Berry's Farming And The Global Economy

Times have changed, and so has the family, the community and our environment. And these changes have impacted our lives and earth immeasurably. This is where the factor greed comes in to play, the need for more. This need for more called for extensive measures, measures like fertilizers, pesticides and equipment to work the ground and harvest the crops became necessity. Agriculture became a booming business that did not and still does not promote the well-being of the employee nor the individual let alone the family unit and community. Since 1950 an average farm size has doubled, but the number of laborers decreased substantially and the number of small local farmers has been cut in half. Farmers have been forced to become more efficient and there 's been a reliance on greater chemicals and technology, which has become very extensive and expensive. Sadly, what has been short term expansion has become a long-term threat (Trautmann, 2012). This greed driven increase has led to subtle damaging ramifications that most people are ignorant to. Their needs are being met as quality is being forsaken. Our environment is being squandered. Selfishness abounds.

The world continues to face a wide-scale food crisis. The effects of this crisis reach from the farmers who grow and raise the food to the very system of laws that are in place to govern the system itself. Food giants are reaching deep into their pockets for lobbying in order to take advantage of both the producers and the consumer all in the name of profit. Moreover, farmers are being driven to suicide, and the ecosystem’s livelihood is treading a fine line. Both Michael Pollan and Raj Patel bring to light these problems and offer suggestions to help lessen their severity. Though there are many philosophies on which they both agree, they both have their own ideas to fight back. Pollan seeks to challenge the consumer as an individual while

Essay #4 America’s vast food supply has increased. Foods that were once hard to come by can be found in almost all the grocery stores across the nation. In the article “What’s Eating America”, by Michael Pollan, who is a professor of journalism, explains how the bounty of food came about. He writes about the creation of synthetic fertilizer and how it was used to fertilize crops and essentially make all the foods today. He writes about the harmful effects that are occurring as a result of the chemically made fertilizer. In another article called written by Katherine Spriggs, a student from Stanford University, she writes about the benefits of buying local versus becoming dependent on the import of food. She feels that buying from local farms

Throughout the US there has been the big concern of where the food we eat comes from and if it is healthy. Everyone wants healthy food, yet we fail to eat the healthy food that is right in front of us, instead we eat industrial made food that causes the

Nobody denies that the need for more food grows with the global population. Factory farms seem to be a solution to this problem since they produce mass quantities of food for cheap compared to their organic counterparts, which are forty-seven percent more expensive (Consumer Reports). The factory farming business, however, is not the best way to feed more people since it pollutes the environment. The factory

Thesis: Michael Pollan overlooks the many benefits of the current system of food production, which allows us to produce more food on less land than pre-industrial agriculture. His proposal that the nation switch to a local produce model is not economically feasible for the United States.

The documentary Food Inc. is a great example of commercial farming. The purpose of commercial farming is to mass produce food and animals, to feed the community. The concept of commercial farming could also go along food security. The community needs to make sure that there is enough food to feed the growing population at all times. The problem right now isn’t that there isn’t enough food, but rather that there is too much food. The Tyson company produces all kinds of meat to feed people around the country, and when doing so they tend to overproduce. With this overproduction, we are left with expired animals that cannot be produced into food for consumption, and in turn, provide extra parts that aren’t useful or helpful.

The only downfall from this timely conception is the damage to the soil if the crops are not rotated every few years. Berry speaks about the fact that some individuals focus on the production of crops instead of the health of their land; this irresponsibility causes problems for the environment. Berry states, “Once one’s farm and one’s thoughts have been sufficiently mechanized, industrial agriculture’s focus on production, as opposed to maintenance, becomes merely logical…The farm and all concerns not immediately associated with production have in effect disappeared from sight” (Berry, p. 2, p. 3). Some of America’s Society do not care about the consequences of constantly harvesting. Instead, people concern themselves with meeting the supply and demands. Berry expresses his views about soil science and its uses of replacing the lost nutrients from the overuse of the land.

Astyk and Newton, in their essay: The Rich Get Richer, the Poor Go Hungry, explains that “around the world, industrial agriculture has consolidated land ownership into the hands of smaller and smaller populations” destroying local self-sufficiency (518). Individuals are no longer able to grow own fresh, healthy foods to feed their family. They now depend on industrially grown crops and processed foods loaded with chemicals for food. Additionally, because of the farm policy, farmers that continue to cultivate healthy produce like fruits and vegetables get little or no government support, thus the higher prices of fresh produce seen today at our grocery stores.

Feeding everyone in the nation is a very hard process, but our farmers get it done. Our food comes farms where farmers make sure it’s okay to eat and ripe and healthy. Local farmers tend to have great quality food. They make sure the people in their town are satisfied.

Many people that are locavores are partaking in the movement because those people believe they are eating healthier due to the fact that there is more nutrition in the locally grown produce. While Professor Marion Nestle, of NYU, admits that yes, there are more nutrients in locally grown farms due to the extraordinary soil, however, that doesn’t mean those nutrients are vital to our health or that because people buy organic that we are “nutrient

“Green living” is becoming the way of the future. Everyone will eat fresh, locally sourced foods, packed with nutrients. GMO free. As more people grab ahold of this trend and spread it around, shaming those who don’t follow in their footsteps, they ignore the negative impacts that could develop through

Many locavores say that locally grown produce contains more nutrients since they’ve been recently picked, unlike supermarkets where the produce has been left in the freezers for weeks. In addition, they also claim that since it takes less distance to travel from farm to plate there is a decreased chance of contamination (Source A). It’s accurate to say that most produce grown from local areas are healthier which is why the government plans to place more investments into farmers markets(Source E). Although the Locavore Movement proves to have many beneficial aspects to it, food is food. Locally grown food may be considered healthier with fewer chemicals, however, a normal human will be able to obtain the

Guthman argues that agriculture in more “ecologically sensitive ways, is produced largely by mass production methods” (Guthmanyuppychow, 2003, 55). This means that many organic products are now being produce through large corporations since the only way to mass produce is with companies or corporations. On the other hand, Ayres and Bosia argues that “the public’s right to grow and eat food untainted by multinational agribusiness” should be accepted and practiced instead of having markets receiving corporations’ products (Ayres & Bosia, 2011, 48). In other words, Ayres and Bosia believes that there should be an end to the corporations’ capitalist system and local consumption should be practiced. Therefore, the authors disagree about localism and corporation agriculture

Ever since the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution, the major turning point in history and the fundamental shift of food consumption from hunting & gathering to agriculture that led to permanent settlements, humans have been a prosperous species. Humans are constantly searching for new food innovations to satisfy the large supply and demand concept for the exponentially growing population. They are in fact extremely efficient in developing new strategies for food production, management, and distribution through food businesses and big corporations of this manner. In actuality, food companies control all of the agriculture and factory businesses and are in charge of all aspects of the final products sold to the consumers. This is not a positive