Dear Friends,
As opportunities arise for farmers to diversify their operations or for community groups to expand their impact, Southern SAWG remains dedicated to providing the needed support. The annual conference provides many learning opportunities, but we also offer programs throughout the year to help our friends along in their pursuits. You'll find announcements of several new educational and technical support tools offered by Southern SAWG, so we hope you'll find them useful. We always like to get your input on our work and suggestions for future work, so please drop us a line anytime.

-- Your Friends at Southern SAWG

SSAWG@aol.com.

The Unique Tools and Education project has yielded another valuable educational tool - a virtual farm tour of Legg Land and Livestock, the Tennessee meat goat farm operated by Bill and Peggy Legg along with Bill's father. The video highlights production aspects of the Legg's diverse farm operation including breeds and breeding of goats, pasture management, and pest control, plus marketing tips. The information contained in this new video from Southern SAWG is ideal for organizations sponsoring farmer training programs and for individuals seeking to add or enhance meat goat enterprises on their farms.

Accompanying the video are three new and updated farm stories that profile sustainable meat goat farms. The newly added story of Bill and Peggy Legg's farm serves as an ideal educational tool, supplementing the new Meat Goat video with specific information about their operation.

With over 30 years of farming experience and 12 years in meat goat production, the story of Ben Anthony's Arkansas farm also provides valuable insight into raising goats on a diversified operation that also includes a variety of vegetables plus beef cattle and hogs.

Neil Hoffman's Farm in Kentucky focuses on meat goats on 14 acres, plus 8 additional acres for mixed vegetable production. This profile offers a range of information from production details to marketing tips plus a sample enterprise budget.

For those seeking even more sources of information on raising meat goats, Southern SAWG has also compiled other selected resources into a new, online Meat Goat Enterprise Resource List.

A sample clip of the video can be viewed online and links to the three farm stories and a download-ready enterprise resource list can be found at: http://www.ssawg.org/virtualfarm.html#goats.

There are no overpaid celebrities or overblown budgets, no flashy animation or "special" effects; and, while there are not even any hyped-up awards shows, these films have a value to many that is far beyond any Hollywood blockbuster. The Natural Farming Systems in the South series of educational videos produced by Southern SAWG now includes six "virtual farm tours" that feature sustainable farm operations from throughout the Southern region. The videos are used as teaching tools during SSAWG sponsored workshops, shown as supplemental information during other organizations' training programs, and have been purchased and viewed by hundreds of individuals. Oh, and as for the awards? Co-producers Jim Carr and Allen Rosen received a Gold award for "External Communications" from the Media Communications Association International and a Bronze Telly award for their work on the Maple Springs Gardens video, and the Cut Flower Video won a Bronze Telly in the training video category.

Jim, who directs the films, and Allen, the videographer have been involved in the SSAWG video project since it started in 2003 – a perfect fit given the appreciation both have for the life and work of family farmers. The on-farm settings of these videos remind Jim of growing up surrounded by agriculture in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County where he would lend a hand on neighbors' farms as a young man. And, for Allen, this project is “a labor of love," since it depicts "how I like my family to live," referring to his commitment to local and organic foods and to farmers who grow food naturally.

The process of creating a video begins with SSAWG staff and our agricultural enterprise specialists working as a team to conduct in-depth research of the subject matter and to identify the farmer to be featured in the virtual farm tour. The team then develops a written profile of the farm, constructs the educational messages of the video, and compiles a detailed description of topics to be covered. Jim and Allen study this information provided by SSAWG in preparation for the shoot. Because of the high cost of on-location production, careful planning is required to ensure that all the relevant information is captured during the three to four day shoot on the farm. Jim and Allen then work to set up the telling of that story in pictures by scheduling the scenes that will be shot each day.

Several hours of action shots are taken while the farmers perform their work. Generic shots that provide a broader sense of the farm operations are also recorded. Allen films an interview that Jim conducts with the farmer, which Jim describes as "more like sitting down and having a conversation with the farmers." Unlike filming for a TV show on a controlled set or sound stage, Allen must accommodate the natural light and capture the real life sounds while on the farm. And, of course, the weather is always a factor.

Once the film is "in the can," the post-production begins. First, all the audio is recorded onto a tape and transcribed. Then Jim, working from the topics provided by SSAWG, constructs a script that determines which sound bytes are included in the first sound-only "radio edit." After two or three rounds of intensive information review and content edits with Production Manager Jean Mills and a technical enterprise specialist, visuals are added to the sound. Then, more editing by the SSAWG team as each step builds on the previous. This extensive review and editing ensures that the film will be visually appealing and interesting as well as educational.

Stylistically, Jim feels that this project is more like making a documentary, a genre he is very familiar with from his experience with National Geographic, Discovery Channel, and PBS. It's less similar to some of his other projects, like Dr. Phil, Oprah, and other broadcast television. Allen, who has a similarly impressive resume of commercial, documentary, and corporate identity work agrees, saying, "it's not at all like the reality shows on TV," but reminds him more of a series of anthropology documentary films he worked on.

Because of the limited budget of the project, Jim and Allen have both contributed their time and professional services above and beyond what could be expected. Much like the farmers who are subjects of these films, though, they take a great amount of pride in their work; they're clearly committed to creating a quality product, and have given of themselves to make that product possible.

For more information on Allen Rosen, visit http://www.allenrosenproductions.com and to learn more about Jim Carr, visit http://www.carrvideoproductions.com. Click http://www.ssawg.org/virtualfarm.html to view clips of the videos and to order your copies. The Natural Farming Systems in the South series in made possible in part through an ongoing partnership with USDA Risk Management Agency.

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