Austin Schuver

Year: 2022

  • Capturing a Fermented Food Festival: The Bacteria Bazaar

    Gathered in the old Hamilton Grange, a motley collection of old, young, and in between. Some from the Bitterroot, others from distant vales of Montana and beyond. Many hairy and beautifully bearded.

    A day spent soaking up new biology, chemistry, and cooking lessons. A night tipsy on homemade brews, twisting to Jewish dance music and farmer folk tunes. Shoutout to the bands, Chutzpah and Barn Cat!

    Led by keynotes of the ineffable Sandor Katz (“The Godfather of Fermentation“), a cadre of impressively knowledgable and passionate people taught the old (and new) ways of making real food more flavorful, long-lasting, and accessible to our guts. The 2-day Bacteria Bazaar featured workshops on wine, sauerkraut, sourdough, kombucha, tempeh, cheese, and more.

    You can watch a short film from the event that I created below.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyGUg-gAq0Y

    People who grow their own food and make their own food, their own alcohol, their own music, their own fun, their own insights, and they’re eager to share it all—they’re some of the best people to be around.

    Making sauerkraut.

    I often forget how technically challenging it is to photograph inside dark inside old buildings. Sometimes it is also logistically complex to photograph people during activities like workshops. However, the organizers, Angi and Erin, did an awesome job with the event and it yielded some really great photos.

    Find Angi with Blue Coyote Farm and Erin with House of Ferments at the Missoula Farmers’ Market and others. Also check out their Instagram page for updates on the event: @bacteriabazaar.

    If you can, show your support for the small businesses that made the Bacteria Bazaar possible! If you’re outside of Montana, give your love to the local farmers and foodmakers in your area.

  • Storytelling with Video

    Lights. Audio. Camera. ACTION!

    For the last two years, I’ve worked with Jeremy Roberts, owner of Conservation Media in Missoula, Montana. Conservation Media is an award-winning storytelling outlet that produces short films for non-profit organizations, government agencies, and other clients.

    While Jeremy excels in captivating audiences with incredible imagery of wildlife and landscapes, his hidden mastery lies in telling human tales. Jeremy taught me how to communicate science and conservation not simply through Planet Earth-esque documentary filming, but also by connecting audiences to the people deeply involved in changing the world.

    The Nature Conservancy Montana

    For a non-profit like the Nature Conservancy, for example, Jeremy walked me through “story boarding.” First, this process involved winnowing down an hour-long interview with a top forester. Then we combined it with B-roll, which was video from a prescribed burn. The end result was a concise 3-minute film allowing viewers to discover the necessity of prescribed burning to restore forests, an invaluable educational and fundraising tool for TNC Montana.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roklegBVrjA

    Defenders of Wildlife

    We also worked on a short video for Defenders of Wildlife. Defenders is a non-profit helping Montana landowners install electric fencing. This fencing deters hungry bears from entering gardens, orchards, or chicken coops, ultimately reducing human-wildlife conflict. Here you can watch the final product of my audio work combined with Jeremy’s editing in a short video to celebrate Defenders of Wildlife’s 500th electric fence project.

    Blackfoot Challenge

    To practice collecting high-quality audio-video while conducting engaging interviews, I also joined Jeremy and community leaders for a project with the Blackfoot Challenge. A local non-profit, the Blackfoot Challenge collaborates with ranchers, conservationists, and other community members to reduce wildlife conflict and conserve the Blackfoot River watershed. The final film was a 13-minute gem, showcasing the inspiring and meaningful work of those involved in the Blackfoot Challenge.

    https://vimeo.com/709729025

    As a direct result of my time with Jeremy, I have a better appreciation for the experience, time, and skill involved in communicating complex conservation topics through video. While I can’t yet match Jeremy’s decades of experience weaving together science and emotion, I am incredibly privileged to have had the opportunity to work with and learn from one of the masters.

  • My Master’s Thesis: Agricultural Adaptation to Climate Change

    I graduated from the University of Montana this spring! Below, you can watch my thesis defense on adaptation in agriculture.

    https://youtu.be/57OjQmMId-8

    Apologies for no human faces, I thought Zoom would save at least my own!

    Thesis Abstract

    In Montana, climate change is projected to increase interannual variability and the severity of weather events like drought. To sustain agricultural production, farmers must adapt to climate change within a complex decision-making process responsive to a range of climate and non-climate stressors.

    This study explores how Montana farmers approach proactive and long-term adaptation, two types of adaptation which are not well studied, but are expected to be increasingly important for adapting to the impacts of climate change. To understand Montana farmers’ approaches to adaptation, I conducted 30 in-depth interviews with crop farmers across the state.

    Farmers explained how unpredictability in weather and markets fostered a lack of agency and the sense that proactive decisions were gambles. When asked about the utility of two forms of climate information designed to help make proactive decisions, three-month forecasts and mid-century projections, most farmers thought they lacked reliability and relevance. Instead, to buffer against short-term fluctuations and overcome a lack of agency, farmers prioritized long-term adaptations with short-term benefits. These findings suggest that improvements in climate information and agricultural policy could support farmers in pursuing proactive, long-term adaptations.