6.4 Industrial Farming

  •  Not long ago, I first heard about the disappearance of bees from an NPR story that mentioned how our food system would be affected because there would be little to no bees that would pollinate the flowers/plants. After watching the Vanishing of Bees, I have a better understanding of how it is affecting our food system and the root cause of the colony collapse disorder. I loved this documentary about bees because it only made me more appreciative of all that bees do for our environment and for our food. As a vegan/ vegetarian, most of my daily foods are fruits and vegetables. If bees disappear the price of fruit and vegetables will start increasing before those plants will completely disappear and we will be dependent on grains and proteins for survival. It was interesting to learn that bees from 1 colony can visit 100,000 flowers in one day! That is incredible. Pesticides are the culprit behind the bees disappearance. More specifically it is the systemic pesticide combined with monoculture that are hurting our food system. How could anyone believe that pesticides left over from WW2 be good to use for killing bugs on our foods that we will eventually be consuming!? The ads going on after the war stating, "DDT IS GOOD FOR ME" is sickening.  Pesticides are destroying our food system and making our system unsustainable. Bees pollinate 1/3 of what we eat, without them we will suffer gravely. 
  • Through watching Dirt!: The Movie I learned several interesting facts about soil. For example, we are made of the same 5 basic elements as soil. Soil contains 10s of billions of organisms. I knew composting was good for the environment I did not make the connection before that compost keeps our dirt healthy! It makes me happy that composting is something my family and I do every single day. Nothing really ever goes to waste in our home. Were you able to discover if there is a factory farm near you? Were you already aware of farms near you? What do you think about this?  There are factory farms in my county. There are approximately 19,000 cattle cows and 4,300 dairy cows. 

Comments

  1. Krissy PamatmatOctober 11, 2017 at 11:20 AM

    Hi Mayra,

    I also have a better understanding of the importance of bees in growing our fruits and vegetables after watching the film. Yes, you made a good point that the price of fruits and vegetables might rise because the bees are disappearing. I agree that the systematic pesticide combined with monoculture are affecting our food system. Farmers need to stop using pesticides and start organic farming.

    - Krissy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Environmental Health MusingsOctober 19, 2017 at 3:36 PM

    Hi Mayra,

    You bring up a scary point that if bees disappear, we will have to rely on protein and grains in order to survive! Even though I'm not a vegetarian, it's scary to learn how profound of an impact bees have on our food supply. It was also alarming that we are still using pesticides for WWII that is not only toxic for bees, but for humans as well.

    ReplyDelete

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