Overview
Join Hickory Nut Gap and UNC-Asheville’s Environmental Science Department alongside filmmaker Peter Byck for a screening of Roots So Deep (you can see the devil down there.) in the Blue Ridge Room at UNC-Asheville on Wednesday, April 9, 2025.

This event will include opportunities for networking, dinner, screenings of parts one and four of the docuseries, followed by a panel discussion around building climate resiliency with Peter Byck, local farmers, and faculty from UNC-Asheville’s Environmental Science Department. The $20 ticket includes the screening and panel discussion, as well as a dinner featuring Hickory Nut Gap’s “Possible Burger” and uncured, 100% grassfed beef hot dogs. Please consider modifying your ticket to donate to Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project’s (ASAP) Farmer Relief Fund. Please note that this ticket price is inclusive of tax so that additional donations made to ASAP are not taxed at checkout.

5:00pm: Networking, meet & greet, food & drink
6:00pm: Part 1 Screening
7:00pm: Intermission with Snacks
7:20pm: Part 4 Screening
8:30pm: Panel Discussion

Panelists:
Peter Byck, Documentary Filmmaker
Jamie Ager, Hickory Nut Gap Co-Founder
Jake Hagedorn, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, UNC-Asheville
Allen Williams, sixth-generation family farmer and a founding partner of Grass Fed Insights, LLC, Understanding Ag, LLC, and the Soil Health Academy.
Moderator tbc

More about the documentary:
“Roots So Deep” is a four-part documentary series all about inventive farmers and maverick scientists asking if an underutilized way to graze cattle, that mimics the way bison once roamed the land, can help get farmers out of debt, restore our depleted soils, rebuild wildlife habitat and draw down carbon? Cattle have been seen as eco-villains for a long time. What if they can help save us from catastrophic climate change?

See the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PpPmkSAiEw

More about Hickory Nut Gap:
About Hickory Nut Gap: Hickory Nut Gap Meats is a pioneering provider of regeneratively raised meats, sourcing from family farms across the southeastern United States. Hickory Nut Gap values and respects the complex relationships between humans and nature, supplying 100% grassfed, grass-finished beef, and pasture raised, heritage breed pork to retailers, restaurants, and caring customers. All Hickory Nut Gap meats are humanely raised and never given antibiotics or added hormones. Hickory Nut Gap products are available at Whole Foods Markets regionally, in addition to Ingles Markets, Harris Teeter, Earth Fare, FreshDirect, local and regional grocery cooperatives, restaurants, and specialty food stores across the Southeastern US. Visitors are welcome at Hickory Nut Gap Farm, located at 57 Sugar Hollow Road in Fairview, North Carolina, which features a farm store, events, and opportunities to learn more about regenerative agriculture.

Early Praise for Roots So Deep:
“What I like so much about these films is the genuine compassion and understanding shown for farmers, no matter how they farm. Peter Byck is a terrific interviewer, even of people who view the world from different perspectives. Anyone who wants to know what regenerative agriculture can do, in theory and in practice, will watch these films with pleasure and admiration for the hard work that goes into producing food.” –Marion Nestle, Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, New York University, and author of books about food politics.

“This is, hands-down, the best agriculture filmmaking I’ve ever seen. The characters are all so likable and captivating, the graphics are stunning, and I learned a ton about ecology… but none of that would matter without Peter Byck’s soul and empathy as storyteller.” –Bill Weir, CNN

Local to Asheville? Don’t miss the opportunity to participate in a Farm Tour at Hickory Nut Gap Farm the morning after the event. Meet at the farm at 9am for the free tour.