Exploration 12

The idea that the farm industry has turned into making money instead of feeding quality food to people is ridiculous. Corporate farms care more about making profit than the well-being of the people who eat their products. The film showed that we need to down size our farms and have free-range live stock. Not live-stock that is crammed together 10,000 deep and disease filled. The film made me think about the types of meat and other farm products I choose to eat. I would like to know more about how much a free-range farms makes versus a commercial farm. One of the quotes that stuck out the most while watching the film was "American's fear only one thing: inconvenience." Which is utterly true.

It seems that often times what is most profitable to company, may not be what is most profitable to society. This is a idea that is prevalent in the documentary Fresh. Spraying pesticides over tons of crops may preserve and grow more produce, but it is also unnatural and unhealthy for the consumers. The easy way out is not always the best way. Not only this but foods that are grown naturally without the use of pesticides and other chemicals to support growth taste better. If for no other reason that would be enough. I once had the pleasure of eating some organically grown snap peas, and I can honestly say that is one of the few times I actually really enjoyed vegetables rather than just forcing them down my throat to escape flack from my mother.
As far as the treatment of animals go, I do think there has to be some standard. However, I also think that this isn't as important. I mean is throwing chickens on the ground going to harm the produce of raw chicken? I doubt it. Besides the fact remains that farmers are in effect, breeding these creatures to kill. What's the point of being extremely kind and gentle to a creature you're going to chop off the head of with an axe and eat for dinner? If there's some actual physical evidence for why the product would be better with more humane treatment of animals I figure why not? But the fact remains that animals are not humans so why should be treat them like they are? There's probably a happy medium somewhere between torturing baby cows and sending your dog to a hotel with room service and a 60" LCD television for them to watch that we as a society should be aiming for.

 “Every decision we make at the supermarket – what we grow, what we eat – is creating a different future for the land, the farmers, for the diversity of our crops, for the health of our bodies and communities.”

This quote was interesting to me because it explains how much control we have over the future of our agriculture and the effect it has on society.

Exploration 12

Watching this film, there are many ideas that seem to be important in it. One idea that stands out to me is using only grown on farm material instead of buying corporate material which has all those bad unhealthy stuff in it. I think this is important because it gives the food they make more of a freshness instead of a weak un-fresh food. Who really wants to eat something that ate another animal. I would like to know more on how farmers get away with doing the wrong thing and think that is okay to treat not only the animals on the farm this way but also the people who end up eating it weeks later after buy it from a store. Said at the start of the film "all our economy cares about is more cheap stuff" in a sense this is true but it's not the correct thing to be doing.

Exploration 12

I think this documentary shared a lot of great information about farms and the importance of food being fresh, healthier, and not using pesticides which helps by making the food healthier for us and more organic. Many times food will have hormones in it to make the food bigger and also it will have stuff in it to better preserve the food item that is being consumed. This documentary showed that all of that stuff isn't necessary. It's better for our body to intake natural and organic things rather than man made and one of the farmers even stated that in the documentary. I think that this was important information to know because often i catch myself going to the store and for example if i look at the watermelons i think hmm, which one looks the biggest. This film helped me change my way of thought because now i know that the watermelon could of been filled with hormones to make it look "bigger" when in reality the smallest one could be the best because it's all natural. I think some information that we might need to know more about is the upkeep. For example, does the upkeep on an organic farm take much more work than a farm that just throws fertilizer and pesticides down and hope for the best? I think that could be looked into a little more with further research. However, the direct quote that I chose from the film was "men fear one thing, inconvenience." I think this quote is very true. With our world today we have everything at the click of a button whether it be smart phones, blue tooth's, etc. If something is at an  inconvenience for us we wont go out of our way to get it. Our society is almost in a sense kind of spoiled. thats why I felt like this quote stood out to me the most.

Sojourner Truth: English Extra Credit Poem

Sojourner Truth

My name is Isabella but you can call me truth,

born on the Hardenbergh plantation without a word of English.

13 brothers and sisters in upstate New York speaking deutches,

Sold to a new master at age nine never to return to my kind.

Sold with a fold of sheep for one hundred dollars.

Is that all I’m worth to you my light skinned brothers?

Wipped, embarrassed, harassed, and abused “more,” my oppressor roars without refuse.

I pray allowed when scared and confused asking the Good Lord to come and renew.

This life hasn’t been all it’s cracked up to be, how could you understand unless you have lived inside of me?

This malice and hate I have been shown won’t keep this passion inside of me from growin’.

I’ll travel across this land of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness speaking truthfully of slavery, abolition, salvation and women’s rights until I see the light.

Ain’t I a woman deserving of respect what does it take for a little bit of courtesy, I’ve done my time in the field earnestly.

Time to put the sythe down and raise up this myth of everyone being equal enjoying liberty.

When my day comes I want to be remembered not as an outlaw or criminal but one who stands for the freedom of all.

Exploration 12: Response to Fresh

There were many ideas that were important. I believe that the most important one would have to be the downscaling of farms. Going back to more of a family farm feel and getting rid of the factory farms. One reason I believe this is important is that it is "Our duty to respect the design of nature." This means letting the animals eat grass and be out in a field not in buildings. We need to go back to the roots of agriculture. I also believe that the manufacturing process should be more like "Good Nature Family Farms." This, I believe, would give us a higher quality and a healthier product.

            One thing that I would like to know more about, however, is the steps that have been taken towards achieving more of this agricultural roots system. If I were to research more about this topic, it would be the steps that are or have been taken to create a healthier environment for these animals. I believe that large scale farms can achieve success even with a more grass roots approach.

Exploration 12

 

             I feel that the line from the beginning of the documentary sums up the root cause of the problem discussed throughout the film. That is “American’s fear only one thing, inconvenience.” This reason is why we are raising animals and crops the way we are. It is easier. But is it really? Now we are fighting diseases and have to constantly be treating for these diseases. It might have started out as being easier by raising the animals and crops in a large group, and not using a variety of them, but that is just causing diseases, weeds and bugs to adapt to what we are doing and become much stronger. Nature doesn’t like monocultures. It likes when a variety of animals and crops are grown together, not all the same kind. An example of this is the Mad Cow disease, which never existed before we started raising cows all together in a feedlot.

            Fresh also points out that many people do not even know what they are eating, and how that food got to their plate. There are companies that have most of the control of the food chain, and they have part in it from the seed all the way until it makes it to the plate. This just seems like it could cause a huge problem in the years to come.

            I feel that this documentary has opened my eyes a lot to what is going on. I feel that we need to work to correct this, by doing more research on how monocultures cause problems, and ways that we can reverse these problems.