The drive North and East was pretty treacherous, with many spots being completely covered in ice, and many cars and trucks sliding off into the ditches on the side of the road. Andy took it slow and steady, and we made it.
Chris, Andy and I met in the parking lot of Briggsdale unified school district where Jarrod, the FFA AgEd instructor, about 35 students, and two local farmers James and Sallie, joined us in a discussion about the topics of agriculture that arise in American Meat.
We talked about reason why rural America has decreased in population in the past decades. One student brought up that Walmart has made it harder for towns that use to have a hardware store, a salon, a grocery store, a nursery, or a restaurant to stay in business. We even joked that Walmart has their own hospital and airport which we all got a good chuckle out of.
Because of a scheduling challenge, it ended up being James, Sallie, Chris, Andy and I watching the end of the movie. After that, James and Sallie helped us try various calculations to see how many acres it would take for a farm in North East Colorado like Sallie's to finish out as many cattle as they do at Polyface annually. We determined it would be roughly 20 times more land to raise the same amount of beef as at Polyface.
We said goodbyes and thankyous and drove back to the city, going through Greeley, and thus avoiding the icy smaller roads of the morning.
We got to Regis early, and were expecting a small turnout because the screening was on a Friday night on a college campus. We were pleasantly surprised when we had 120 people show up. The challenge was that there were only 80 seats. But people sat on stairs and on the floor and stayed around for the whole discussion, too. Leiliana, who works as a peace maker of sorts, moderated an engaged brief discussion in which Damian, a professor and urban agriculturalist, pointed out that we should eat less meat. Chris talked about how the number of young farmers and small farmers increased in the most recent farm census, a much needed truth that will hopefully snowball.
After the conversation, the good chefs at BAMCo, the food service provider at Regis, provided a free dinner buffet, and most of the people went down to the cafeteria to break bread and continue the conversation.
It was an uplifting end to a full week!
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