They Farm, We Eat. My tribute to the people who feed us. (4 of 7)

These portraits I've made of the farmers at my local market have changed my relationship with them -- it's made me much closer to the farmers. By freely giving my time and creativity to elevate and show how important they are in our lives, it's been a bridge allowing me to cross over and see things more clearly through their eyes. I've visited many of their farms, have sat down to eat with their families, and I count many of them among my friends.

We become happier people when we slow down, take a look at the people around us who make our lives richer and do something for them without any expectation of a return.

“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”
― Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution

Please welcome the Heroes of the Farmer's Market.

Heriberto "Eddie" Chavez of EGB Farm in Ripon.

Jessica Baron of Marin Roots Farm in Petaluma.

Artie Flores of Kashiwase Farms in Winton.

Rosa and Matteo De Santis of De Santis Farm in Fresno.

“The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.”
― Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture

Geneva Brooks of Brooks and Daughters Sprouts in Forestville.

Carl and Patsy Floyd of Triple Delight Berries in Fresno.

Luis Miranda of Wholeness Farms in Lodi.

Malena Lechon and Wendy Booth of Straus Family Creamery in Marshall on Tomales Bay.

“A good farmer is nothing more nor less than a handy man with a sense of humus.”
― E.B. White

Fruit doesn't get any fresher than this... and you get the most beautiful smiles as a bonus!

The SF Ferry Plaza market is perfect for hanging with friends, eating brunch and enjoying the spectacular view.

Chef portraits for today.

Chris Kiruna from "The Perennial" in San Francisco. Chris is a farmer in his own right because The Perennial operates a 2000-square-foot aquaponic greenhouse in Oakland that converts food scraps from the restaurant into food for fish, which in turn fertilizes their vegetable and herb production. Aquaponic agriculture raises plants and fish in a mutually beneficial system. It uses one tenth the amount of water and is five times more productive per unit of land than soil-based farming.

The Perennial also funds a farming initiative to fight global warming from a culinary perspective. This is a cutting-edge program that I urge you to read about here.

Jason Tuley from "Picco" in Larkspur.

Thanks for watching.

I have a long history of inventing tools for animators and also making films and photographs. My wife, daughter and I live at the foot of beautiful Mt. Tamalpais on the San Francisco Bay and I've been using technology to tell complex stories for a long time. My biggest claim to fame? Leading the team that created Autodesk 3ds Max... the most popular 3D animation tool of all time. When I sold the Yost Group to Autodesk at the end of the last century I jumped headfirst into pursing my original love... photography and filmmaking. Now I spend all of my time exploring the mysteries of my world with my cameras, and revealing what I find in my images and films.

You can find my verification post here.