Snowfall

A snow started falling Wednesday night and picked up in intensity as the night progressed. We drove from Fort Collins to Denver, where we're staying with the ever-generous Brendan Cady. 

The ice and snow meant that many schools were closed, and we waited to hear what would happen. Weldon Valley High School toughed it out, although Cara and her students had the start of school delayed by two hours. GPS led the car to the wrong place  Weldona Ct. in Superior, CO, which is about 1 hour 30 minutes from Weldon Valley High School, the intended location. So once again, twice in two days, Chris held down the fort, while the white rental shuttled across and up 76 to arrive just a few moments before the end of the film. Chris and I talked about the documentary with the 30 or so in attendance. 
A particularly smart and outgoing student asked about 8 questions, and Chris, I and the farmers in the room, did our best to answer her questions. The conversation moved from feeding the world, about what precipitated the bankruptcy of Pilgrim's Pride in 2008, about the pros and cons of ethanol production, Chris mentioning that there are some advantages, because the byproducts get fed to cattle, which helps mitigate the waste.
We headed to Boulder and had an early dinner at Mountain Sun, with Mel Coleman Jr., Chris, Andy and my cousin Kristina, who is a sophomore at University of Colorado. The dinner was great, and we talked about riding horses, college dorm food and ate some incredible locally sourced burgers and drank beer, and root beer. 
About 180 joined the screening, which was a bit emotional because it was a homecoming of sorts, my year of graduation being 11 years ago. We had some technical challenges, with the screen falling down and shutting off right before the end of the film. We lost a few folks, but most stuck around, as we spent about 5 minutes fixing it. Still have no idea what happened. 
In the post screening discussion, Mel Coleman Jr. said something that really resonated, which is that in all his years talking to farmers, many of them conventional, he's never met a farmer who wanted to use chemicals. That everyone he talked to had made that choice because they felt that it was the only thing they could do to keep the farm going. 
Mel and his father were the first farmers in America, to market and sell anti-biotic free meats, and is now the Vice President of Niman Ranch. 
Ann Cooper, a legend in the world of school lunch, talked about how we as Americans need to start spending more money on our food, food that is healthy, unprocessed and local. We currently spend a very small percentage of our income on our food, and a very high percentage of our income on health care. Ann said that if we spend more on food, healthy nutritious food, we will see our health care costs shrink. The audience applauded. 
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We concluded by talking about how there's a shift in the consciousness of young people in this generation, of how people are redefining wealth, that instead of taking a job that they do not believe in just to make more money, people are choosing to take jobs that may not pay as much financially but that lead to a more spiritually wealthy life.
Chris, Mel, and I talked with many of the people who stayed around, many of them young farmers excited about the growing movement. 
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