Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Exploration 5 by Regan Ross

     Fresh is a film about how our food in America is not the way it is naturally supposed to be. The film shows you many different ways animals and crops are farmed. The reason why farmers use certain techniques and products to raise their agriculture is explained by knowledgeable sources.
     One of the main concepts in the film is factory farming. Factory farming is a system of raising livestock in which large numbers of animals are raised indoors to maximize production at minimum cost. This way of producing food that goes onto millions of plates everyday causes many problems for the consumer and for the farmer. Farmers are feeding these animals meat because it is cheap and makes the animals grow faster. All livestock animals are herbivores naturally, feeding these animals meat may be linked to diseases like mad cow disease. As for consumers and people in general, factory farms are not good at all. These can farms pollute waterways and can pollute the air because of the chemicals large amounts of manure can give off. When thousands of the same type animal is packed into a tight space, disease can occur very easily. This can contaminate the meat we are eating and causes farmers to overuse antibiotics to prevent disease from happening. When people eat large amounts of antibiotics found in the meat they are eating, it makes them more immune to antibiotics when they are sick.
     A farmer named Joel Salatin does not agree with factory farming. "Respect the design of nature." This quote is what Joel uses as a motto for his farm. He explains that in nature, animals are always moving, that is why he rotates his animals into different fields. He also only gives his animals fresh plants not grains or other meats. He also doesn't use monoculture because it does not occur in nature and it increases his livestock's chances of survival as a whole.
     Fresh is a great documentary that more people should watch. It is great because it opened my eyes more about what I was putting into my own body. I always try to eat organic but this film really gave me more information and incentive to buy organic foods.

Source: http://www.factoryfarmmap.org/
An example of how unnatural factory farms can be

9 comments:

  1. I think you used a great quote from Joel Salatin. He definitely respected how the land should work and how he gives the animals fresh foods. That picture is disturbing but it's reality.

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  2. I have seen some rather disturbing images of these kinds of factories and it's disgusting how they the process is. images like the one in your post proves this.

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  3. fertilizers and antibiotics contain a large amount of phosphorus which is often a limiting factor for how much food can be grown in the soil. when it rains those chemicals run off and affect the waterways. is there quantitative data as to how much damage these chemicals have done?

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  4. I don't think a lot of people consider how factory farming is how most of the animals are farmed these days, and how harmful it is to them, as well as our environment. I wish more people watched this documentary to see how important it is to be aware of not just where the food came from, but how it was raised and grown.

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  5. The image you provided would shock any American. Pent up cattle wh are mass farmed and treated with many antibiotics and other unnatural material clearly shows why America is the most obese country.

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  6. these factories are bad for the environment. Factory business shouldn't be feeding there animals meat, yes its cheap and helps them grow faster but disease's can accrue. I thought this exploration was well since I'm an animal lover.

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  7. I like the quote you used from Joel Salatin about respecting the design of nature. The way a lot of our food is produced is both unnatural and inhumane but very few people take that into consideration, and would rather just worry about how easily they can obtain the food.

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  8. Imagine the amount of money pharmaceutical companies make off conventional farming. They're making millions, possibly billions without losing sleep over the animals they infect.

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  9. I think it's crazy that factory farming remains so prevalent when we have evidence that it has so many negative affects. Switching to organic farming could be beneficial in so many different ways.

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