Exploration 4: Fresh Response from Brian Klunder

In my opinion, the most important ideas to take from this movie is that Industrial Agriculture is unsustainable for the environment since mono-culture ends up destroying the other genetic variations of produce that is not sweet, or large and also destroys the surrounding environment to make room for the mass production of a single crop. An example of this are the Another idea to take from this movie is mass production of antibiotic resistant diseases that come from the overuse of antibiotics on the animals they integrate into small, closed off sections of the slaughterhouses, which will later on have some sort of medical impact when the diseases become more difficult to kill off. The film explores these ideas by showing scenes of a standard industrial farm and all the room it occupies to produce this one specific crop for consumption, and inside looks on how cramped and disgusting the spaces can be when a large group of animals are stuck in one area which is a great scenario where diseases can become sporadic and spread incredibly fast. If I was going to review the film, i'd focus on both perspectives and understand the reasoning for both sides of why they choose to go along the path they have chosen for themselves. The strong side of the film is its speakers that the producer has chosen to represent the side of fresh, natural agriculture to give it more impact to what the message of this movie is trying to say to people that are looking from the outside of food production. It also comes from the information that is provided by this film about the major issues that come industrial agriculture such as, farmers being dependent of companies' genetically modified seeds to stay in the business due to their competitiveness to natural farming and the soil being drained of nutrients rapidly for mono-culture. The weak side of the film is that it does not go further into industrial agriculture and why this method of farming is preferred. There is a lack of details within the inner workings of industrial agriculture which gives the viewers a weak perspective of what makes industrial agriculture a part of our society.

I had a question about what are the issues that originate from planting one specific plant on a humongous section of reserved land. The problems that come from mono-culture revolve around fertilizers, pesticide, and herbicide use, which is required to maintain a healthy field of crops and ends up having a toll on the species of birds and insects that dwell nearby and the environment it's based on. The chemical fertilizer runoff result in oxygen-deprived zones as they greatly promote algae and plant growth, which then quickly accumulates and takes up a massive supply of oxygen from underwater animals and insects and kills off a majority of them. The herbicides and pesticides are widely used onto crop fields, killing off those that live in that area with the growing crops. With the pests and plants coming into contact with these deadly chemicals, the helpful insects and birds end up becoming poisoned with their interactions on the farm and result in a decline in their respective species since they do not expect any dangers when coming onto the fields.

http://nature.berkeley.edu/~miguel-alt/modern_agriculture.html