Fresh Response Nicole Miller

The most important idea I took from watching this film would have to be that raising animals and crops as naturally as possible is the best way to go. Most of the speakers that were interviewed in the movie said that it was better to, and a lot said that they would rather go naturally, even if it meant they would not be able to mass produce their product as much. Due to industrialization, people started not caring as much about what was in their produce, just how quickly they could produce it. Some farms were feeding dead cows to alive ones because it made the cows grow quicker. This led to some major problems with the cows, sometimes resulting in mad cow disease or some other type of disease. It was said that we needed to "respect the design of nature."(Fresh) I agree with this. I think that in order to fully understand the way nature works, we need to respect it, and realize that we can benefit the way things naturally are. I liked that the farmer would move his cow from pasture to pasture to imitate the way they would live in nature.

A question I had was exactly how much the animals were hurt by using antibiotics and hormones used to grow the animals quicker. I found that when growth hormones are used in animals, it sometimes stays in the meat that we eat. Not only that, but it stays in the waste the animals excrete from their bodies, and some scientists are worried that it may begins to hurt our environment by contaminating soil and water sources. The European Union doesn't allow these hormones to be used. Approximately 80% of US cattle are injected with growth hormones, and was traceable in soil up to 195 days after being given to the animals. Overall, these hormones seem to be doing more negative than positive.

http://www.sustainabletable.org/258/hormones