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FARMSTEADERS follows Nick and Celeste Nolan and their young family on a journey to resurrect Nick's grandfather's dairy farm as a locally sustainable family farm.
"Farmsteaders isn't a film focused on the evils of factory farming or the greed of big corporations; instead, it's an intimate and exalting look at the small family farm, the everyday hero of our food system."
Mother Nature Network
"It's not just a story about farming, but of standing up to live one's life in accordance with one's beliefs, no matter the sacrifice."
Julie R. Thomson, Huffington Post
"We face a structural crisis in this country when it comes to Land transfer. In our work with Agrarian Trust, we hear every day about land-drama, both from those seeking to enter agriculture, and those seeking to retire in dignity. This film portrays a truly heart-warming story of family farming, the dynamics of inter-generational transfer, and the beauty, struggle, and hardship of making it work. All farmers must face these themes, and more eaters and policy makers must understand that this inflection of ownership and stewardship has tremendous impact on the viability of our rural places and economies."
Severine von Tscharner Fleming, Director of Greenhorns, Founding Board President of Agrarian Trust
"FARMSTEADERS is a personal and intimate story that will create empathy between viewers and those brave souls who are farming against all odds in a globalized market system that cares little for the individual family, their historical ties to the land, and collective agrarian commitments, and instead prioritizes output above all else. May this story, without drama or glamour, connect us, and ultimately motivate us to more actively engage those who grow and raise the food that sustains us all, either by buying more local produce from farmers and ranchers or by engaging in local to global policy efforts designed to help support a diversity of farmers in maintaining their land, stewarding it and paving the way for future generations who can carry this work forward."
Gabrielle Roesch-McNally, Director for Women for the Land, American Farmland Trust
"At a time when most small dairy farmers are thinking about getting out, the Nolans bring cows back to their farm, with a plan to make dairying work in a way closer to the way their ancestors worked the land. Will they and their children manage to build a life out of a small herd of mixed breeds, selling cheese to the local town? While the answer to that question is unclear, what is clear is the determination, strength and sweat it takes to try."
E. Melanie DuPuis, Professor and Chair, Environmental Studies and Science, Pace University, Author, Nature's Perfect Food: How Milk Became America's Drink
"Every day twice a day the cows must be milked. The film captures the struggle to create and maintain the conditions so farmers can work hard to make a living. And some of the joys when it works. It gives a sense of the relentlessness of cycles from spring to winter; from grandparents to grandchildren; from cows to calves; from parents to children. From one day to the next. People who consume dairy products should watch it to develop an appreciation in very human terms for what's on their tables."
E. Paul Durrenberger, Co-founder and Board Member, The Sustainable Iowa Land Trust, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Iowa and Penn State University