HW#11: Final Food Project I

From the whole food unit, I learned that our industrial food system is a much more complicated and nightmarish system than we imagine or wish it to be. Is there a way to escape this nightmare? It was a bit worrisome that there might be even more life-threatening dangers within the food we eat that the government and huge food corporations hide just for their greed for profit. Joel Salatin’s Polyface farm is then mentioned as a ‘sustainable’ and ‘natural’ local farm that would make any reader of Omnivore’s Dilemma and any viewer of Food Inc. want to look up to in amazement. But, I had to ask myself: Is Polyface farm really that great? I decided than to do an Academic Research to see if Pollen and Salatin’s statements hold true.

I wasn't quite sure how to start, so I began by doing simple searches of Polyface Farm. It was a relief to see that many of the people who actually visited the farm were surprised at how much of the things mentioned about the farm was not very exaggerated. However, I knew I needed other people's opinions and came across a blog that caught my attention. Of course, it's not a credible sourse, but it was a start: (http://postconflicted.blogspot.com/2009/05/recent-trip-to-polyface-farms.html) There was a comment that I wanted to confirm:
"The short of it is that pastoral cows are in fact still a major source of greenhouse gases, and they do not solve environmental issues."

Here is some research I found:
"World-wide, there are about 1.5 billion cows and bulls. All ruminants (animals which regurgitates food and re-chews it) on the world emit about two billion metric tons of CO2-equivalents per year. In addition, clearing of tropical forests and rain forests to get more grazing land and farm land is responsible for an extra 2.8 billion metric tons of CO2 emission per year!” (Are cows the cause of global warming? (http://timeforchange.org/are-cows-cause-of-global-warming-meat-methane-CO2)
I’m still on Salatin’s side, but it makes sense that even Polyface farm’s way of doing things isn’t ‘perfect.’ The farm takes up a lot of space so animals are free to roam which may cause more CO2...
This obviously wasn’t convincing though; I read in Omnivore’s Dilemma of Salatin’s method of avoiding his farm animals from eating the same leaf repeatedly to avoid the problems of overgrazing. Polyface farm might be emitting some type of CO2, but obviously its a lot less compared to the CO2 emiited from feedlots and industrial farms.

But, most of the research that came up were positive views of Polyface farm. I tried not to check anything the government or 'specialists' would say, rather people who actually visited the farm and their reactions to it. This is connected to what we've been learning in the food unit has helped me confirm that Polyface farm is indeed an example that other industrial farms and corporations fail to consider. This is important because most people (at least in the U.S) are involved and manipulated into this complex food system, and its important to re-consider if we should still fall under the hands of the government. Polyface farm's method is completely different, so it may not be a complete solution, but it is definitly something to think about.