Entry#7--Fresh

I recently watched a documentary called Fresh, a documentary that explores issues within America's food system. The documentary features farmers, activists and entrepreneurs who are looking to change the system and find a more sustainable way to provide access to fresh and healthy food to everyone in the country. 

I did some looking around and it looks like it can be viewed for free with ads here.

I found this documentary particularly compelling, as I've never given much thought about America's food system. And I think that's the great thing about this documentary, as their target audience is presumably people who are unaware of just how big of an issue this currently is and will become. If you're like me, you haven't given much thought to where your food comes from and how sustainable the system that provides your food is. I was left wondering about the foods I currently consume, their nutritious value, possible contaminants and whether they'd be around in the near or distant future. 

Fresh pulls no punches as it opens with rather captivating dialogue a farmer previously had with a former roommate in college, "Americans fear only one thing. Inconvenience." This line really made me think. The more I thought about it, I realized how true it was. We tend to want everything now and we want it to be as easy as possible. Because of this, we tend not to think about important issues like where our food comes from and how it's made. 

The very next scene shows a modern farm and sets the tone for issues or concerns with how they currently operate, as it shows people literally throwing baskets full of chicks on the floor. During this, the owners are being interviewed and it seems clear that they think what they're doing is good for chickens but they don't even know what's in the feed and why it causes them to grow faster than they would naturally. 

This sets the tone for what modern farming has become, a factory farm. A literal assembly line for raising animals as quickly and efficiently as possible, that borders the line of ethic and moral boundaries when it comes to raising animals on a farm. This paradigm of industrialization is unsustainable and the monocultures, growing too much of the same animal in one area, are potential sanitation and pollution issues now and even more so, in the future. Sadly, this system accounts for around 80% of farms that were currently operating at the time of this documentary. 

So what can be done to remedy this issue?

Well, those farmers, activists and entrepreneurs I mentioned at the beginning of this post are trying to do just that. Instead of their farms operating as a factory farm, they've decided to run their farms differently. Instead, they mimic nature and treat the animals for what they are. They let them do what they would normally do in nature, moving from place to place and eating they're normal herbivore diet. This allows them to stay healthy and parasite free. 

In addition to farm conditions, the government needs to subsidize more funds for the growth of fresh and healthy produce. These organically grown foods may cost more than their industrialized counterparts but they're also worth more. The industrialized foods have been expunged of their nutrients. Once more funds are subsidized for farming, everybody needs access to these healthier and safer foods too. 

Overall, I think it's a very important topic and this documentary definitely made me think. Unfortunately, despite the importance of this topic and the release of the documentary in 2009, it would seem not much has changed. The odds are stacked against anyone trying to change the system and it could be a long time, if at all, before we see real change when it comes to the American food system.