About the documentary

Land of Canaan is a cinematic meditation following Palestinian farmers tending to some of the oldest olive trees in the world: living symbols of livelihood, heritage, and resistance. When Dr. Nasser Abufarha, a Palestinian American entrepreneur, returns to the occupied West Bank and finds the olive oil industry in crisis, he leads a movement to preserve an ecosystem and thousands of years of ecological knowledge, helping to build one of Palestine's most influential fair-trade networks. While Palestinian land, culture, and livelihood face erasure, Land of Canaan documents a way of life, shows us what is at stake, and why it must be protected.

About the filmmakers / panel

Nasser Abufarha, Ph.D.

Producer / Protagonist

Raised among the olive groves of Jenin, Abufarha founded Canaan Palestine, the world’s first fair‑trade and organic olive oil company. Through his work he has connected more than 2,000 small‑scale Palestinian farming families to global markets, brought Palestinian olive oil to international recognition and funded scholarships and women’s cooperatives. His vision of sustainable, community‑based trade has been celebrated worldwide and is even more relevant today as conflict threatens to sever farmers from their land.

Jacob Wheeler

Independent Journalist, Glen Arbor Sun

Jacob Wheeler is an award-winning independent journalist, editor and publisher of the Glen Arbor Sun in Leelanau County and faculty adviser of the student-run White Pine Press at Northwestern Michigan College. He has written two books based on his reporting in Guatemala, filed bylines from five continents, and helped produce a documentary titled The People and the Olive about the 2011 Run Across Palestine. He lives in Traverse City with his wife Sarah and children, Nina and Leo.

Timothy Young

Co-founder, On The Ground Global

Timothy coordinated OTG’s Runs Across Ethiopia, Palestine and Congo and co-founded On the Ground. His extensive background in travel and human relief work in the developing world inspired not only his commitment to OtG, but also his day job as founder of specialty food company Food For Thought in 1995. The mission: creating and raising awareness around just and sustainable food systems. 

Past endeavors include President of the Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council,Vice Chair of the Michigan Land Use Institute, and founding board member of the Domestic Fair Trade Association. He is currently a board member of the Northwestern Michigan College Foundation and On The Ground. 

About On The Ground Global

Sustainability starts where inequity ends. On the Ground partners with coffee farmer communities to improve standards of living. Our changing climate and unfair global economic structures are threatening the future of coffee. We understand that industry sustainability won’t come from self-serving attempts to protect a valuable crop. It will only come from a collaborative, industry-wide effort to support and develop coffee-growing communities. Our duty is to encourage others to look past their cup and to see those farming families who are still struggling.

We view our coffee-producing colleagues as equals, as friends. We believe that families who farm coffee deserve the same access to basic human rights as the people who trade, roast and consume their coffee. Our dream is to see inequity ended in the specialty coffee industry and to see our friends thrive.

Freed from the burdens of tainted water, malnutrition, disease, illiteracy and economic and political instability, farming communities are capable of producing higher-quality coffee, which supports further development and enriches their entire supply chain. Learn more about On The Ground Global.