Slow Food Nation '08

San Francisco Library

In honor of Slow Food Nation, the San Francisco Library screened films about the source of our
food and its effect on our bodies and the environment.

• Planetwalker

  Saturday, August 30, 2008 12pm – 2 pm | San Francisco Public Library – Main – Koret Auditorium | 100 Larkin St. (at Grove), San Francisco | Guest Lecture: Planetwalker 12pm – 2pm

  John Francis, Ph.D., is known the world over as the PLANETWALKER. In 1971, he witnessed an oil spill in San Francisco Bay. The effects of the spill compelled him to stop using motorized vehicles. Several months later, he took a vow of silence. His non-motorized lifestyle lasted 22 years and his silence, 17 years. During that time, Dr. Francis walked across the United States earning a B.A., an M.S. and a Ph.D. He later sailed and walked through the Caribbean and then walked the length of South America. During this time, he was appointed United Nations Environment Goodwill Ambassador and recently was a speaker at the prestigious 2008 TED conference in Monterey. Dr. Francis will speak of his journey, his unique perspective on environment, sustainability and how we can each make a difference in our world. He is the author of “Planetwalker. 17 Years of Silence. 22 Years of Walking.” Copies of the book will be available to purchase for the author to sign.

  Cosponsored by the Stegner Environmental Center and funded by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.

• King Corn/The Future of Food

  Sunday, August 31, 2008 | 12:30pm – 4:30pm | San Francisco Public Library – Main – Koret Auditorium | 100 Larkin St. (at Grove), San Francisco

  In honor of Slow Food Nation, films about the sustainability of food and the effect of our food choices on our environment and on our bodies will be shown.

  Film: King Corn

  12:30 – 2:00pm

  KING CORN is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, andpowerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat-and how we farm. View trailer.

  Film: The Future of Food

  2:10 – 3:40pm

  Shot on location in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, THE FUTURE OF FOOD examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what we eat as huge multinational corporations seek to control the world’s food system. The film also explores alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture, placing organic and sustainable agriculture as real solutions to the farm crisis today. View trailer.

  Cosponsored by the Stegner Environmental Center.