Our grandparents were mostly farmers and ranchers, but now food is produced by less than 3% of the population. Our migration from rural to urban environments has disconnected us from the food we eat, water we drink, and even the air we breathe. This tenuous situation is spreading across the world, from developed countries to the grasslands of Mongolia. This film is about the threat to remaining family ranchers in the US and the herders of Mongolia. Both represent the last vestiges of sustainable food production and may not survive the next 50 years. Can we find a place for the form of livestock production that sustained civilization for thousands of years, or will the pressure of overpopulation and modern production relegate true sustainability to something Out of the Past?
—Cody Sheehy