Pop Culture Review

When tasked with finding a work of pop culture to analyze for this weeks blog post, I wanted to do something that I was interested in, but also that was in the realm of this assignment. I think it is important to think about art and farming in our time, not only in the past. That is why I chose to analyze Disney World's Landscaping and Hydroponic Garden. These works of art can be found in Florida at Disney's Epcot Center. They use plants from all continents (excluding Antarctica) as well as from over 50 countries. The gardens at Epcot cover a 47 square mile radius and include theme parks, hotels, golf coursels, hydroponics, as well as campgrounds. 

These are just a few selections from a wide variety that show what Disney is doing with flowers, but also with gardening and farming. Instead of being a traditional farm with rows and tractors, they have a new take on farming vegetables. By growing things hydroponically, they are reducing their need for land, as well as making things easier to harvest by having the fruit dangle down below the vines. This way they can put the pumpkin shapers on them to make it into the distinct Mickey Mouse head shape. They also take so much care in everything they plant, as evidenced by the third photo, where they just planted lettuce in the hydroponic greenhouse, but they took so much care in planting it into the Mickey shape. 

I like taking the concepts that we have been learning about how to analyze works of art, and appreciating the works of art in farming that we have in our lifetime. Farming is still a very prevalent profession, but it make take on different forms than we are expecting from the pictures of farms that we have in our minds from the past.

Food, Inc Review

Food Inc:

1.    Production Information: The film was made by Robert Kenner and it premiered on April 21, 2010. There were many farms and people that let the filmmaker in and let them film. The full list is:

1.    Richard Lobb 
Vince Edwards
Carole Morison
Troy Roush
Larry Johnson
Allen Trenkle
Patricia Buck
Barbara Kowalyck
Representative Diana DeGette
Representative Phil English 
Eldon Roth
The Orozco Family
Rosa Soto and Healthy Teens on the Move
Joel Salatin
Eduardo Peña
Gary Hirshberg
Lilac Ridge Farm
Wal-Mart
Moe Parr
David Runyon
Stephen R. Pennell 
William P. Kealey

2.    Plot Summary: This movie is about production of raw food (chicken breast size, etc.) It focuses on the fact that our food production methods have changed dramatically in the last 50 years compared to the thousands of years before. The goals of food production companies now is more output, less input and that creates problems in the industry. This film focuses on the fact that these changes come from science and technology, but they have negative side effects that the industry doesn’t think about. The food supply of the world in in crisis, but he thinks that this could be changed with a change in demand.

 Review:I was expecting to be shocked by the information that was presented in the movie, but I wasn’t expecting to be totally grossed out by what was shown on the screen. Robert Kenner does his job of showing the reality of different food industries in a very dramatic and poignant way. He doesn’t stray away from many of the uncomfortable truths that he discovered in his research. He goes over a lot of different industries and how they affect each and every person in our nation. One of the first things that he goes over is how fast food has changed our nation and how our food is gathered. People are wanting to get their food faster and easier than ever before, which makes it so there is more demand on our farmers and makes them use more questionable methods to gather that food. He shows the horror of some slaughterhouses and even some farms. These conditions were very horrific to see. Knowing many farmers from my home this part really concerned me. I know personally that the farmers that I know are just doing the best they can and they aren’t out to make animals lives miserable, they are just trying to make a living the only way they know how. That is what I didn’t agree with this movie. Farmers and ranchers aren’t cruel people (on the whole) but many of these animals were bred with the specific purpose of being food animals. There is a reason that our bodies can digest these foods and a reason why they have many of the essential nutrients that our bodies need. I think that is the inherent problem with our food industry is that people want too much of a good thing. If people didn’t over eat then there wouldn’t be a need for a lot of the cruelty that we see in the food industry. There was a concerning story however about E-coli and a little child who died from e-coli contaminated meat. That is something that is not okay. When people buy their food from a grocery store they shouldn’t have to be concerned that they or their children are going to get sick from it. I am glad that his mother raised a concern and got the law changed in order to make everyone safer when they buy their food. Overall I loved learning about the different aspects of the food industry. I am glad I had the background that I did so I could see both sides objectively and realize that there are things that we can change about how we get our food.