海角大神

Chris Malloy is a professional surfer, filmmaker, writer,聽and rancher. The eldest of three brothers, Chris grew up in Ojai, California, and currently聽lives on a working ranch in Central California with his wife, Carla, and their three聽children. In addition, he is a designer, product tester, and ambassador聽for Patagonia, an American clothing company founded by Yvon Chouinard that is committed to the environmental movement.聽Malloy鈥檚 most recent production is the film "Unbroken Ground," a 25-minute piece that explores the critical role that food plays in finding solutions to the environmental crisis, and it was released online on August 1.聽

Food Tank (FT): What inspired you to direct "Unbroken Ground," Patagonia鈥檚 first food-focused film?

Chris Malloy (CM):聽On a personal level,聽my wife and I聽produce a lot of the food that we eat. We raise animals and grow enough for our family and some friends, so I鈥檓 very passionate about agriculture. A lot of the characters in the film were folks that I was very aware of. When Yvon Chouinard was starting聽Patagonia Provisions, I聽was excited about all of the possibilities. Over the course of a few conversations, he asked, 鈥淎re you interested in helping to tell this story?鈥� Of course, I jumped at the opportunity because I was already following many of the people in the film. I felt as though Patagonia needed鈥攊f they were going to get into food, that鈥檚 a big deal鈥攖o give the audience a good idea of what exactly they are doing.聽

FT: How did you choose the groups highlighted in the film?聽

CM:聽Everyone in the film is personally involved with producing food for Provisions. They are all folks that Yvon Chouinard has met and come to an agreement with to try to do something better and different. There are more people and stories I wasn't able to include in the film, and maybe I鈥檒l be able to highlight others in the future.

FT: Could you talk about how food plays a role in alleviating the environmental crisis?

CM:聽I would say how it聽can. If you look at conventional, big agriculture, it really is focused on commodity, right? A lot of publicly traded companies are looking for commodities,聽and if you read the mission statement of any publicly traded company, there is not one line in there that considers the environment. So,聽the nature of all of these endeavors are just polar opposites of their intentions, of their methodology, of their execution, and of their final product. Steve Jones, who鈥檚 in the film, says it so well,聽鈥淵ou fight the opposition until it鈥檚 no fun anymore,鈥� and then you become proactive and have that responsibility to create options for people. It's not so much about fighting the opposition as it is proactively going out and finding ways to bring to market, in a financially viable way, products that were made with the health of our environment in mind.

FT: In your opinion, what is the most appropriate way to direct our food system away from supporting large-scale monoculture corporations聽and instead toward fostering the growth of small-scale sustainable operations?

CM:聽I would just say聽that it鈥檚 education. I think that there is a lot of catch-phrase聽kind of vernacular being thrown around, and there are聽a lot of key phrases that folks look out for. They will read a label and say "I鈥檓 good.聽This is a karma-free vegetable."聽But educating yourself and then staying aware of what鈥檚 happening is important because organic today does not mean the same thing as what organic meant 20 years ago.聽That really baffles people. They exclaim, "What do you mean?聽What do you mean?"聽If there鈥檚 a huge demand for organic carrots and you monoculture 20,000 acres of those, yes, they鈥檙e organic, but regarding the biodynamic aspect of what could be and what should be, they have different meanings. People need to know that agriculture, in its nature, is always changing. Look at the farmers from the beginning of time to now.聽If you know agriculture, you know that it always changes鈥攐r even more succinctly, it should change. If you have a crop聽and know exactly what it鈥檚 going to do for the next hundred years, I guarantee you that聽it鈥檚 a GMO. That鈥檚 the only way you can be sure. So, it鈥檚 changing that mindset with the consumer worldwide to embrace the complexities of agriculture and celebrate the differences and the uniqueness of every harvest. In our culture, we see something that is not uniform as a flaw.聽If you re-trigger your mindset, you celebrate the difference of what the land affords you every season. It鈥檚 a beautiful thing if you see it that way.聽

FT: What do聽The Land Institute,聽Cheyenne River Ranch,聽The Bread Lab, and聽Lummi Island Wild聽have in common?

CM:聽I would say that the commonality between them is that, rather than trying to stop a specific activity and slow down鈥攖he salmon聽are a little bit different, but I can speak to that separately鈥攖hey are all proactive in finding ways to sequester carbon in the ground. Yvan cleverly distinguished, 鈥淟et鈥檚 stop talking about our footprint, and start talking about our handprint.鈥� We聽can actually stop doing what we know is wrong, but we also need to find ways to replenish the soils聽and聽to take care of what we have. Farming them the right way actually brings that carbon back down to where its supposed to be,聽and builds soils. That鈥檚 the commonality between The Land Institute, Cheyenne River Ranch, and The Bread Lab. And then聽there's聽Lummi Island Wild.聽It鈥檚 such a selective fishery that those untargeted species are going up into their ancient creek systems,聽and, as a result,聽this way of harvesting聽actually replenishes聽those specific genetic families. Otherwise, those genetic families are essentially聽dying and being thrown back into the ocean as bycatch. This is a really聽interesting example because people ask, 鈥淗ow does harvesting and killing fish restore anything?鈥� The fact of the matter is that聽it does. By allowing those other species to return to their ancient headwaters, they get a聽chance to replenish. And then when the pinks need a break, and we know through the science and careful monitoring that the聽other species are strong, then we can harvest some of the others. It all comes down to being closer to the ground, closer to really knowing what鈥檚 happening, and being aware.聽

FT: What advice do you have for the younger generations looking to get engaged in the聽food movement?

CM:聽That鈥檚 a great question!聽I would say that, no matter where you are, you can find some dirt to get into, and you can find a mentor. Go and get your hands dirty.聽You can read all the books, you can watch all the documentaries, and you can spend all your money at that place that gives you karma-free food. That鈥檚 all good. But, go get dirty. Go figure out what is exciting to you鈥攖hat you've never seen a purple tomato聽or something鈥攁nd聽fall in love with it.聽You can only fall in love with something that you know intimately. Go get sunburned, go get some cracked fingers, go get uncomfortable. Whether you stay with it or not, that doesn鈥檛 matter. You now have a completely new appreciation of how food is produced, and there is almost no excuse to not. You can, in your apartment in Manhattan, get a bucket of dirt and grow an amazing amount of food from that. Get to know the ground聽and get to know the life cycles. If you do that, it鈥檚 better than watching every documentary in the world. I have to be careful when I say this, but there are a lot of kids that are armed with the information they鈥檝e seen on TV and read in聽books, and they鈥檙e the first ones to vilify certain ways of farming.聽I think that鈥檚 problematic in nature. It鈥檚 somewhat dangerous for the food movement. We don鈥檛 need more book-smart people vilifying farmers for not doing it the way they read it in a book. That鈥檚 dangerous.聽I think they need to go get their hands dirty. You know, that鈥檚 it. That鈥檚 my advice.

FT: What is one message you would like to share with Food Tank readers about making the food system more聽economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable?聽

CM:聽Honestly, I can only go off my own experience. A聽big influence for me聽was just finding my heroes. My heroes were people like Wendell Berry, Rachel Carson, Edward Abbey, and Douglas Tompkins. One thing that most of these people shared in common is that they were rabble-rousers聽and hell-raisers.聽They were rough around the edges.聽Some of them were college-educated, and others barely got through high school. They wanted a different system, and they were willing to live the life and commit to living that life. All the things they believed in didn't mean anything聽until they went out and lived that life. They felt the cold, hunger, and discomfort, but were聽committed. This doesn't demonize anybody who doesn't have the ability to do that, but for me, personally, it made those heroes鈥攖hose characters鈥攃hange the way I saw the world and changed what I chose to do with my life. All of the empirical data about the planet and the science, I think that stuff聽is very important, but it鈥檚 the characters who changed the way I saw the world. Find some heroes!聽

Click聽here聽to watch "Unbroken Ground."

This story originally appeared on FoodTank.