Exploration 4: Christian

In the documentary, Fresh, the industrialization of consumer foods is a big issue that many of the local farmers and fresh food activists spoke about. Throughout the documentary the advocates talked about the horrors from behind the scene of industrialization of foods that American don't see. "Americans fear only one thing, inconvenience." This quote stood out to me, because in one sentence it summarizes why consumer goods have headed towards industrialized foods.

An important theme that is consistently repeated by many of the advocates is to simply leave nature alone and let it take its course. A local farmer; Joe Salatin takes care of his livestock traditionally and has avoided the techniques of modern farming. Salatin believes that nature has its own course and that it has a "cycle." For example, Salatin uses his chickens to fertilize the grass and in return it produces fresh fertile grass to feed the cows. This is just a small aspect of how nature takes care of itself. In opposition, new modern methods of farming has caused a great deal of infectious outbreaks. Diseases, such as E.Coli, mad cow disease, and Salmonella have ruined farms and even the public. Its important to know where your food is coming from and what you are eating. I found it shocking that many pests and insects have grown immune to some pesticides, due to the extensive use of it, over time. Pests have begun to adapt to the pesticides and some have no effect on the insects at all. This is a prime example that the industrialization of food will not turn out on top as opposed to traditional means of farming.

The documentary uses comparing arguments when many farmers agree that pesticide have begun to take no affect against the insects, and some farmers would even rather stick to traditional farming in using no pesticides at all. The documentary also expresses contrasting views when a industrialized farmer states that their means of farming is "Faster, bigger, and cheaper." Although it may seem as though the big time industrialized farmers are more efficient in producing a favorable product for the consumers, when its all said and done, American prefer healthier, cleaner organic foods.

Despite the fact that I believe that all foods should be raised naturally, I wonder whether industrialization of food will continue to grow. As stated in the documentary, "Many places, simply don't have access to fresh foods." Many big cities have little to no access to organic foods, so it makes me wonder whether or not if industrialization of food will be a necessity in the future.
As a whole we are moving towards a more modern way of farming and the public will continue to allow this to happen. However, I believe that we can apply what we learn in the documentary to our own lives and begin to sway away from the industrialization of food, and make better decisions in terms of eating healthier and overall supporting fresh food movement.