Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Exploration Four: Fresh Response From Natalee Christman



           The most important idea that stood out to me in the documentary, Fresh, was how bad the factory farming system really is and how dependent we are on it as a nation. I never realized how much the farming system is monopolized by just a couple companies. The example of how only a couple of companies own the  farming system is when the film interviewed the Fox family. The Fox family did not really seem happy at how their animals were being treated when it was time to be taken for slaughter but, they had no other way to make money off of their farm. According to the family they could raise 110,000 chickens in one summer. If I were going to review the film I would focus on how they are going to try and lower the prices on organic food. I think this is a big issue in our country because not everybody can afford to buy organic. The strength of the film was that it did a good job showing the organic farm process. The weakness of the film is that it is extremely one sided. The film does not interview any of the companies and try to understand why they do what they do. I am not for factory farming but, it would be nice to know both sides.
          The part of the film that stood out to me the most was how "factory farms" feed cow to cows. I find this extremely gross and inhumane. When I was watching the film and they said that cows are eating cows I thought they meant that they were actually eating cow meat. And they were until 1997 which, was not that long ago. Why they can still say that cows are eating cows is because they are. Cows eat a type of feed that is called "poultry litter". Poultry litter is pretty much just what it sounds like it contains any low cost organic material and is used as poultry bedding before being fed to cattle. The reason why cows are eating cows is still a true statement is because cows eat the poultry litter which contains chicken feed which has ground up cow bones and meal in it. According to the FDA one million to two million tons of poultry litter is still being fed to cows every year. In 1967 the FDA announced that the litter was a low quality feed. This drastically cut back on the use of it. But in 1980 the FDA stopped regulating the use and let farmers do what they wanted. The biggest problem that comes from cows eating cows is mad cow disease (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy). This could all be stopped if we just let the cows graze in fields like they were meant to. A quote from Joel Slatin was "If we take care of the grass, it will take care of us" What he is basically saying is that if we let the cows eat the grass than they will be healthy and when we eat the cows than we too will be healthy.

http://archive.onearth.org/articles/2013/12/you-wont-believe-the-crap-literally-that-factory-farms-feed-to-cattle
         

3 comments:

  1. I like your quote you added in there at the end and i couldn't agree more. The better we treat the animals we eat, the better they'll treat us. It's only morally right to give the animals feed that they deserve and to let them range freely on open grass, even though it might not be practical. The way that we're feeding the animals now (in feedlots) is borderline cruel and should be stopped.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I find that disgusting that they are essentially eating their own species and it's completely accepted. I agree with what Nick wrote completely, if we treat the animals we eat better, they will treat us better. What they are fed is not healthy for them, and if people eat product made from unhealthy animals, we will not get much nutritional value out of it.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.