do that? So people instantaneously become part of the project themselves.”

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Belmont Public Library’s - One Book One Belmont 2009 - honored Belmont’s 150^th Anniversary by spotlighting Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle via a number of events that celebrated Belmont’s rich agricultural history. Videographer,  editor, and producer, Ian Scully of Culture Films LLC excerpts from a number of those events; such as: Jane Sherwin’s and Francis Moore Lappe’s talks, Habitat’s Roger Wrubel’s guided walking tour of Habitat, MacLean Open Space and Rock Meadow, plus Cooking Demonstrations by Michael Ehlenfeldt of Stone Hearth Pizza, and Joh Kokubo of Kitchen on the Common, along with on-site interviews with Lydia Ogliby and Sal Sergi of Sergi Farm, and Heli Tomford and Suzanne Johannet of the Belmont Farmers’ Market, provide the sights and information needed to understand both the past and present of Belmont, Massachusetts agriculture.

Buy DVD - $10

Belmont Public Library’s - One Book One Belmont 2009 - honored Belmont’s 150^th Anniversary by spotlighting Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle via a number of events that celebrated Belmont’s rich agricultural history. Videographer,  editor, and producer, Ian Scully of Culture Films LLC excerpts from a number of those events; such as: Jane Sherwin’s and Francis Moore Lappe’s talks, Habitat’s Roger Wrubel’s guided walking tour of Habitat, MacLean Open Space and Rock Meadow, plus Cooking Demonstrations by Michael Ehlenfeldt of Stone Hearth Pizza, and Joh Kokubo of Kitchen on the Common, along with on-site interviews with Lydia Ogliby and Sal Sergi of Sergi Farm, and Heli Tomford and Suzanne Johannet of the Belmont Farmers’ Market, provide the sights and information needed to understand both the past and present of Belmont, Massachusetts agriculture.

Buy DVD - $19.95

Via interviews with Sergi Farm’s owner -Lydia Ogliby, and Sal Sergi, longtime manager of the farm, plus Abby Harper, Farm Manager ’09, and panoramas of the farm and old stills of the farm, its previous owners, and managers, and Belmont’s agricultural past, this film tells the story of Belmont’s lone remaining operating farm - Sergi Farm.

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Via interviews with the school director and some of its child and adult participants, this film provides snapshots and description of the life and various children and adult based programs of The Farm School in Athol, Mass.

Note: The Farm School is all about promoting and learning about organic farming.

Buy DVD - $10