Entry #7: Farm Fresh Food

         Let’s talk food. Everyone needs it, but not many people are aware of how the food we purchase ends up in grocery stores. Although we’d like to imagine it’s a black-and-white process, reality is often disappointing and complicated. Have you ever thought about where your food comes from? The packaged meat, the gallons of milk, the eggs? If you said farms, you’d be mostly correct. The United States of America is a heavily industrialized country, with a focus on manufacturing goods quickly rather than prioritizing their quality. “Americans fear only one thing: inconvenience”(Fresh 00:01:32-01:37). In today’s post, we are going to be discussing the 2009 documentary “Fresh.” Without further ado, let’s get into it!

          Fresh is a documentary directed by Ana Sofia Joanes that critiques the negative impacts of industrial agriculture in the United States and showcases the efforts of individuals participating in the sustainable food movement. If you don’t already know, agriculture is the practice of cultivating the soil, growing crops, and raising livestock to produce food, fiber, and other products for human use. Combining this with the knowledge we learned about industrialization from earlier, we can tell that industrialized agriculture is described as the large-scale, intensive production of crops and livestock using modern technology to maximize efficiency and yield. The problem is that prioritizing efficiency and yield leads to a decline in product quality. Let me explain. Crop planting is primarily affected by harmful monoculture, which involves growing a lot of the same species without variation, leading to soil depletion, increased pest and disease problems, and a greater reliance on chemical inputs like fertilizers and pesticides.

The same thing can be said about meat and dairy products. Industrialized farming often condenses many of the same animal species within a small area, leaving them little room to move around. Not only does this result in miserable animals and a very prominent pollution problem, but it also leads to a buildup of pests that infect those animals. To keep these monocultures alive and working, we inject the animals with antibiotics to keep them “healthy” and hormones to stimulate quicker growth. Constantly injecting these animals and then breeding them for a new generation eventually leads to super-powered, mutated genes that are resistant against those antibiotics, which leads to even MORE antibiotics being pushed into the herd of animals. All of this year after year after year with absolutely no variation diminishes the nutritional value of the food we buy. 

Why does this matter? Well, think about it. Humans need essential nutrients to be healthy and function optimally. Yet most of the U.S. population shows a clear nutrient inadequacy. Click here to view more. Industrial agriculture has become the norm because there are only four firms that are responsible for processing 83% - 84% of all beef here in the United States: Tyson Foods, Cargill, JBS, and National Beef Packing Company. It’s efficient, but it isn’t sustainable, nor is it healthy for us or the animals. Luckily, there’s a rapidly growing movement known as sustainable agriculture. Unlike industrial agriculture, this movement is what is promoted within the documentary as the solution to many food problems. Turning factories back into farms to produce healthier, organic food for the populace to enjoy.

Although organic and locally grown foods tend to cost more, it’s a justified sacrifice. Organic produce and vegetables take more time to cultivate, and there’s more effort invested in producing a good harvest.  You pay for the quality you want; good food doesn’t just come from a factory, it comes from people who care. What we choose to eat shapes the world we live in—so maybe it’s time we start choosing better. Thank you for reading this week's blog post. Comment below and let me know what your favorite food is, and make sure to check back in for more Phoenix Times with Jordyn H.

“Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” - Gro Harlem Brundtland