By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent
 
LANSING, Mich. — For Kirsten Kelly, the idea of making a film about farm life in the asparagus-growing community in western Michigan came naturally, since that’s from where she hails.

The judges at Michigan Farm Bureau’s annual meeting earlier this month were convinced of her film’s genuineness and artistic merit. They awarded her and fellow filmmaker Anne de Mare the Farm Bureau’s Agricultural Communicator of the Year award for broadcasting, for their film “Asparagus! Stalking the American Life.”
“This is our first big movie,” Kelly said from her home in New York. “It took three years to get it to a place where it could be shown at film festivals.”

The film, which was released in 2006, is now 53 minutes in length, a little bit shorter than it was originally. It’s been shown at numerous film festivals, including the prestigious Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Raleigh, S.C.

“It’s really been doing well,” Kelly said. “It continues to have screenings. The film is really at an opportune time right now, with all the interest in local food. It was really exciting to have this film be a part of that. The shift has been really amazing.”
Kelly cited as an example of this that the film is scheduled to be shown Jan. 28, 2009, at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, in conjunction with an “eat local” event in the city.

The film explores the culture of a community in Oceana County where much of the asparagus in the country is grown. While Kelly was growing up, her father grew apples, asparagus, cherries and peaches until he had an opportunity to work as a full-time pilot in the military. Until she went to college, Kelly spent time on the farm helping to pick the asparagus during the harvest.

She’s concerned, though, that the asparagus-growing community and culture will disappear as it’s forced to compete with asparagus grown in South America.

“What we set out to do was get an intimate portrayal of this community, which might be going away,” she said.
The film delves into the political dimensions of the story, as well as the cultural. The filmmakers explore how the Andean Trade Preference Act, made law in the early 1990s, dealt a blow to the asparagus industry in Michigan through U.S. support of asparagus growers in Peru.

The deal was made in exchange for efforts on the part of the Peruvian government to eradicate crops that are used to make illegal drugs there, which are then smuggled into the United States.
“ATPA happened right away,” Kelly said. “Farmers really didn’t have any warning.”

The number of acres devoted to asparagus in Michigan is down now to about 11,000. That’s about 5,000 fewer than only a few years ago.

Kelly is at least somewhat encouraged by the fact people are more interested today in from where their food is coming. This naturally leads to a greater awareness not only of the culture but also of the broader problems surrounding the industry.

In New York, where Kelly settled after college, her background as a “farm kid” from western Michigan is at times an oddity for folks in the Big Apple, but they are curious. Kelly hopes that interest will somehow translate into a broader concern about an endangered way of life as well as an endangered crop.

“Asparagus! Stalking the American Life” has won a number of awards, including the W.K. Kellogg Good Food film Award in 2006. It’s now available on DVD at www.asparagusthemovie.com
Part of the proceeds from sales of DVDs are being redirected back to the asparagus growers.

December 31, 2008