Edible City is about Oakland, California, but you might not realize it right away. Michael Pollan does a cameo, and Wes Jackson of the Land Institute does a cameo, and I didn’t get what was going on right away because this documentary is a montage of people, gardens, community. It’s a whole bunch of people growing a whole bunch of food.

What these good green people of Oakland are doing is the diametric opposite of factory food farming. There are chickens and bunnies, not in huge containment facilities but in small groups, neighborhood-like. Everybody in the movie seems to know that monoculture—agribusiness standard operating procedure—is no good compared to the diverse greening of Oakland. Edible is about organic and it’s about sustainability. No pesticides, no artificial fertilizers, cooperation and coming together.

The community is the people, all kinds of them, Cuban farmers, black farmers, white farmers, Asian farmers, kids, old folks reminiscing about the garden that grew right here, and here, 50 years ago, and so on.

Miquel Altieri, UC Berkeley, talks it up as does educator Joy Moore, who teaches kids how to grow food, cooperate, and eat what’s available from what you grow.

There’s Hank Herrera of Dig Deep Farms and some nice down-home banjo music and a free dining room for folks who can’t afford to pay for it. And there are plenty of others with cutesy and clever names for their urban farms and gardens.

And there’s slogans like “Power lies in people,” and “Fight the bad with good, fight evil with love,” and “Occupy the Farm.” And meetings, citizens who long for good, healthy food stores, planners who see the need to expand the greening of Oakland, excitement.

The excitement is contagious and not only infects the folks in the movie but, in my case at least, the folks who watch it. This one is hopeful and fun and you won’t be sorry you took a look, I promise. It’s a little over an hour long.