M6.4: Industrial Farming

• Your thoughts about the vanishing of bees (what else have you heard/seen about this issue?)

It was saddening to watch Vanishing of the bees. The loss of the bees are not just ruining our agriculture industry but also hurting the beekeeper as many of them are losing their livelihood. I have known about the reduction in bees but not to the severity as presented in the documentary.  After watching the video, I think the theory regarding the use of pesticide in our crops and the use of the sugar water in place of honey as food for the bees are contributing factors to the disappearance and death of the bees. The pesticides is causing poor immune system in the bees which together with poor nutrition these bees are more susceptible to contracting diseases and pathogens. In an article publish in Science News in January, 2018, scientist have seen a decrease of CCD but hives are still dying, there is still no definite answer to what is causing the death of the bees. In order to ensure that we will still have fruits and vegetables in the future we need to protect the bees.

• Dirt!: The Movie 

Mother nature provides the earth everything needed to survive and sustain life but if we take advantage and add toxic into the earth then we are as mentioned in the video pushing towards human extinction. The moment when we overexploit our natural resources faster than it can replenish and recycle it self, we set off a series of domino effect which leads to climate change, drought, disappearance of bees and furious storms. As our soils gets depleted, we are moving more towards genetically modified plants, and pesticides to produce food to feed our growing world population. But as we see with the bees, it may be a sign that humans may also become affected if we continue to consume GMO food and food that have been sprayed with large dose of pesticides. When I go shopping for groceries I love to go to farmers markets and buy organic because I know there is no toxic being added to force the plant to grow faster than it suppose to do. I think we should go back to the time when we eat what is in season and organic. 

• 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? 

I wasn't able to find any information on factory farms near me. In Hawaii, most of our foods are imported in, so I am not surprised if there isn't any factory farms. I know of local farms that groups fruits and vegetables and sell organic meat, but they are not large productions. I have seen factory farms in China and I think it's horrible and unhygienic. These animals are being cramped into small spaces, feed foods that have been mixed with antibiotics and steroids so they can grow faster. The SARS/Avian flu outbreak was a warning that these factory farms making the animals more immune to diseases and it can harm humans. We need to stop these factory farms.

• Composting: Do you currently compost? Have you composted in the past? Do you know anyone who composts? Would you consider composting, after learning about its benefits from the movie? 

I am not currently composting or had done any in the past. I have seen one of my professor whom compost in her house and she was telling me the good benefits of composting. We can recycle and make new dirt for farming. After talking to her I was considering composting, and my dad is planning on creating a garden in our new house so we have plans to start composting to generate soil for the garden.