It’s been my dream (and my awesome husband’s dream, too) to eventually have enough land to raise a lot of our own food including livestock. Yes, it’s a lot of work, but it’s also so much better for you (and cheaper in the long run). We’re not talking about raising enough to sell – while we don’t mind farming for ourselves, we don’t want to be professional farmers. We both like teaching too much!
Now, this dream is a LONG way off for us. It will probably be at least 10 years until we can afford to buy a few acres of land, but it doesn’t stop us from dreaming and scheming. We also try to learn as much as we can about sustainable farming so that when we do eventually begin our farm, we’ll be able to avoid things like pesticides and antibiotics that are very harmful to nature and to our bodies.
While searching Pinterest one day, I came across the documentary FRESH and happily found it on Netflix Instant Streaming. Unlike most of the other documentaries, this movie does not rely on shock tactics to tell you why our current agricultural system is unsustainable. Instead, it shows several farms, both industrial and sustainable, and focuses on what the sustainable farms do differently that make it so much better. For example, I knew about cattle rotation so that the feeding grounds can naturally regenerate, but I didn’t realize that if you put chickens in the fields a few days after, they will eat the larvae in the cow patties and help recycle the fertilizer back into the ground to encourage natural field regeneration. Super cool!
I highly recommend that you watch this film, even if you never intend to grow or herd your own food. It explains much better where our food comes from, why it’s important to pay a little more for sustainably-produced food, and that research suggests strongly that we are completely capable of feeding the entire world using sustainable agriculture (one of the food industries’ biggest lies to keep us hooked into their cheap and dangerous supply of products). I hope you love this honest yet non-villanizing film as much as I did!
Two Blue Pillars 