Edible City: San Francisco Urban Farmers Featured In New Documentary (VIDEO)

The Bay Area has long been a pioneer of the farm-to-table movement. And now, a new film explores its leading role in the urban farm-to-table movement as well.

"Edible City" takes viewers on a journey through the local urban farming movement, a trend that began in 2008, by following farmers, cooks, activists and educators.

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Urban farming works by converting empty lots into organic gardens as a means to resist big agriculture and to address problems common to big cities, such as food scarcity and obesity.

The documentary began as a short piece about Slow Food Nation, but it quickly blossomed into a 60-minute feature when volunteers came out in droves to help with its production.

"It was like this treasure hunt, and every single person we met was an amazing character," Director Andrew Hasse told Grub Street.

Funding for "Edible City" was raised independently using Kickstarter, and viewers can now watch the film for free online.

“As a filmmaker, your options are to get a financier, or to crowd-source it, which was fairly unusual a few years back,” Hasse told Bay Area Express. “It’s amazing that we got the money independently.”

The documentary features big-name Bay Area natives Joy Moore of the Berkeley Alternative School, Willow Rosenthal of City Slicker Farms and Jim Montgomery of Green Faerie Farm.

It also showcases ordinary Bay Area citizens trying to change their neighborhoods for the better by converting liquor stores in West Oakland into organic food markets or teaching high school students how to grow strawberries.

Watch the trailer for the documentary below and attend a free screening in Berkeley next Thursday: