The story of an Ontario farmer who took his fight for unpasteurized milk to court is to kick off a series of films about food policy at Toronto's Planet in Focus International Environmental Film & Video Festival.

Ontario farmer Michael Schmidt has led a crusade for the right to sell unpasteurized milk. (Planet in Focus)Food and food policy are hot topics at the moment. In recent months, at least 20 people across Canada have died from listeriosis contracted from luncheon meats, and dairy products from China have been pulled off the shelves after it was discovered they were tainted with the chemical melamine.

Ontario farmer Michael Schmidt has also been in the headlines, after a judge on Monday found him guilty of refusing to heed a court order to stop selling unpasteurized milk in the York region. He faces further prosecution in 2009 on charges by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Grey-Bruce Region.

On Thursday, the film festival screens Michael Schmidt: Organic Hero or Bioterrorist, a Norman Lofts film about the farmer, who has been selling unpasteurized milk from his Owen Sound-area organic farm for years.

Schmidt says his milk is safe and that its taste is superior to pasteurized milk.

Lofts chronicles Schmidt's fight with the powerful milk lobby and tries to assess whether he is a threat to food safety in Ontario.

The film is one of 15 on the topic of food and food policy being screened as part of the Planet in Focus festival. The festival features more than 100 films on environmental themes.

The Schmidt documentary, screening at the Royal Ontario Museum, will be followed by a panel discussion on food policy and food security in Ontario with Schmidt, organic champion Lawrence Andres, cheese maker Ruth Klahsen and others.

Also part of the food series is the world premiere of Return to Nepal, a documentary by Robert Lang about Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn's recent trip to Nepal. Cockburn talks to an organic farmer, a woman milling flour and others involved in feeding people in the country.

Other films on the topic of food include:

• Eternal Mash, from the Netherlands, about the mysterious disappearance of master Dutch horticulturist Ruurd Walrecht, who protected and preserved the seeds of rare vegetables on the brink of extinction.
• The Poet of Grappa, from Italy, about grappa master Romano Levi.
• Alchemy from Britain, which examines the art of baking.
• Crabs on the Road from Colombia, about dwindling crab populations in Colombia.
• Slow Food from Norway, about an artisan fisher and his fight with big trawlers.

Blue Gold: World Water Wars is based on a book by Maude Barlow. (Planet in Focus)The festival opens Wednesday with Blue Gold: World Water Wars, U.S. filmmaker Sam Bozzo's documentary based on the Maude Barlow book Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water.

The opening gala will also feature a tribute to Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky, whose large-format work has highlighted the environmental impact of industrial practices in China and other countries.

Burtynsky will be named the 2008 Planet in Focus Industry/Media Eco-Hero.

Other Eco-Hero awards will be given out on Wednesday to slow-food pioneer and Italian author Carlo Petrini and Canadian sustainable food policy advocate Wayne Roberts.

The Planet in Focus Festival runs Oct. 22-26 in Toronto.