Listening To The Farmer’s Voice

 

By Nancy K. Crevier

Farm House Lane. Horse Stable Circle. Lazy Brook. High Meadow. The street names that mark her neighborhood in Shelton recall a time gone by, but from her 1800 farmhouse on the corner of High Ridge, Beverly Corvino cannot see the remains of a single farm. And that is what concerns her.

“Farmland is disappearing at the rate of about 9,000 acres per year all over Connecticut,” said Mrs Corvino, who has lived in Shelton for 40 years. It was this startling revelation she came across in her reading nearly three years ago that woke her up to the fact that even in her own town, as farmers died the land was being developed, nevermore to be farmland.

“This is not just Shelton,” she said. “It’s nationally and globally [that farmland is being lost].

An English major and yga instructor, Mrs Corvino decided that she needed to take action to alert other residents of the state that the possibility of a Connecticut with no farmland at all could be a reality if losses continue at the present rate. With the help of her son, Sean, and the support of her husband, John, she decided that a documentary film would be the best way to reach people.

The result of her action, a documentary called The Farmer’s Voice, will be screened on Wednesday, August 30, at 7 pm, in the meeting room of Cyrenius H. Booth Library.

“I had no background in filmmaking,” Mrs Corvino admitted, but her son, a multi-media artist who has produced several conceptual films, was able to assist her in filming and editing the piece.

“I didn’t want the film to be sad, I wanted it to focus on hopeful ideas,” Mrs Corvino said. There is an urgency, she feels, for people to save the farmlands left in communities all over Connecticut. “I want people to think about and notice in their community what is going on. Are there farms there and are there farms left to preserve? Will there still be access to fresh foods when farms die off? The integrity of a town revolves around the ability to care for itself.”

John Corvino, who helped with the filming, added, “If there was ever a crisis, there would be local farms with local food. In a crisis, it would be nice to have a self-sufficient source of food.”

As working farms dwindle, the Corvinos fear that a growing reliance on foods from distant countries, produced in corporately owned situations, could prove to be a disservice to future generations.

 Mrs Corvino interviewed several farmers and their families, mainly from the Shelton area, for her film.

“It is not a polished film,” she said. “It’s a grassroots, real people sort of film. I wanted the farmers to be the experts and the wisdom in this film.”

The farmers’ voices narrate the bulk of the 54-minute film, as images depicting the land, the work, and the people of the farms sweep from frame to frame.

There were no rehearsals in the making of the documentary. Mrs Corvino did give a copy of questions prepared for the production to the farmers prior to filming, but their responses are strictly off the cuff. The initial reaction she received from farmers that she approached about the film was one of disbelief. “They didn’t know what to make of me. They were surprised I wanted to make a film about them, about farming.”

The questions she posed touched on subjects she felt were of concern to small farmers: Are you worried about holding on to this farm? Do you worry about passing it on? Does the development around you worry you?

The answers she received were sometimes surprising. Development concerns farmers, but oddly enough, so does the push to preserve open space.

“Many towns, including Shelton, have conservation groups that work to preserve open space,” she said. “What the farmers pointed out to me, and what I had not thought about before, is that open space is not farmland. Unused farmland will turn to brushland. That happens almost instantly.”

Open spaces are vital to a thriving community, she said, but farmland that produces must also be preserved. “Farming and farmland is the treasure, and farmers and their knowledge is the treasure,” said Mrs Corvino. “If it disappears, it will be hard to get back.”

She hopes that The Farmer’s Voice will raise awareness of the importance of healthy, fresh, local food that she believes is needed to maintain health. “The quality of locally grown food is usually superior. Even if food is not organic, it is usually grown using less pesticides [than that shipped in from other parts of the world].”

The film was made entirely at the expense of the Corvino family.

“I lost track of what it cost to make. I could have looked for grants, I suppose, but I just decided to go ahead and do it,” said Mrs Corvino.

Having a son with over 20 years of experience in filmmaking was a plus, she said. Sean Corvino put together the footage at a public access facility in Bridgeport called Soundview Community Media, using their digital editing suite, where there is no charge to users.

“This film was a very different style from the films I usually do,” he said. He has always been aware, because of his mother’s and father’s interests, he said, of the importance of social issues. He hopes to collaborate in the future on other pieces that, like The Farmer’s Voice, will inspire viewers’ critical thinking.

If viewing the film will stir up the thoughts and hearts of people, if it will cause them to pay attention to the farms in their communities and what can still be preserved, that will be her reward, said Mrs Corvino. 

Unless people value the farms that are left, and revitalize those farmlands that have been let go, Mrs Corvino fears that one day the farmer, the farms, and the commodities they produce will not be there for her grandchildren and their descendents. “We won’t see that farmer driving down the road in his tractor. We won’t see cows in the pastures or corn growing in the fields. And that is a unique experience.”

The Farmers Voice has been shown at three different venues in Shelton since it was finished this spring. For those unable to make the August 30 viewing at the Booth Library, bookings in other area facilities are in the works, said Mrs Corvino.

Also, limited copies of The Farmer’s Voice are available to organizations wishing to view the documentary. Contact Beverly Corvino at 203-929-4471 or 260-9605 for more information.

Following the presentation at Booth Library, Mrs Corvino will be on hand to lead a discussion of what actions can be taken locally, nationally, and globally to ensure that farms in Connecticut do not become just a footnote in the history book.