Exploration 6 Jill

     Fresh is a documentary about the food we consume. Through out the film we are shown the different ways that our food is being processed. Some ways are healthier than others. We are able to see where our food is coming from, what is going into our food and how our food is being handled. The documentary is a great way for one to get a better understanding on farming and agriculture while also learning the healthy ways our food is being processed and also the harmful ways.
     "Americans fear inconvenience." This was a great quote to start the documentary. It was very powerful and already grabbed our attention. The quote is true, Americans fear inconvenience. We come from a culture where when we want something we want it now. When we are hungry and want food, we want it now. That is why we venture to fast food chains. We want the food but we don't always worry about what is behind the food that we are putting into our bodies. Farms are using vast amounts of antibiotics on the plants to keep the them healthy and also it creates vast amounts of the product. Agriculture economist, John Ikered stated "We are obsessed with productivity. More, more, more." The farmers are finding ways whether they are healthy ways or not just to produce more so that they can ship it out and sell more and more.
     Feed lots are on the rise as a more suffiencent way to farm. But this way is also harmful to not only the animals but also us and the enviornment. Feed lots are a way of farming where the animals are raised in an confined area. These areas are usually small, and sheltered. Therefore the animals are forced to eat, drink, use the restroom and sleep all in the same small area. The animals food is delivered to them and they do not get the chance to graze outside like they were born to do. This situation leads to bacteria in feed lots and can lead to harming to consumers of these animals. The documentary states that these animals should be outside where they blond. Nature works together.
     Director of Growing Power, Will Allen shows us the healthy ways to farm. Will Allen works to educate others on how they can farm and have their on healthy food. He wants to change the existing food system. One of the visitors at Will's Farmhouse stated "The earth is his passion." While farming, Will does not use any chemicals on his plants and this has lead to the outcome that his plants have never had any diseases. He tries to use space efficiently as possible. Anyone who wants to eat a more healthy way can and that is what Will Allen helps people reliize and educates them.
    The documentary is very informative. At the beginning of the film, I thought I was going to be bored and uninterested. But I was exactly the opposite. The film documents the harmful ways of farming by showing us what exactly is going on and what the harmful ways can cause and then the film goes to show the more healthier ways you can farm and how easy it is and that anyone can do it.
   

Exploration 6 - Chazz

     Fresh is a film documentary that takes us on an adventure behind the scenes of processed food, and how easy it is to access these products on a daily basis. The main point of this film was to show us how bad processed foods can be for us, how these foods are processed, and how we should start eating healthier and using better quality ingredients for the sake of our health and the environment. 

    The film opens up with a quote that says “Americans fear only one thing…inconvenience”. This quote explained that Americans are unconcerned if chemicals has been placed on food products. Just as long as the food they’re eating looks good, or taste good, either way they’re happy. I felt that this film was an eye opener to not only me, but many others who were once clueless about where their food is coming from. According to the film, many of these farms were monitored by companies who used chemicals, pesticides, and antibiotics on their produce and livestock. Diseases in the animals were said to be caused because of this, and that seems very unheathy for our sake. This documentary went on to show us things that we probably never knew about the foods that we may enjoy everyday. The entire first half of the film takes us deeper into the farms to see how bad they were, and then it shifts to show us how local organic farmers treat their products differently.

    The way that this film shows us a positive view to farm for the environment was by taking us through a series of organic farms, and showing us how they treat their vegetables, fruits, and animals differently. One of the farmers that stood out to me was Will Allen. Will Allen is a farmer who bought unused land in 1993 and transformed it into a farm . On this farm Allen states that everything is edible, and he uses as much space as possible for growing fresh produce, and producing fresh meats for the community. Allen has a system where he uses the farm as sort of like an ecosystem. He uses the water from the fish to fertilize the soil of the plants, and he let's the people see the worms that are in the soil to let them know that they are there to help remove dead and decomposing material. One thing that Allen says is "People learn how to eat healthy and know where their food comes from". I agree with him because the people seemed to like the hands on experience when touring through his farm. Everyone was interested in learning how the farm worked. Also, they got to see how fresh, and chemical free the goods and produce were.

    In the beginning of this film I wasn't exactly sure what this documentary was going to lead to. However, as the film went on I began to understand the point that it was trying to bring across. They wanted us to see the ways that some of our products that are convenient to us are truly made and the many risky ways that they are processed. This documentary showed us where and how most of the foods that are "convenient" come from, and tries to get us to see that local farm fresh foods are better for us and the environment in which we live in. Overall it was a great documentary. 

Exploration 6 by Amanda Bracey

Watching the film by Ana Sofia Joanes titled Fresh, at first, The title did not make me think that it was in reference to food. I thought it was going to be a new way of looking at the way that handle ourselves as people. Yet, I was pleasantly surprised that it was about the comparison and contrast about the way that the food from the supermarket and the way farmers grow the food are two completely different entities.  

We have stores like Giant eagle and Wal-Mart to name a few. With these mammoth stores in place, pushing the bigger, better cheaper mentality. I as a consumer feel that there is no other option. Supermarkets do not hide the fact that they are not worried about farmers taking their customer's away from them. Yet, more farmers are uniting together in order to have their voice heard. Which makes one think that there maybe more to our food consumption that we originally thought.  

As we were watching Fresh video, George Naylor, who is a graduate of the University of California as well the leader of the National Family Farm Coalition shared with us his story about his college roommate from Pakistan who said "Americans fear one thing and that is inconvenience. " It is a sad but true statement about our society.  Everywhere we look,  we are overwhelmed with idea of being fast is going to make it better and will result in a big pay off at the end of the day. No one cares about the quality so long as it looks good.  

Throughout the course of the movie, the basic premise of the movie was to open ones eyes to the truth of the difference of the kind of food that we buy in the store vs what we would have if we just went back to living off the land.  To show how these big food suppliers are able to produce much in a short window of time. I had no idea that the reason the cattle and chicken grow so quickly is because the amount of antibiotics and other dead animals getting mashed up into their feed and then they are forced to eat. I have one word to say about that "Yuck!"
 

Especially, when according to the food dive, the FDA and the government are starting to crack down on food suppliers like Predue to stop putting on their chicken labels that they are "humane grown" as there are certain standards that have to be met in order to have that label on the food that is being sold and apparently those standards were not being met currently. To this day, Predue denies any allegation that they did anything different to their product prior.    
I believe Diana Endicott, who is the president of the Rainbow Organic Farms as well as the farm to market coordinator of Good Natured Farms that has allied with over 150 local family farmers in order to help to build the understanding in others and allow them to make the decisions for themselves and their families brought the point home when she said " People should feel good about what they put in their bodies and we should have a choice on where our food comes from."  It's is a very true statement that resonated with me on a personal level as I like to pay for quality over quantity.

Exploration 6 Caitin Mashhadian

Caitlin Mashhadian
November 6, 2014

Fresh is a documentary that takes us on a direct route to viewing the foods we consume. Through this documentary you are introduced to conventional farmers, organic farmers, and activists. Will Allen is an urban farmer activist who I believe is making headway to healthier food. He quotes "Food is at the foundation, but it's really about life." I believe that Allen was conveying how in order to have a healthy life you must take in good quality food. The documentary microscopes how difficult it has become to consume healthy food. Our society has managed to create food desserts. Instead of finding fresh produce we are finding processed foods. Will Allen has taken an alternative route to provide efficient growing methods and teaching the community how they are capable of doing the same.

Will Allen is an urban farmer activist who's created an ingenious way of growing many different greens with limited space in a greenhouse inside a town of Milwaukee. Allen uses Aquaponics to propel his greenhouses. Aquaponics is the method of growing crops and fish together in a re-circulating system. In the Growing Power aquaponics model crops grow vertically on raised beds, thus saving space for other greens to grow. Not only does Allen introduce efficient systems but he also introduces people to  tours and learning about growing power.  During the tour you will see growing methods at work; including worms eating waste, fish fertilizing plants, and honeybees pollinating the neighborhood. Allen is an educator and allows the tours to be hands on learning experience.

Allen has created “From the Ground Up” Workshops. From the Ground Up Workshops are extensive hands-on trainings offering diverse groups the opportunity to learn, plan, develop, operate, and sustain community food projects. Project participants leave the workshop with improved skills that they can take back into their communities and pass on to others. These workshops are for both rural and urban projects. I believe that when people know how to do things on their own they can spread their knowledge along to others and create a better community and food source. 

During the documentary Naylor had said "...us conventional farmers put organic farmers on a pedestal..." I believe that they absolutely should. Locally grown food and organic farmers work harder to grow healthy food for their communities because it in turn benefits everyone in the long run. 

Exploration 6 by Nathan N.

     Fresh is an informative documentary about the current food service that deals with farming produce and harvesting livestock. The film points out the problems with mass industrialization of farming and the solutions that can change farming to become healthier and better for the environment. I believe that Fresh was an interesting documentary that had both great ideas and obvious flaws that would not practically work.

     The film does a great job pointing out some great flaws with our current standings on handling livestock as well as mass industrializing crops. As the movie points out the health effects that are influencing us as a society and the environment as well. Farmers talk about how the pesticides and fertilizing of the crops leads to stronger bugs being immune to the pesticides attacking the crops as well as the American people not washing there produce properly and then consuming these pesticides and fertilizers. Fresh does a great job influencing the movie watcher about how bad industrialize farming is to a community and too America.

     The film's solution to this industrialize farming crises is a new wave of organic style of farming that is much healthier for the animals and crops, as well as the people and environment.  Joel Swalthorin , a Virginian farmer decries his way of organic farming as a way that "we have to respect the design of nature, it's our duty."  The style of farming seems like a cool new and environmentally friendly way of farming that could change the current method of farming.

     However this new style of farming does not seem very practical for the whole world as the movie might make you want to believe. Russ Kremer, a hog farmer that moved to a more organic style of farming made the claim "you can feed the world on  organic", however he gave no solid evidence of this claim by providing statics. This is the major flaw of the film, sure you can feed the world on organic, but looking at a practical sense it just isn't very realistic. The average organic farm produces less food than a conventional farm (Fox News). Organic farms also require much more labor as the movie shows. George Naylor an owner of a organic farm has to move his cattle and chickens to new pastors every day in order to maintain his farm. What this film implies is that many many many more Americans have to step up and become more organic style farmers like Will Allen, a urban farmer who grows everything organically and locally in the city. However this isn't a practically thought that Americans are going to drop their current lifestyles in order to become organic farmers. Even as the film points out "we [Americans] need more and more cheap stuff" and unfortantlly that can't happen with organic food.

     Fresh is a great documentary that shows some great styles of farming that can really change the environment and the American people in a better way, but the film is not without its flaws. I recommend people to check out this movie and come to support locally and naturally grown foods as the film suggests. Fresh is a great concept and maybe one day we can move to this style of farming, but unfortunately as of now it just doesn’t seem logical.

Exploration 6 Courtney Shaffer

This documentary is helpful for people who have an interest and understanding in food and the effects of farming and agriculture. If you do not though, this documentary will be confusing for you, likely to loose your attention. An example that would support this from the film would be how throughout the film they talk a lot about different bacteria and pesticides. If you are interested in this lifestyle and know about this stuff then you would understand the film, if you don't then you wouldn't even understand what they're saying. This film could easily have two perspectives.

Yes, the film is filled with an abundance of information. It has things from facts about what is best for people and the environment, to what to stay away from doing if you are farming. The film works on helping and informing you on what to do if you wanted to farm, and even learn about a better lifestyle. It's focus is to help you become better with your choice of eating and helping the environment.

One theme that I found really relevant throughout was the effects of chemicals and how they can cause many bacteria, diseases, etc. In the film, I found that diseases and bacteria's were talked about continuously. Rus Kremer, a farmer who owns a 120 acre farm, told his own story about his own experience. Rus was stabbed in the knee by a Boar hog. His infection got so bad he didn't think that he would survive. Antibiotic resistance was the problem. Rus stated, after this happened, "My conscious kicked in, I couldn't do it anymore" (Kremer). Rus stopped using antibiotics for fourteen years. By doing this, he saved $14,000 the first year. By Rus going organic, he stopped having diseases that other farmers came across so frequently. Madcow disease, ecoli, avian flu, etc. These are some common diseases that you may have heard of before. These can kill people. According to Rus, most farmers believe in the moto, "Faster, cheaper" (Kremer). This means that farms are promoting things like feeding dead cows to cow. A herbivore doesn't eat dead cows. This process causes diseases, it's nature speaking to us. Rus Kremer, the farmer stated above says, "If you take care of the grass...the grass will take care of the animal" (Kremer). Diseases and bacteria can cause so many terrible things to happen and spread around. The more you process food, the less nutritious it is. Basically, the more antibiotics you put into farming, the less nutritious.

Will Allen, a former athlete, now teaches people how to eat healthy and support the system. His wife's family had land the wasn't being used so he took advantage of this and started planting. He uses no chemicals on any animal because of beneficial bacteria. He works to help teach people how he does this, so that they can do it own their own at their own homes. Will states, "You must do everything a certain way to be apart of the system" (Allen). Will Allen is working to better the lives of people in a healthier way.

Are you interested in what I'm talking about? Yes? Then you would enjoy this film. No? You don't even understand some of the things that I'm talking about, nor do you have an interest in it. You will then not enjoy this film. Fresh is absolutely an informing film, if it is able to keep your attention.

Review Exploration 6 Cameron Watson

In this video titled FRESH, a documentary meant to inform viewers about what we are eating, why we are eating it, and where it comes from.  It also provides a new way of thinking about what we are eating.  After watching this documentary, I ended with a mixed review.  At first, I wasn't really sure I was going to like this documentary because after watching this I knew that I was going to continue to eat unhealthy food and not care where it came from honestly.  That being said as I continued watching the documentary, I realized that there was a lot that I was unaware about and could really benefit from.  Overall this documentary was very informative and towards the end I began to respect these people a lot more because of the point they were trying to get across. The point being that healthy and agriculturally produced food has benefits beyond measure.
         At the beginning of this documentary it showed all of these chicks (baby chickens) being tossed violently on to the ground and the people talked about what these baby chickens represented and why they were being thrown together and isolated.  I have many times eaten Tyson Chicken.  Through Tyson, the production at one point was not as fast as the company would have liked it to be.  Therefore, the company decided to make sure that the next time around during production, the chicks would grow faster through a hybrid form of production.  This simply was too much for me to understand and since it was hard to comprehend, I think I speak for a lot of people who lack this knowledge, that we will continue to eat chicken through companies like Tyson because it simply tastes good.  However, towards the end of the documentary when the tall former pro athlete now a conventional farmer Will Allen spoke, I was able to get a better understanding and actually felt sympathy for a lot of those animals. Will Allen made sense and spoke to everyday people and changed they way that they view eating.  He went back to his home roots so to speak.
        One of the biggest themes in this documentary was the idea of a "food desert".  What this means is that people live in an area where fresh food and produce cannot be attained even though the majority of the people wish to eat this type of food.  Michael Pollan,  an agriculturalist said "Food is at it's most nutritious when it's whole.  Cheap food is an illusion."  With this idea of food being unobtainable is difficult to understand.  People can go to the store and purchase Ramen Noodles but can't purchase an apple.  This documentary I believe was created to let people know that if they really want to, any fresh food can be put anywhere in any market.
       John Ikerd, and agricultural economist had a roommate in college who was Pakistani.  His roommate said "Americans fear one thing... inconvenience."  This is someone who is an outsider looking in.  Someone who probably came to the United States simply for college and by living the college life and being in The United States for a small amount of time made this very simple but accurate statement.  Russ Kremer, an agriculturalist farmer that has recently been very successful due to the amount of people wanting to buy his produce along with believing his way is the healthy way, believes in the same thing Will Allen does.  People tell him "These are the best pork chops I have ever had."  Kremer has also many applicants wishing to work for him because of the health benefits and the nice pay.  Kremer also said "If you want to be apart of this system, follow all instructions."  It is because of people like him that made this documentary towards the end understandable and quite possibly change peoples lives.