Truck Farm

     As I was researching the topic of urban agriculture I came across an interesting project.  Ian Cheney and Curtis Ellis won a Peabody Award for their documentary King Corn in 2007 about the industrialization of the North American food system.  Moving from Boston to Iowa they wanted to learn where their food came from by growing a acre of corn.  And in so doing they shattered the Norman Rockwell image of the family farm.

     Returning to the east coast they decided upon another project.  They filled up the back of their '86 Dodge Ram with soil and began planting a 1/1000 acre farm in the spring of 2009.  Driving their mobile community farm from neighborhood to neighborhood they gave urban kids an opportunity to get their hands dirty and to see how food actually grows.  The project also gave an entirely new meaning to the term "truck farm."  In 2011 that moniker became the title of their efforts in a 48 minute documentary film that took a whimsical and honest look at urban agriculture.

     

To view their documentary click on Truck Farm.