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Corporate Agriculture: The Hollow Men (Monday, Jan. 5, 2004 -- CropChoice news) -- From a news release:
Corporate Agriculture: The Hollow Men, a segment of The Nature of Things with Dr. David Suzuki
The pastoral images of farm life – the Old MacDonald version with green
pastures, cows in a field and a yard full of chickens and pigs – are now far
from reality. It’s been a long battle by corporations to turn agriculture
into agribusiness. The struggle between individual farmers and corporate
factory farms is being fought across North America.
Corporate Agriculture: The Hollow Men, examines the growth of corporate
factory agriculture – an industry that generates severe environmental,
social and cultural problems. There is a growing backlash against a form of
agriculture that many believe is unsustainable. Alternative Agriculture:
Food For Life, looks at alternatives to corporate farming. Ecological,
organic and ethical farming could be a tremendous benefit to the environment
and help preserve rural society and culture.
Farming in North America has become a ‘cash cow’ for a handful of
multinational corporations. Agri-business has taken the principles of the
assembly line and applied them to what was traditional animal husbandry.
Massive and powerful corporations have become enormously wealthy at the cost
of the environment and rural culture. Dilapidated farm buildings keep an
eerie watch over the changing landscape.
Alternative Agriculture: Food For Life, looks at alternatives to factory
farming and the growing demand for nature-based or organic foods. Animals,
grains, fruits and vegetables are raised to thrive in a natural
environment – the antithesis of factory farming. Increasingly, consumers are
looking for food produced without the use of chemicals, pesticides, hormones
or antibiotics. Even though organic food is more expensive to produce,
shoppers are willing to pay the added cost. They believe that by buying
factory food, they are supporting a socially and environmentally destructive
form of agriculture.
The extinction of family farms has become a lightning rod issue for
environmental activist and lawyer Robert Kennedy Jr., who believes, “Thomas
Jefferson’s view of American democracy was rooted in tens of thousands of
yeoman farms. People who had a stake in our country, who controlled the
land…these vital commodities… see (corporate farming) as the final nail in
the coffin of that vision. And our landscapes are now being occupied by a
few pirate multinational corporations who care nothing about our country or
its losses.”
Corporate Agriculture: The Hollow Men and Alternative Agriculture: Food for
Life are written, produced and directed by Ray Burley. Michael Allder is
executive producer of THE NATURE OF THINGS. | |
