If you don’t appreciate the delicacy that is asparagus, you probably haven’t had it prepared properly, and you also probably haven’t seen Asparagus! Stalking the American Life. Well, fortunately the folks from the Michigan Farm Bureau have seen this terrific documentary and have honored the film with the 2008 Agricultural Communicator of the Year award.  The film follows the plight of residents of Oceana County Michigan as they fight to preserve their unique culture and livelihood in the face of global free trade.

Here’s a short version of this endearing and poignant film:

takepart by supporting local farmers with the Media That Matter’s Asparagus! action center.

“Locavore” was 2007’s Word of the Year, according to the Oxford University Press. The “eat local” movement got a big boost from writers like Barbara Kingsolver and Michael Pollan, and a spate of news stories about “food miles” got folks switching from a low-carb diet to a low-carbon diet. Suddenly, organic pears flown all the way from Argentina just seemed fuel-ish. And e-coli-tainted spinach from Central California—our nation’s self-proclaimed “salad bowl” —sent shoppers flocking to their farmers markets to find bacteria-free, locally-grown greens.So what are the food trends for this year? NPR’s Liane Hanson predicted on Sunday’s Weekend Edition that “2008 will be the year of ethical eating; vegetarian and locally produced food will grace more tables; wines will be more than organic, they’ll be biodynamic; there will be servings of micro-greens you grow yourself”" In other words, more of us will be breaking free from the conventional food chain, eating pasture-raised meat, poultry and dairy or giving up animal products altogether, and getting back to the garden.There’s no doubt Michael Pollan’s best-selling Omnivore’s Dilemma inspired thousands of Americans to become locavores. His latest book, In Defense of Food, came out on New Year’s day and is already ranked #6 on Amazon. In it, Pollan advises us to steer clear of “anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” Are you ready to become a retrovore?