M6.4 Industrial Farming

The film “Vanishing of Bees” is an informative film with a mission to answer what is causing bees to disappear. The theme answer in the film is that something is that something is environmentally wrong when bees are vanishing or dying. While there is no common link between the dying bees, the lack of plants and vegetation in their ecosystem is impacting their colonies. They have named the phenomena “Colony Collapse Disorder”. The film addresses a multitude of reasons for the phenomena, at the same time it is much more complex that science does not measure. For example, the influence of the chemical companies selling ideas and solutions to farming with pesticides and insecticides. Our U.S. policies don’t support the protection of the environment. It has constructed a system to benefit big corporations by regulating contamination after it is proven to cause harm to human health. We have to remember that these chemicals stay with the plants for their lifetime and absorbed by the soil.

Dirt!: The Movie goes above and beyond highlighting the importance of dirt to our survival as humans and our planet. We are made from the same matter as dirt, and it is our responsibility to care for the “earth’s skin”. In India soil is the mother who gives, and you must give back, the soil is sacred because it gives life. Dirt provides food to all living things and when you seal dirt with cement it stops giving and when dirt is not cared for it leads to droughts and ultimately starvation. The film attributes the rise and fall of many civilizations based on their treatment of the soil. Historically, there has been conflict between farming communities and Nomad communities to survive.
Both films attribute monoculture farming the main environmental hazard impacting the bees and destroying the soil. Monocultures are single crop farms where over millions of acres harvest the same crop. While it was efficient in producing profits, it worked in the short term. Monocultures produce nothing for the soil and actually killing their dirt. Around the world big farming corporations are taking over globalizing farming, destroying the small farmer. If changes are not made to care for our soil and ecosystems, humanity is at risk for extinction.

There are factory farms in my neighboring county of San Joaquin. This is new information to me, I’m just learning what factory farms are. I really want to be ignorant in knowing where my food comes from because knowing makes me responsible to do something, when there is so much to do in our purposely broken society. Now I am conscious of this fact, San Joaquin produces dairy and pork products. This is where, as recommended in “Vanishing of Bees”, I vote with my fork. I need to be alert and pay attention to where my food comes from and avoid purchasing products that harm our environment. Another step-in taking action is composting. I don’t compost and have never composted. I do have friends who compost and say it’s not too labor intensive, even for me. After, watching both films I am committed to taking both of these steps. The image of mother nature turning trash into a garden is not lost on me. At the same time, I need to take responsibility to produce less trash.