The movie: Farmageddon

[billc]

THis interview is with the director of Farmageddon, a movie about the federal government giving its special attention to small farms.

http://biggovernment.com/reasontv/2011/06/30/reason-tv-qa-with-farmageddons-director-kristin-canty/

From the article with the video clip:

Guns drawn, a SWAT team kicks in the door of a private business. Are the cops there for drug dealers? Mafia mobsters? Terrorists?
No, the long arm of the law is out for the real dangerous contraband: raw milk and grass-fed chickens.
Nick Gillespie sits down with Kristin Canty, director of Farmageddon: The Unseen War on American Farms, a new documentary about small farms and co-ops that have been raided by the Food & Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and state-level agencies and have had their products seized and destroyed. One particularly gruesome case involved a flock of sheep being killed because of the non-existent threat of the sheep acquiring Mad Cow Disease.
Farmageddon does more than document government overreach; the movie also takes issue with FDA claims that raw milk and other products popular with foodies are unsafe and filled with dangerous bacteria. In a country where more and more folks are embracing small-scale and organic agriculture, the government is on a collision course with a growing subculture.

 

[David43515]

Thanks, that looks interesting. I`m a big foody, as I get older my cooking obsession is probably as bad or worse than my MA obsession. And I know lots of people here in Japan and back home who either raise alot of their own ingredients, or buy them from local small scale producers like these. My sister raised rabbits for meat as well as selling them to others as pets. One of my training buddies kept a 1/2 dozen chickens just for the eggs. And the church I went to as a boy had an annual pancake and sausage supper where all the sausage was made by the men of the church from 5-6 hogs raised by one of the members.In roughly 40 years of this kind of small scale, nonprofessional environment I don`t recall a single instance of anyone ever getting sick or having a bad reaction to any of it. Somehow I fear the effects of largescale farming operations using growth hormones and commercial butchers gassing meat with carbon monoxide more than I fear someguy down the road letting sheep graze in his pasture or tossing bruised apples and day old bread to his pigs.

 

[granfire]

Thanks, that looks interesting. I`m a big foody, as I get older my cooking obsession is probably as bad or worse than my MA obsession. And I know lots of people here in Japan and back home who either raise alot of their own ingredients, or buy them from local small scale producers like these. My sister raised rabbits for meat as well as selling them to others as pets. One of my training buddies kept a 1/2 dozen chickens just for the eggs. And the church I went to as a boy had an annual pancake and sausage supper where all the sausage was made by the men of the church from 5-6 hogs raised by one of the members.In roughly 40 years of this kind of small scale, nonprofessional environment I don`t recall a single instance of anyone ever getting sick or having a bad reaction to any of it. Somehow I fear the effects of largescale farming operations using growth hormones and commercial butchers gassing meat with carbon monoxide more than I fear someguy down the road letting sheep graze in his pasture or tossing bruised apples and day old bread to his pigs.

If you are lucky enough to live in a semi rural area by all means, go support the local farmers with the fresh stuff, when it's in season. It beneficial on oh so many reasons.

However, the put down on 'industrial farming' is a luxury only the wealthy can afford.

No, not all is easy peasy and picture perfect, but we managed in a relatively short time to feed more people from less acreage then ever before.


There is always room for improvement (and the agrar giants like Monsanto need to be kept taps on, they I consider to be evil)
But generally speaking all the 'bad stuff' put in foods is pretty expensive for the farmers to purchase and it is no longer used willy nilly.

(generally speaking, those types of documentaries are put out by people who live in urban/metropolitan areas and have no idea where food is coming from, after all it's available in handy packages in the super markets...why bother to kill a whole hog)

 

[Sensei Payne]

This is a display of big government, pure and simple.

Yes people should be informed of what they are ingesting...and no I don't think the raw milk and such should be sold and touted as being completely safe..

but why is it in a culture where you can smoke ciggerettes, as much as you want, but if you want to have a glass of REAL milk, then your a criminal?

Does the US Government have a patton on death dealing in this country? Although I would never have this type of food or drink, and for the record i am lactose intolerant anyways....I would at least want the right to try it if I wanted.

 

[granfire]

This is a display of big government, pure and simple.

Yes people should be informed of what they are ingesting...and no I don't think the raw milk and such should be sold and touted as being completely safe..

but why is it in a culture where you can smoke ciggerettes, as much as you want, but if you want to have a glass of REAL milk, then your a criminal?

Does the US Government have a patton on death dealing in this country? Although I would never have this type of food or drink, and for the record i am lactose intolerant anyways....I would at least want the right to try it if I wanted.

Ha, raw milk...

yes, we are going from one extreme to another. We always take the absolutist approach to things: like with the milk. It's impossible to by raw milk these days. Most people most of the time don't have a problem with it, but yet, the poop can hit the fan and milk can make people really sick. To have your supply of raw, you pretty much have to buy your own cow.

also, (I used to talk to homesteaders) regulations are put in place to keep the food supply safe, but a lot f them are so convoluted, you can't implement them on the small farm. There seems to be no real interest to allow small farming to carve out a niche market (that goes past tomatoes and green beans)

The US is in general about 30 years behind Europe in terms of environmental awareness. That does include quality of food.
Of course, there is always the matter of distance. There is just no way that New York can feed all of NYC, with meat or what have you, so you are depending on the big farms far away.
There is just no existing culture of the marked that you go to on the week end and buy fresh produce directly from the farmer, cutting out the middle man, etc...(of course it would help if cities would not relegate the market to a place nobody ever goes to...)

Still a lot of work.

 

[MA-Caver]

Once again doing the terrible to save us from ourselves.

 

[billc]

Wow, I don't feel dizzy, and I'm not feeling faint. Do I actually agree with almost everything Granfire just posted? Whoa...I better go get a check up or something.

Hi, my name is Bill and I agree with what Granfire posted here.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Wow, I don't feel dizzy, and I'm not feeling faint. Do I actually agree with almost everything Granfire just posted? Whoa...I better go get a check up or something.

Hi, my name is Bill and I agree with what Granfire posted here.

I'm actually more worried about Granfire :uhyeah:

 

[granfire]

I'm actually more worried about Granfire :uhyeah:

You are worried, I am SCARED!