STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

                It started when a 6-foot, 255-pound football player at the University of Wisconsin got food poisoning after eating chicken contaminated with a superbug.

                Over the next four weeks, Jeff and Jennifer Spitz watched helplessly as their son lost 30 pounds because of the bacterial infection, which didn’t respond to antibiotics.

                It was a wake-up call, they said later. A wake-up call that prompted them to begin asking questions about the food they eat.

                They began to raise chickens, letting them run through the living room of their tidy suburban home. They marveled as they grew their first zucchini. They went before their City Council when neighbors complained that they didn’t want to live next to barnyard animals. And they went to Capitol Hill to try to get Congress to do something about antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

                They recounted their experiences in the documentary “Food Patriots”—a term they coined to refer to someone who’s advocating for fresh healthy food for everyone.

                The Local Food Alliance will show the film at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 30, at Magic Lantern Cinema in Ketchum.

                Local food experts will follow up with a conversation about how we can change the way we eat, buy and think about food. They include Kaz Thea, who manages the Wood River Farmers Markets; Carolyn Pace of Idaho’s Bounty; Bellevue gardener Pam Street and Charles Majuri, who can talk about how to teach children values during gardening.

Audience members will also get the opportunity to learn about resources available, including a Boise company that rents out chicken coops for those who want to see how they like raising chickens.

Tickets are $6 in advance at FoodPatriotsWoodRiver.eventbrite.com. They’re $10 at the door.

“The film is really a lighthearted upbeat approach to looking at food, unlike some of the other food documentaries,” said Cynthia Luck Carr. “It’s cute. And it shows how actions speak louder than words.”

 The film looks at a variety of ways in which urban farmers, organic entrepreneurs, food activists and even college athletes are trying to produce healthier eating experience.

It introduces viewers to the nation’s first example of vertical indoor farming in what looks like an underground parking garage. It zeroes in on a community garden project reminiscent of World War II’s Victory Gardens in downtown Chicago where compost had to be brought in to replace contaminated soil.  And it follows University of Wisconsin athletes who are participating in a unique program to learn to grocery shop, eat well and cook for themselves.

The idea is to start a conversation about food—a conversation that encourages viewers to make just a 10 percent change in how they buy, eat and talk about food. That could mean buying 10 percent more local food or 10 percent more organic food.

When you run an item across a food scanner you’re voting for the world you want, notes one Food Patriot.

“Oftentimes people get overwhelmed at the thought of changing the way we eat and buy food,” said Stacy Whitman, a member of the Local Food Alliance. “This film emphasizes that we can make small changes and still make a difference. Something as simple as shopping at the Farmers Market can make a difference to your health, the environment and local economy.

Carr, for instance, noted that she has been trying to find relatively inexpensive cheese culled from milk produced by animals that are not raised in feedlots.

“I can’t give up cheese, but it’s hard to drive by the feedlots on the way to Twin Falls,” she said.

About the Local Food Alliance

The Local Food Alliance was started in 2013 to address economic and other issues concerning food consumption and production locally.

“We have to take back our food,” said Stacy Whitman. “We can’t wait on the government to ensure the safety of our food.”

                For more information, go to localfoodalliance.org.