Creativity + Social Change, University of Connecticut
Media Reviewed:
FRESH the Movie
FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet. Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy.
Commentary:
I chose to write about this movie because it really struck me how the general public doesn’t know exactly what they are eating. Most of our fruits and vegetables are covered with chemicals and animals are being given so many antibiotics that they don’t need, it’s like we are poisoning ourselves. This movie shows us alternatives we can take to eat healthier and we can do this in our backyards. Also, it was a creative idea to share this movie with others and when I saw this, I saw it with my classmates and other people in the community. The point of this movie was to help people to think creatively to shift their lifestyles and to eat healthier.
I recall that in the movie someone said that there are people who want to eat healthy but there isn’t a place nearby where they can get fruits and vegetables. Will Allen, who used to be a professional basketball player, has his own farm and has many people come to visit to learn more about growing crops. He is involved in a program called Growing Power which brings the community together. This way he can show people how to grow crops in their own backyards, even in urban areas like where Will lives. I like the idea of how he uses waste as compost. The worms that are mixed in it turn it into compost. The point of this is to make sure people have access to fresh, healthy food. I also believe that it’s important for people to be able to obtain healthy food. We need to eat healthier and prevent obesity. It doesn’t appear that Will Allen uses pesticides on his crops. We don’t need that on the crops; if anything it is more harmful to us the more we ingest it.
Who ever thought how much antibiotics animals are given. I think it’s unbelievable how much they are given. This movie presents a long list of antibiotics that animals are injected with, which supposedly makes them grow faster and wards off low-grade infections. So, if we are eating meat with all these antibiotics in it and if we could get really sick, even if we try to take whatever medications to fight off the sickness it may not do anything because of how much antibiotics were given to the animals. This can cause some microorganisms that cause illnesses in humans to become immune to certain antibiotics. Overall, it’s dangerous for us to be eating many of the meats we buy in the grocery stores because of what the animals are given.
Watching this movie really made me think so much about what is in our food and what we are really eating. What can we do about this? I don’t think pesticides and other chemicals are needed in the things we grow. The animals we would be eating don’t need antibiotics at all. I found this movie to be inspiring. I want to learn more about where I can get food that won’t put my health in danger. This is a movie that I recommend to everyone to watch. I think this will put a shock to their system once they find out the truth behind food we buy. This is a movie that helps spread the word to others.
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