Back to the Land

I had been poking around the edges of the question of what, if any, relation there was between the current generation of farmers just getting started on their own land in Vermont and their forebears from the back-to-the-land movement that closed out the 60s when I came across Lisa MacDougall, of Mighty Food Farm, just then in the process of acquiring her own land in Shaftsbury, Vermont after leasing land in Pownal for ten years.

The goal of this feature documentary is to awaken closeness and kinship with farmers, young and old, whose stories move at the pace of their lives, as well as to foster an immersive awareness of what the work of farming looks and feels like. It is also about the unique adaptations New England farmers – Vermonters especially – will have to develop to extend a limited growing season, cope with difficult topography, and anticipate the havoc that is wrought by climate change.

Back to the Land will also take a look back across the past fifty years. What can a previous generation of back-to-the-landers teach the current generation? Despite the availability of technology and information, what passions and what commitments do they share?