Exploration 4- Jared

     The film Fresh captures its audience by showing the ins and outs of the modern agricultural industry in the United States. Something that really stood out to me was that smaller farms are not inefficient by any means. The livestock are proven to be healthier than livestock raised in an industrialized facility. This is due to the use of mono cultures in industrialized farms. The film did a great job describing how the creation of mono cultures in industrialized farms is not natural and is the reason why the use of all sorts of antibiotics is a necessity in these industrialized farms. Livestock on smaller, natural farms don't need these antibiotics because these farmers tend to mimic how nature really works. If I were to review this film, I would take facts from each side and present both arguments as it would only be fair to do so, in my opinion. Fresh does a fantastic job convincing viewers that the industrialization of agriculture is wrong in many ways and that America could only benefit if smaller organic farms made a return. However, the film lacked facts about any positives of the industrialization of agriculture and also lacked negatives of organic farming.

     I was curious about how many steroids and growth hormones are given to cattle farms. I found that there are around six anabolic steroids given to nearly all livestock in cattle farms here in America. That is crazy to me. These anabolic steroids help cattle grow faster, larger and give them a larger appetite. In 1988, the European Union banned the use of all hormone growth promoters, yet the United States has continued to allow it for over 50 years.

Source

https://www.organicconsumers.org/scientific/growth-hormones-fed-beef-cattle-damage-human-health