Justin Cygnor Exploration 6

In the documentary Fresh, country and urban farmers identify that there are still ways of producing healthy, fresh, organic food efficiently in a time where most food is being mass produced by corporations in unhealthy ways. For a person interested in what he/she eats and how to eat healthier, this documentary is great. For someone who could care less about their food and how it is processed, this documentary will put you to sleep. One of the opening quotes from the film was "Americans fear one thing...inconvenience." It is much easier for someone to go through the drive thru and get poorly made food than actually going to the store and getting dinner for the night.
The documentary clearly identifies both the poor and healthy ways food is processed. Watching this could easily change the minds of those who don't care what they put in their stomachs. Throughout watching, the scenes that changed my perspective on the food I eat were scenes such as how the animals are treated and how the crops are taken care of. The majority of the animals covered are chickens, pigs, and cows. The chickens are seen given antibiotic food to grow faster when more manual labor was needed back in the day before processed food was introduced. Pigs are stored in small areas and gather bacteria. Cows are fed dead cows. Crops are sprayed with chemicals. To me and most likely the majority of the population do not want to eat food that grew up in the conditions in which they were raised. Now, the documentary does highlight the healthy ways food can be raised as well. Farmers as said to "respect the design of nature." The procedures they use with their crops and animals are the right way food should be produced and distributed.
The documentary talks about monocultures which is an area where all species live together. It was said "nature doesn't have monocultures." Bacteria is gathered among the 2600 pigs in corporations, for example, and cause health problems. The animals are fed antibiotic food just to survive their living conditions. Farmers identify the healthy way of doing things. Some have a cycle involving plants given to animals to eat, the animals then produce manure, which then helps the vegetation. The animals are herbivores so they won't eat meat, especially meat from their own kind. Another cycle involves reenacting natural living of the animals and allowing them to follow in a path on the farm, allowing the vegetation to continue to grow. The document covers several farmer's stories. A hog farmer named Russ Kremer stated that he saved $14,000 by not using any type of chemical on his farm. He also started growing grain which was used as food for the cattle. Another farmer by the name of Will Allen identified his tactics on the farm as well. On his 3 acres,  he used fish waste to feed plants and also allowed for worms to live in the waste. He claimed that not using chemicals has never been a problem and has never had to deal with a disease.
A quote from the documentary stated: "Every disease is a scream of enough from nature." This was said by a corn farmer named George Naylor. The quote sums up the entire documentary. Using these chemicals and allowing for livestock to live in unhealthy conditions only to feed them to people is causing a lot of health issues. Not only does it affect the environment, but also the people living in it. The next quote I found important in the documentary was "The number of farmers in the US is dwindling." Farmers are producing the healthier kind of food. No one in a grocery store knows this or doesn't care. Food is food to the buyers. Soon, the farmer occupation could be completely eliminated and we may be stuck with eating food produced by corporations in which Fresh clearly identifies is a terrible way of producing.