Fresh Farming

Recently in Advisory, we’ve been studying agriculture, different types of farming, and food
systems. We watched a movie/documentary called “Fresh”. At first, I thought about the point of doing this and why are we learning about farms and such. When I watched the movie, I started to think and understand that learning about agriculture and farming is important. I know that many people feel that this is not important and that it is boring to learn about farms and agriculture. After doing this study, I think that farmers are extremely hard workers and are very dedicated. For example, I heard that farmers have to keep many animals on their farm.

One thing that I know for sure about agriculture is that organically grown food is more
better for you than food grown with pesticides. Now I’ve studied my share of science and I’ve learned that plants grown with pesticides and antibiotics alter the plant. It may grow faster, but it wont’ be as healthy as a naturally grown plant. Personally, it’s funny to me how what we are studying now seems to be a pattern.

I did some research on mono-cultures. In the movie “Fresh” we were provided with a lot
of information and opinions on mono-cultures. Some people felt that mono-cultures are not a part of nature. “Mono-cultures are very dangerous things... Nature doesn't have mono-cultures.” This statement didn't really surprise me all that much, but it did make me feel intrested. I felt intrested because I know that mono-cultures are not a part of nature and that we shouldn't use them.

In another source that I looked at, there was this one statement that made me nod my
head in agreement. It was: “If you keep animals on a farm, their manure is a blessing. You can use it to grow other crops;you can close the nutrient cycle: the animals can eat the crop waste, the parts of the plants you can’t sell, and they produce fertility for your fields.” This is true because you can use the waste to help grow other crops. Also, it is all natural and is not using pesticides.

All of this makes me think that the farmers in America are hard workers. It also makes
me think that we should not use pesticides or antibiotics to help make our plants and livestock grow faster. It also makes me think that more farmers should not use mono-cultures and instead  farm like Joel Salatin and “respect the design of nature”.