...bacon, and sausage. Around noon again without thought he goes to an eatery down the street to get there all American cheeseburger with their salty fries. Then after arriving home from work Tim gets out the grill and start cooking hotdogs and brats for his family. Finally Tim and his family end the night watching a movie and eating a bowl of ice cream. Americans are very lucky to have safe food to consume...
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...passed on through ancestry. Farming is extremely important to the Amish culture because it is their primary source of subsistence. It is also a big part of what it means to be part of the Amish culture. Working on the farms helps the Amish community foster unity, family and self-reliance (Knight, 1980). Although the Amish are very skeptical about technology, they have adapted to technology that helps them conduct their daily farming activities. Farming includes raising livestock, cultivating soil, and producing many crops throughout the year. Some Amish order’s carry on a diversified agricultural program. They follow a four-year crop rotation system, typically planting corn for two years, oats for one year, and a hay crop for the fourth year (Schwieder & Schwieder, 2009). In keeping with the philosophy of stewardship, few Amish farmers use commercial fertilizer; instead they use large amounts of manure because they feel this is a superior method and a more natural one. Many Amish orders have this belief about using commercial products on their farm because they believe it to be possibly harmful to the body upon consumption (Weaver- Zercher, 2005). Amish life is rooted in the soil, which creates somewhat of a burden to some Amish families that completely refuse to adapt. Farmland has increased over the years and cultivating soil by hand or animal drawn equipment makes it almost impossible to cultivate soil in a timely manner. Many Amish families had faced these problems before...
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...shared by the speakers? (2-3 sentences) The main message of the speakers was pretty much their own experiences, and how their farms operate. It was really interesting to see the different types of farming. All three of them were completely different than what we do on my home farm. They shared pros and cons of how they farm, and what they’re doing in the future to make the way they farm better. What were the main concerns/observations/experiences of the speakers that formed the basis for their comments and/or recommendations? (about ½ page) Nathan talked about his 850 acre row crop operation. On his family farm, they also raise about 80 stock cattle on 50 acres of pasture. Something that they are experimenting with is planting cover crops on their row crops, and then grazing the cattle on the cover crops. This has worked so far, and they are looking to do more of this. Nathan thinks that grazing cover crops is a logical step for the best management of the farm. Doing this, Nathan believes it will be helpful for long term farming. Something that Nathan doesn’t like doing is spraying, therefore making it unsustainable. He is trying to figure out ways to reduce the amount of spraying and fertilizer that they use on his family farm. Mike operates an 858 acre bison farm. Mikes family started with beef cattle, and tried to manage them like bison, grazing them year around. This didn’t work, and they lost quite a few calves. Mike had an “Epiphany” and asked his parents if they could...
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...The Omnivore’s Dilemma Candace Casillo Devry University Professor Johnson 11/09/2012 In part one, Chapters one, two, and three of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan takes an in depth look of the history and sources of corn, a family farm in Iowa, and the economic pressures that influence farming and food policies. Part one showcases a captivating enlightening history with many descriptive qualities. Chapters one, two, and three are a perfect start to The Omnivore’s Dilemma, in that they set up the re-occurring theme in the book: the conflict between the way farming should be done, and how economic survival dictates how it is typically done. However, this book might not be as appealing to others as it was to me. The first chapter is a about a particular piece of produce that is all around us: corn. Pollan reveals that on the forty-five thousand items in a supermarket, more than a quarter of them now contain corn in their ingredients. Through some historical analysis of how corn was first used by the Mayans, Pollan explains why corn is such a commanding crop and how its use was transferred to the surrounding colonists. In chapter two, Pollan shares his experience on a family corn farm in Iowa and how corn has changed farming and the landscape in the area. Chapter three is about the grain elevator and how this lowers the value of this particular vegetable, which was once highly praised by the Mayans. Next, we learn that large companies such as Cargill and ADM control...
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...Effects of Government Subsidies on Small Farmers DeVry University Effects of Government Subsidies on Small Farmers Growing up in the rural Midwest I have known and been close friends with quite a few farm families. Until reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I never fully understood the impact that government subsidies had on the average family farmer. While I understand the need for some government intervention to keep farmers able to work, I think the government has overstepped their boundaries and ended up hurting the very people these plans were put in place to protect. Current government farm subsidies are geared towards large corporations at the expense of small, family farmers: most farm subsidies are only paid for corn and soybean growers and leave out small farmers growing other crops while artificially lowering the price of these crops to sometimes below the actual cost of production, and the majority of farm subsidy payouts go to the top 10% of producers; some proposed solutions are to overhaul the current USDA farm subsidy programs to include farmers growing crops other than corn and soybeans, change the way the subsidies are paid to help bring the crop prices more in line with the cost of production, to put a cap on the amount of subsidies paid out to any individual farm or to just do away with the USDA farm subsidy program altogether. Problems Research shows that 90% of all USDA farm subsidies go to the growers of only 5 crops; corn, cotton, rice, wheat...
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...“The people of Iowa welcome you”. Or do they? When you drive into Iowa the road signs indicating that you crossed the state line, informs you that Iowans will welcome your visit. The welcoming attitude goes along with another endearment of Iowa; Iowa nice. It paints an idealistic picture of neighbor helping neighbor, and since Iowa is the center of the grain belt, one might expect to see rural roads lined with farmsteads, known by their wooden barns and fences; somewhere in between the miles of green and golden fields. What a visitor may not know is that Iowa is the top pork producer in the nation with “8,500 factory farms” (Genoways 4) raising “more than 18 million of its 20 million hogs” (Genoways 4) in confined animal feeding operations....
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...industrial food system. Caught up in a drive to maximize production and profit, the industrial food system has grown to an unsustainable size. As food production has become increasingly industrialized, concern for the environment and the animals we eat has taken a backseat to expansion. Specialization, rather than integration, has become Forman 2 the hallmark of America’s farms. Rather than having chickens, hogs, corn, and hay all on one farm, all these things now reside on separate, much larger farms. There is, however, another, very separate food system that supplements the industrial food system: the local food system. Local food systems cater to people who believe that it is better to “buy local” or from a smaller, usually family-owned farm rather than from a...
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...A massive change the United states has experienced is the migration away from farming livings. This essay does a great job of drawing out the factors that played in to cause farmers to pursue another career. I would begin to become more and more difficult to farm, due to factors such as structural economical and political. This essay follows an American family farm that went through much adversity to stay afloat. John Kardel was a man of Germany who made his way to the new world to start his new American life. They settled in Iowa upon arrival to the new world and established a family farm. John Kardal was an intelligent man one can assume due to him realizing to travel as war west as he could. Land was much more inexpensive due to less densely...
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...Travis A. Tewell Sociology January 31, 2014 Week 4 Mrs. Clay Postville, Iowa Today in class, Mrs. Clay was showing us a video about culture change in Postville, Iowa. While watching the video I was noticing that most of the population was made up for German or Norwegian folks. But in 1987 things started to change for this little town. Instead of just the German or Norwegian people, they were in-golfed by Hasidic Jewish people. At the first sight of these changes the local population was upset because these new comers were not interested in taking part of the festivities of even by the type of neighbor which insisted of one stopping by and hanging out more often than an occasional time. Once these Hasidic Jews entered into the town of postville, they started to change the way of life for the local postville people. But in the process of doing so they were able to provide more jobs for people as well as a change in their economic situation. Postville was slowly turning into a worthless piece of development. Thanks to the Jews who started to make a name for postville with their production of farming getting bigger caused more visitors to come which eventually led to more families to live. With the jewish community making the economic issues better created another change in the culture diversity of Postville, Iowa. The next type of families that came is the Mexican culture. When the local community of postville consisted of Germans, Norwegians, and Jews the new...
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...is steadily declining through the practice of "factory farming." Factory farming is performed by the few large companies controlling food processing in America, it is vile and takes away humanity from those who continue to do it. It is the process in which farms "manufacture" food in unhealthy environments rather than safely breed livestock. It negatively affects the welfare of animals and the companies put the value of efficiency and profit before the health and safety of the animals. The repercussions of the choice to make these environments unhealthy by large corporations and keep them that way without trying to fix them further the damage to the treatment of livestock and the nutritional damage to America. It is imperative that America takes a stand as a nation to stop the process of factory farming and its effects, before the corporations go too far to the point where it is unstoppable. Factory farming is an increasing epidemic in the world of farming, we need to stop this before it is no longer preventable. A large portion of the population in America actually have no idea how livestock is taken care of by the corporations that they buy from. They do not know that the animals are so carelessly handled, that the animals are looked at as materials rather than actual living produce. In the documentary "Food, Inc." (2010) the producers of the movie actually get an inside view of the process of factory farming. The scene from Chapter 1: "Fast Food to All Food" shows...
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...Although there are some minor differences in Amish bands, Amish do not falter from their traditions or beliefs and rituals. In about 1730 the first Amish settlers arrived and settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The Amish were led by Jakob Anman in a split from the Mennonites over differences in beliefs. Since settling in Pennsylvania the Amish have split into several different groups and are settled in several different states. People of the Amish society are emerging agriculturalists. Their primary mode of subsistence is farming. For the most part Amish men and children work on the farm. Women take care of the home and help with barn chores if the family lives on a farm (Kraybill, 2001). Amish farms are not known to be big, but just enough to provide for the family. Amish are not allowed to run big farms in order to control power. As in most cultures, Amish women play a major role in maintaining the family. The Amish family usually consists of ten to twelve members. Amish women take care of the children as well as all of the house work. If the man owns a shop, then sometimes his wife will work there, or run the business. Religion is a big part of Amish culture; Amish people practice adult baptism. Although all...
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...often reduced visibility to just a few feet. The Dust Bowl affected millions of acres of land changing many people lives, causing many to relocate, and other to try to survive, it was possibly the greatest natural disaster of its times. “The Dust Bowl got it name after Black Sunday, April 14, 1935. More and more dust storms had blown up in years leading to that day. In 1932, 14 dust storms were recorded on the Plains. In 1933, there were 38 storms. By 1943, it was estimated that 100 mill acres of farmland had lost all or most of the topsoil to the wind. By April 1935, there had been weeks of dust storms, but the cloud that appeared on the horizon that Sunday was the worst. Winds were clocked at 60 mph.” (Ganzel, www.livinghistoryfarm.org,“Farming in the 1930”). Many were left homeless while others homes had to be torn down due to the damage the Dust Bowl dust storms had cause. Some people survived the great storms, they migrated west looking for work...
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...Amish Cultural Research Paper Amish Cultural Research Paper Imagine living in a society where the members socialize exclusively with each other and not with the outside world. The men of this society dress conservatively in dark colors sporting clean-shave until married when they switch to beards. The women, wearing only full skirts, wear their hair up in a bun and covered with a simple white cap or bonnet. The community, called an ordnung, decides how the community will be run from state to state. The culture itself keeps an arms distance from technology because they believe that it weakens the structure of the family. Planting and sowing of the fields is done by using horse drawn machinery and very rarely does the hum of anything fuel powered echo from the farms. Intermarriages are kept within the genetically isolated society to include first cousins and divorce is not tolerated. The Amish are a horticultural-based culture that consists of a society that is very conservative and strong on religion. The intent of this paper is to focus on the Amish culture, their primary mode of subsistence, and to identify three aspects of it impacted by this mode. History The Amish are a peace-loving, upright, religious group of people, settled happily in different parts of the United States and Canada. They disregard the modern way of life and are content to live their lives preparing for death and heavenly rewards by going without modern conveniences, such as electricity...
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...THE SLAVE DRIVING FATHER It is true that being raised on a farm constitutes more responsibilities for children. They are expected to do different chores than city kids. There is a story that a boy from Iowa tells that makes a person ask if a line should be drawn where the work is concerned. How should a parent handle their expectations? This boy had a lot of resentment, and rightfully so. His dad woke him up every morning chanting the spelling of the word work. Starting at age six he was expected to jump up out of bed, find something to eat, put dirty stinking clothes on, and get to work in the pig barn. This little boy from Iowa wished that cleaning his room was all he had to complain about. That was not the case. He was expected to go into a filthy pig barn, and scoop up the feces of the animals. He had to wear unwashed clothing from the days before that hung outside in the cold. All he ever ate for breakfast was cold cereal that he had to fix himself. When he finished cleaning the barn he would take long showers to get the smell off of his skin, but it did not work. Not even industrial strength soap would remove the odor left on the skin from being in the pig barn. The father of this little boy never showed any compassion before, during, or after he worked so hard. A parent ought to be kind and loving toward their children, even while teaching them about the importance of responsibility. This little farm boy often felt sad, and even thought about hiding sometimes, because...
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...The Local Food Movement Benefits Farms, Food Production, Environment The Local Food Movement, 2010 Pallavi Gogoi is a writer for BusinessWeek Online. She frequently writes on retailing. Just as small family-run, sustainable farms were losing their ability to compete in the food marketplace, the local food movement stepped in with a growing consumer demand for locally grown, organic, fresh produce. In addition to supermarket giants following the trend toward locally grown food and devoting shelf space to such items, local foods are also finding their way into schools, office cafeterias, and even prisons. Although the trend toward organic foods has not waned, consumers are increasingly aware of the environmental impact caused when organic foods must travel to find their way to the local grocery store shelf. For this and other reasons, consumers are opting instead for locally grown counterparts, choosing to eat what is available in each season in their areas rather than purchasing food that must be shipped from other regions. Drive through the rolling foothills of the Appalachian range in southwestern Virginia and you'll come across Abingdon, one of the oldest towns west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. If it happens to be a Saturday morning, you might think there's a party going on—every week between 7 a.m. and noon, more than 1,000 people gather in the parking lot on Main Street, next to the police station. This is Abingdon's farmers' market. "For folks here, this is part of the Saturday...
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