#7 Fresh

In my English 101 class, we are covering "Topics in Food" for our final essay of the semester. In preparing to write our last essay, we were tasked with watching the film "Fresh" by Ana Sofia Joanes as an introduction. In the film, "Fresh", director Ana Sofia Joanes shows multiple perspectives of farmers within the food industry as well as economists, professors, and industry professionals advocating for a more sustainable food industry. Watching this film really opened my eyes to how large scale of a problem our industrialized agriculture sector has become. 

In the film, we are shown multiple perspectives in the food industry. The first is of Joel Salatin, a sustainable farmer who advocates for an organic, natural way of raising livestock. We see Joel allowing his pigs and other livestock to roam free before we cut to the second perspective in the short film, Mr. and Mrs. Fox, who are industrial chicken farmers. Against the Fox's advocating the increase productivity, decrease in manual labor, larger and faster growing chickens, we see baby chicks being thrown onto the ground and questionable chicken feed and litter being used. We next get comments from Jon Ikerd, an agricultural economist who tells us the industrialization of our food sector has made the process much like a machine. Instead of free-range chickens roaming and ridding fields of pests, 20,000-100,000+ chickens are stuffed in warehouses. Free-range pig farms like Russ Kremer's that top out around 300 pigs pale in comparison to factory pig farms with over 2,400 pigs crammed in more warehouses. Much like how monocultured plants have to be sprayed with pesticides in order for a high, profittable yield, these chickens and pigs must be injected and fed antibiotics in order for them to survive these harsh conditions. These high doses of antibiotics cause highly resistant mutated strains of disease. Before succumbing to the lingering doom of the issue, we are shown Joel Salatin and his sustainable farm.

    "Monocultures", or the high amount of a single species together without any diversity, are not found in nature. The paradigm shift to a monoculture industrialized system only occurred within the last 50-100 years. Prior to this, farmers acted as stewards of nature, mimicking Mother Nature's design. Joel Salatin, explains how this works on his farm. Joel mimics the herding nature of cows to allow them to graze the grass on his land, before being followed by a whole bunch of chickens. These chickens act as natural pesticides, eating and killing any fly larva and insects/pests in the field. Joel then use the land to grow hay, grass, allowing turkeys to graze, and many other methods of pulling profit from his land. While the age old saying of "You can't feed the world" on this small scale farming was thought to true, we now have the scientific evidence this is not the case. Medium-sized organic farming is far more productive and sustainable than the large scale industrial complex prevalent today. 

    Another new insight shown was that of Will Allen and his group, Growing Power. While organic and nutritious food does cost more, it doesn't always have to be that way. Will Allen is shown instructing groups of people on a sustainable, full-cycle farming system he created. He raises tilapia in ponds whose waste ends up getting filtered through plant root systems which flushes out all the impurities and supplies the plants with much needed nutrients. Will even has worms working to decompose and compost waste products into nutritious soil. By taking small steps and inspiring others to do the same, Will Allen really embodies the whole message of "Fresh" -- the systems we think are unbreakable or the problems we face may seem insurmountable but this is not true. By taking small actions, right now in whatever way we can, we are making the right steps towards a new paradigm shift the way we consume food. A shift that harkens back to a time when food was 40% more nutritious, and much less processed. 

   Do any of you only buy organic, fresh food? Why or why not?