farmageddon Anyone seen this?

[tungularafishcamp]

farmageddon

Just watched this last night, netflix has it on the instant watch stuff.

It was pretty interesting/scary stuff about just how far our governmental agencies can and will go to squash the small independent farmer. Makes you wonder if maybe some of those rural firefights that happen every so often might get started this way? Have any of you had similar experiences?

 

[IndyIan]

I just watched the trailer, I'll have to check it out. Joel Salatin is always entertaining and makes alot of sense from a sustainability and small farming view point.

 

[texasjohn]

couldn't find much about it. Seems to relate to raw milk maybe?

 

[tungularafishcamp]

Raw milk was part of it, more about how BIG AG is using government agencies to stifle small farmers. At least that was the biggest thing I took from it, be interesting to see what some of the sharper tools in this tbn shed take from it.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Your take on this will depend on how much you go for Alex Jones style conspiracy theories. The world has changed. Agriculture has changed. Small farmers farm in their spare time and work in town to make a living. That's just the way things are and always have been. There's a niche for people who sell value added products like jams and jellies, cheese, or fresh produce, but the customer base is limited and the opportunity for expansion is limited by the available labor within a family.

 

[Gator6x4]

farmageddon

Just watched this last night, netflix has it on the instant watch stuff.

It was pretty interesting/scary stuff about just how far our governmental agencies can and will go to squash the small independent farmer. Makes you wonder if maybe some of those rural firefights that happen every so often might get started this way? Have any of you had similar experiences?

I don't believe what we see in a movie should be considered as factual. In my youth I watched many a Superman movie and I can't fly yet. Why? Am I doing something wrong? I watch movies all the time but consider them for what they are fantasys.

 

[creekbend]

About three weeks ago, there was a documentary about corn production in Mexico and Guatemala. It seems that there has been airborne contamination from the production of Monsanto hybrid corn. The report stated that up wards of 60% of the corn varieties that the farmers had used and seeded for centuries failed to germinate because of the cross pollination from the fields planted by the Monsanto hybrid seed crops. The documentary showed various small groups of farmers in these Countries uniting to form alliances to lobby their governments to control the widespread corn production from these hybrid seeds. They showed aerial photos where thousands of acres of hybrid corn was planted. The fields located near them didn't even produce one ear of corn and the stalks were dying.

 

[dave1949]

I haven't seen the movie, did watch the trailer.

I don't have many doubts that the FDA and USDA are controlled by corporate interests and have been for a long time now. Just look at who finances the campaigns against more complete and honest food labeling--from Monsanto to the American Grocer's Association.

I suspect that when agents bust a family-run raw milk farm, no senator's or representative's office gets a phone call from a heavy campaign donor. Like many areas in law enforcement, the enforcement is not equally applied. I think that's just a reality of how the world works more than an overt government plan to ruin family farms.

I know of a middle-age couple living on 28 acres in St. Albans, Maine that were licensed to operate a raw goat milk dairy. The state agent worked with them and was accommodating to their situation which kept the required investment down. Agents aren't going to cooperate with people who aren't doing the required testing and following sanitary procedures, nor should they.

 

[texasjohn]

I've been both to Guatemala and Mexico and seen how the natives crop there....tiny plots worked by hand, or with animal labor. I can easily believe that corporate ag has purchased large plots and applied large crop practices there. I'd believe that herbicide/management practices affected nearby small growers. Reason crops dying?? Changed drainage patterns, herbicide, insecticide, who knows...I don't understand how pollination would kill a corn plant...affect the seed and the next year's crop, perhaps.

About three weeks ago, there was a documentary about corn production in Mexico and Guatemala. It seems that there has been airborne contamination from the production of Monsanto hybrid corn. The report stated that up wards of 60% of the corn varieties that the farmers had used and seeded for centuries failed to germinate because of the cross pollination from the fields planted by the Monsanto hybrid seed crops. The documentary showed various small groups of farmers in these Countries uniting to form alliances to lobby their governments to control the widespread corn production from these hybrid seeds. They showed aerial photos where thousands of acres of hybrid corn was planted. The fields located near them didn't even produce one ear of corn and the stalks were dying.

 

[creekbend]

I've been both to Guatemala and Mexico and seen how the natives crop there....tiny plots worked by hand, or with animal labor. I can easily believe that corporate ag has purchased large plots and applied large crop practices there. I'd believe that herbicide/management practices affected nearby small growers. Reason crops dying?? Changed drainage patterns, herbicide, insecticide, who knows...I don't understand how pollination would kill a corn plant...affect the seed and the next year's crop, perhaps.

I have never been to either Country. The documentery was on the History Channel, and I was only relating the contents of the hour long program. They showed lab results that illustrated the findings. They specicifically blamed Monsato cross polination. BTW, I am not an expert.