Tableland summary

Tableland, a movie by Craig Noble, is a documentary about where food comes from. The camera crew visits different farms that show the viewers how they work. The movie is divided in five chapters. In the first chapter, namedd “Sustainability”, farmers talk about the satisfaction they get from growing and selling their own food. Also, they mention that they grow their food naturally because they claim that they do not need poison to grow good crops. In the next section, “Small Scale”, the farmers talk about the advantages of owning a small scale farm. For example, how small can be beautiful, economical and successful. They talk about how the population can’t count on big scale farms to be nourished correctly. When it comes to small scale farms, buyers know where their food comes from and how every product they buy is unique and chemical free. However, the famers do admit that their organic food is more expensive than regular chemical filled grocery store food. In addition, the third section is about how the quality of food is poor and getting poorer. This part of the movie, titled “Industrial”, talks about all the disadvantages of industrial food companies. They teach the viewers some facts about how industrial food companies make our food unhealthy and less expensive than it should be. Moreover, the farmers talk about the hidden costs in industrial food, for instance taxes, packaging, bad heath (cancer) and exploitation. Afterwards, the next chapter, named “Taste”, talks mainly about how organic food is more flavorful than industrial food. The hand labor farmers put into harvesting their own food makes it taste better. Accordingly, the farmers think that everyone needs to be educated to taste because they often have a tendency to buy industrial food. Finally, the movie ends with the last chapter named “Local” where the farmers try to promote their small scale farms by telling the viewers that supporting local farms is very important. They mention some advantages of selling food locally such as how they get a chance to know their customers and how the customers get to know them how they can stay in their homes to work and how they are proud of what they do. Nevertheless, famers must go trough a cycle, meaning that from season to season they do not always get the same products. Hence, in the end, people want to know where their food comes from.

By Susan Dumouchel