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| The 6th Annual "All Things Food" Food Tank Summit at SXSW in 2025 photo courtesy of Food Tank |
This year is the 7th Annual "All Things Food and Environment Summit”
at SXSW presented by Food Tank is highlighting stories that rarely make it
across the margins. On March 12 Food Tank will debut the first ever “All
Things Food and Agriculture Film Festival” with the world premiere of Food Tank's original documentary
short film "Irish Farmers: A Love Story." The
programming for Food Tank at SXSW has been ramped up this year with a full day of panels and talks. Danielle
Nierenberg, co-founder and president of Food Tank, says it’s important that Food Tank
expands its reach.
“For so many people film is a powerful way to learn about something they otherwise wouldn’t pay attention to,” Nierenberg says. “I can tell people things, but to see it on film reaches and impacts differently.”
Food Tank is mission is all about storytelling and bringing culture back to the agriculture movement. The short film “Irish Farmers: A Love Story” follows three Irish women farmers. Co-founder of Food Tank Bernard Pollack is living on Ireland right now, and the team thought the film would be a great way to document the unique challenges and successes of Irish farmers.
As a part of an initiative to tell stories from around the world, Food Tank will be filming in Kenya next month. Nierenberg and says it’s important to have those stories told. At SXSW, Food Tank is focusing on women in agriculture with panels like “Voices of Female Farmers." Nierenberg says the goal is to show huge role woman play in farming.
“It’s important to hear their voices because they are often ignored, undervalued and not respected,” Nierenberg says. “Here in the United States so many women have looked at farming landscapes as places for improving biological diversity and looking at farms as a place for beneficial insects and bird populations and other wildlife.”
Statistically women don’t get the same access to education and finance that men in farming, do Nierenberg says that’s changing The United Nations declared this year the “Year of the Woman Farmer.” She continued by saying in the global south women are the ones producing the most nutritious food.
Chefs Like Adrian Lipscombe, the executive director of the Muloma Heritage Center, makes it a priority to provide nutritious food at her pop-up dinners. Lipsconbe served as a Culinary Diplomat to the White House from 2023 to 2025 and will be on the Farmstead to Future panel at the Food tank Summit. She says as a black woman in the culinary industry it's her responsibility to continue the culinary legacy she inherited.
“Being a Black woman that grew up in The South, our food stories often go untold or dismissed,” she says. “A lot of people assume we only cook Southern food, but have such curiosity and a diverse palate that we bring with us into the kitchen”
“Working with farmers allows us to understand what they grow,” Lipscombe says. “I always wanted people to understand where the food comes from, especially when it comes from their own backyard.”
Lipscombe launched a series called “Farmer to Table” where farmers would come to a dinner featuring their farm grown ingredients and talk to guests about the food being served. Lipscombe says it was an eye opener for both the farmer and attendees.
“I had farmers come up to me and say, ‘I didn’t know my food could taste like that or be prepared like that’,” she recalls. “I get goose bumps talking about because many of them couldn’t afford to eat at restaurants that served their food.”
Agriculture as Culture
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| Gerardo Martinez, owner of Wild Kids Farm |
Martinez, who will be speaking at the Food Tank Summit says it’s important to get young people involved in the agricultural industry, because it’s a part of their culture. Half Mexican- half Syrian, his farm is located in Edgewater, Maryland. Martinez models his business after farms in Latin America that he says are the center of the community and keeper of the culture.
“We’re super inviting and focused on being accessible and speaking the language they speak,” Martinez says.
Wild Kids Farm is one of the few bi-lingual farms that allows visitors and he boasts 60,000 visitors in 2025. He says the lure is he allows people to come in and do what they want on the farm along with hosting events and petting zoos. Martinez also teaches people how to run a farm, buy land and access capital. He says most Mexican don’t need to learn how to grow food, but there are other challenges they face when it comes to farming.
“I’m Mexican and where our culture is really strong suited is the lack of resources and perseverance through all adversity,” Martinez says. “You don’t need the million-dollar tractor. You have all the resources you need and it looks like work and the people around you.”
When he bought the land for Wild Kids Farm, he pulled on his culture and attitude around farming to get the job done. He runs his farm using the same regenerative agricultural techniques used in Tenochtitlán, or Mexico City before the Spanish arrived. Curious about how The Aztec Empire fed 2 million people without modern technology, he researched Tenochtitlán and found what we would call an urban farm. In addition to a central natural water source, the Aztecs were experts in waste management. He uses wood chips from trees to sustain his practice and manages other waste like compost piles for farming circularity. Even cultural events like rodeos gave Martinez insight into maintaining his farm.
Without younger people getting into the industry, these practices will be lost. Martinez says farming is dying and there’s nobody to teach farmers things like how get into the US market and pass down regenerative agricultural techniques.
“We’re in the room with a lot of farmers and I’m the youngest one by 20 years,” Martinez says. “My wife and I sat down and said we can make the world a better place and our product can be the next generation of farmers.”
For many, Wild Kids Farms is the first access point into the agriculture industry and events like the Food Tank Summit at SXSW are helping farmers like Martinez and chefs like Lipscombe close the knowledge gap.