Publics view on Ag

The Publics’ view of Sustainable and Industrial Agriculture.

 

I believe this table represents the general publics view of sustainable agriculture for many reasons. First look at all of the verities of produce that are available for purchase. Conventional agriculture provides bulk and verity to the consumer. Now look at the price column with conventional agriculture you are saving 20 bucks and in this economy that is a good thing. But with the low price comes an even greater price. What the general public doesn’t see as clearly as we should is that the industry has made the products cheaper by over production and speed. Speed is the name of the game in industrial agriculture. For instance the average life for a cow deemed for beef production is 12 to 14 months now when before the big agriculture boom it was 2 to 3 years. What allows for this to happen? Hormones. The beef industry uses hormones to allow for the cows to fatten up quicker. The crop producers also use hormones and pesticides as well to increase yields in crops. The hormones and pesticides used can cause harm our bodies or make us mature faster than normal. The reason they use these hormones and pesticides is to produce a product that is fresh to the untrained human eye. I normal person walking into the store is looking for a big thick and juicy tomato with no impurities. So the industry has created this product through the use of the hormones and pesticides. By buying this “fresh” product most people think that they are supporting farmers this is wrong.

Big stores only buy form big named producers by buying this product you are actually hurting local farmers. So next time you want local products go to the local farmers market. Farmers markets are the best place to support local farmers by buying their goods.