Dirty Work – great new film on organic farming

Usually I write about WV-related films, and this one is – because it is about the man who got me my job in WV, Don Roberts. A million people have asked me how I came to the state, and I tell them a fellow by the name of Don Roberts told Fred Glazer, state librarian in 1978, about me. Now there is a great new film about him – as an organic farmer.

The film is called “Dirty Work – the story of Elsie’s Farm.” It shows what it takes to run an organic farm, which is a lot of handwork by both Don, his partner Joni Cash, and volunteers. Don was a library professor at Buffalo and when I knew him the AV librarian at Hennepin County Library where my friend Sandy Berman also worked. Roberts was one of the most creative AV librarians in the country, and in fact, talked me out of quitting library school. He latter became a vendor/salesman for many companies including Les Blank’s Flower Films, Bullfrog Films, and Pyramid Films. He finally stopped doing that that got into gardening.

The film is a nice comparison work to recent films like “Out Daily Bread” which shows the incredible industrialization of American food. It’s great that “localvore” has become a popular term, and that farmer’s markets are expanding all over the country. Like Don says several times, “We need thousands of little organic farms like Elsie’s.” I know of several in WV including one near Shepherdstown that provides many DC-area restaurants with organic food.

We visited Don’s farm once on our way back to my hometown of Minneapolis. It was great to see Don and Joni and the rural farm they had inherited. WV is a state of many such farms, and I hope that people here get to see this excellent, touching film about two human beings who believe in people, not profits.