As filmmaker Andrew Grace and his wife decide to return to their one-time home of Alabama, they also decide to return to their families' ancestral roots of farming. Vowing to eat locally and seasonally for an entire year, they soon discover just how much the entire food system in our society has changed.
Eating Alabama is a documentary that Austinites and organic foodies will love and appreciate, and this couple must drive more than 800 miles around their home state just to find food grown in Alabama since the few remaining farmers have thousands of acres, huge machinery, and export their crops for profit. They discuss the exceptions they made (beer and spices), and the hard work they had to invest like digging up their front and back yard to plant crops and slaughtering their own chickens just to eat locally.
This is a fascinating look at just how distant our society has become from the sustenance we consume daily, and it provides insight into just why the local farmers who still exist really have to do it as a hobby and not for their own livelihood. With great landscape shots and original songs from a local (Alabama) band, this film is just up Austin's ally.
