Sustainable (2016) User Reviews

Uplifting & Important Documentary

[larrys3 · 7/10 · 5 December 2017]

This uplifting and important documentary focuses mostly on the 160 acre Illinois farm of Marty Travis, which has been family owned and operated since 1830. Travis, along with his wife Kris and son Will, is determined to organically grow quality yields that will shun the large commercial farm methods using herbicides and GMO's.

He has built up a network of chefs and restaurants in the Chicago area that want his product, and has also successfully joined in a collaborative effort with neighboring farms to schedule crop growth on an alternating yearly track that will not only satisfy customer needs but also keep the land they own sustainable for the future.

Travis, aside from the most important tenet of quality above quantity, really wants to help people achieve their best health and applauds others around the globe who work towards stopping environmental destruction. Later in the movie, we will meet other farmers and ranchers who share this goal and in their own unique ways have taken action to achieve it.

I obtained this doc, a film by Matt Wechsler and Annie Speicher, from my local library. It has on the DVD a 92 min. and a 52 min. version, and I watched the 92 min. one. Unfortunately, the DVD has no subtitles.

Helpful but not quite ..

[halmagian-victor · 6/10 · 22 January 2019]

The quality of the documentary is ok, I mean the filming production. But if you look at statistics and trusted information you will find that it is not sustainable to raise lifestock or other animal products.

An interesting and comprehensive story told through unique voices

[mgo-65117 · 7/10 · 1 July 2020]

What do you know about where your food comes from? What does it really mean to be sustainable in the agricultural industry? How can we feed the world? The 2016 documentary, Sustainable, answers all these questions and more from the perspective of small scale farmers. Told primarily through the voices of a seventh generation farmer in Illinois, Sustainable tells the story of how the people who call what is often termed 'flyover country' home are working tirelessly to change the food systems in America. Blending agriculture, environmental science, economics, marketing, and culture the film examines the movement from all sides while avoiding the fear mongering often present in exposes on the food industry and health crisis in the United States.

I appreciated the synergy between the academic research presented and the positive results that the independent farmers found in their crops. Furthermore, I believe that the film convincingly made an argument for how food grown in a sustainable fashion is capable of feeding the world, responding directly to the most common criticisms of price and output. By combining this with the more commonly known positive environmental effects, the documentary is able to bring the goals of both sides together. The documentarians have deployed humor as a weapon against the marketing of food trends to consumers with great impact, and a rather damning conclusion.

In my opinion, the one negative about the film is that I found it mildly disjointed, and I had some difficulty holding all of the different threads to the story. By trying to come at the issue with a holistic perspective and include as many examples as possible, the product has a cohesive message, but maybe not a cohesive narrative. Even with this downfall, overall I found the documentary to not only be a fascinating look at a grassroots food movement, but also a compelling argument for a larger cultural shift.

Some interesting solutions to industrial agriculture

[anglicant · 11 April 2022]

Quite a few of these comments seem to come from ignorant activist-types, who don't understand or care about some of the points made in the 2nd half of the film. Yes, animal agriculture as it exists today is barbaric and completely unsustainable. No, not every instance of animal agriculture is cruel, unjust, or unsustainable. Animals are a key part of ecosystems, their long term equilibrium, and in the management of the water and soil. There is a balance that can be achieved with animals, which is more sustainably productive than without them (e.g. Rice-fish farming systems).

It was fantastic information until the Amish farmer

[lionessmo · 6/10 · 31 August 2018]

Really well done in so many areas. I thought they handled controversial topics quite well and I learned a lot. Unfortunately, the Amish farmer interview ruined it for me. His statement that our "souls have become too degraded" for sustainable farming made me stop watching immediately.

Correcting a previous reviewer's statement

[Dogznducks · 10/10 · 13 February 2019]

A previous reviewer stated the Amish farmer's interview ruined it for him. He quoted the man as saying "our SOULS are too degraded to support sustainable agriculture."

What the farmer actually said was " Our SOILS are too degraded to support sustainable agriculture, we need to be practicing regenerative agriculture."

Just like humans have to heal before they can have a healthy day to day life.

Absolutely great documentary.

Just beautiful

[Silvarian · 10/10 · 24 March 2022]

I don't know many movies that have this certain kind of atmosphere that just makes your inner life calm down and lets you watch in absolute tranquility with a dash of awe.

There are so many great perspectives in this movie, both in terms of camera and landscape, as well as in regards to mindset and attitude towards life.

Furthermore, there is a lot to learn from watching this piece, as many deep thinkers are interviewed, and there was a pleasant lack of what I would like to call "moral pandering".

I have never seen the concept of sustainability be presented in such harmony with nature, which is ultimately the way it should be displayed, because that's what it really is about.

Strong start but a flawed ending

[saeidi_61 · 3/10 · 11 September 2019]

I liked the first part of the movie, when they talked about growing organic grains and vegetables, but then the story tried to explain how to correctly raise livestock. Scientifically, we are at a point that raising animals for food has issues regarding the environment, animal rights, and our health. So, I didn't find the later part of the documentary in line with the concerns of United Nations and other major environmental institutions. If we look at the issue of world hunger today, with all the industrialized animal farming methods, we realize that still we cannot feed everyone on the planet, let alone we raise animals in a slower pace methods. Of course it is not going to be sustainable in terms of being able to feed people.