Author: dlee9

 

1.   inadequate

-single religion

-advance science and technology

-secular liberal politics

-individual

2.

scientists, experts in different field

+public (debate, discussion/media/public consultation/activists, advocacy)

scientific thinking (unbiased)

 

1.

characteristics of “the most urgent problems” : most comes from science parts, hard to predict the outcomes (hard to make decisions),

Who make the decisions-experts/ consumers/political-act based on self interest

2.

what role can a non-specialist play in thinking ethically about the implications of the genetics?

they are not experts but got values (pg191)

principles of compassion: ability to emphasize

Lama: trust the revulsion

way we think about animals denies logic

principles

1. compassion

2. trust the revulsion

3. don’t trust the commerce

pg196

 

 

 

South Korea is where I originally came from, and as shown in NGO website the consumption of meat has increased by 83% compared to 1961. This is the biggest increase rate among other countries in the same period. This increase of meat consumption shows the rate of industrial farming has increased in South Korea. Industrial farming has started earlier in America as shown in NGO website. Second to China, the US consumes more meat than any other country. American food industry has tendency to disregard morals for an increased food production

Industrial farming has certain problems. Critiques of industrial food production are such as the way animals are raised is not clean, it takes up a lot of oil to truck fertilizer, and it contaminates soil through the use of nitrogen. Most of the critiques are focused on environmental issues. According to Kingsolver, genuine food culture is an affinity between people and the land that feeds them [Kingsovler]. It is a relationship between people and the soil that is needed to grow food. The place people live is as same as the place where the soil is available. The soil is filled with dirt and nutrient food is needed to grow. The ingredients of food take steps to be formed. As most of the agricultural land shifted gradually into single crop corn or soybean farms, the farming converted from naturally based to a highly mechanized production system [Kingsolver]. This transformation to urban nation caused unexpected consequences. One of it is the absence of knowledge about how foods grow. As modern education system makes students move away from manual labor, and dirt which are the fundamental sources of farming, intuitive sense of agriculture is vanishing. This aggravates the relationship defined by Kingsolver above. This is the reason why people should be aware of how and when to look for their foods.

Pollan came up with some solutions that would resolve the ethical issues of industrial farming. Polyface farm is where human, animal and plants are keeping interactive relationships rather than staying under the control of industrial economics. Polyface Farms and industrial food production system differs on moral and ethical sides. Farmers in polyface farms take extra care for each individual animals. They move the cattle every evening, drag the broiler pens, tow chicken coops [Pollan 220]. All these works require physical and mental challenge. The whole farm is treated as a biological system in contrast to the industrial food production farm.

This results in a difference in the amount of food production between these two farms. Polyface farm does not require chemicals or fertilizer, thus produces less food than industrial farms where the farmers use a lot of chemicals. If Polyface farm takes over the food industry, the income of drug company will decrease and this will lead to the collapse of fertilizer market. Other factor affecting the amount of production is intensity of labor. Polyface farm is less labor intense than monoculture farm. It creates fewer jobs for polyface farms than for monoculture farm thus not producing jobs for workers.

This lead to a question of “Do we disregard morals (treatment of animals) for an increased food production?” According to Bittman, people are heavily exposed to the marketing of animal products and junk food. Their production has been supported by government agencies at the expense of a more health and Earth friendly diet [Bittman 3:22]. It seems obvious that trend flows to what people want rather than what they need for health. To address the question above only certain parts of Polyface farm’s functions can be implemented. These features can replace the parts of industrial farming that go against the morals.

Polyface Farms and industrial food production system differs on moral and ethical sides. Farmers in polyface farms take extra care for each individual animals. They move the cattle every evening, drag the broiler pens, tow chicken coops [Pollan 220]. All these works require physical and mental challenge. The whole farm is treated as a biological system in contrast to the industrial food production farm. The way animals are raised in industrial food production farm is not clean, and it takes up a lot of oil to truck copious amount of fertilizer and shipping across the country. It also contaminates soil through the use of nitrogen.

This results in a difference in the amount of food production between these two farms. Polyface farm does not require chemicals or fertilizer, thus produces less food than industrial farms where the farmers use a lot of chemicals. If Polyface farm takes over the food industry, the income of drug company will decrease and this will lead to the collapse of fertilizer market. Other factor affecting the amount of production is intensity of labor. Polyface farm is less labor intense than monoculture farm. It creates fewer jobs for polyface farms than for monoculture farm thus not producing jobs for workers.

This lead to a question of “Do we disregard morals (treatment of animals) for an increased food production?” According to Bittman, people are heavily exposed to the marketing of animal products and junk food. Their production has been supported by government agencies at the expense of a more health and Earth friendly diet [Bittman 3:22]. It seems obvious that trend flows to what people want rather than what they need for health.

 

Works Cited

Michael Pollan, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” A Natural History Of Four Meals. 2006 The Penguin Press. 2006. 220

 

Mark Bittman, “What’s Wrong with the Way We Eat?” Ted talk. Recorded December 2007 at EG 2007. 3:22

class goals

analytic inquiry

use of information resources

engaging diverse perspectives

ethical reasoning

quantitative fluency

 

capitalism

-individuality

-labor/work for money

-honesty

-competition (cooperation)

 

1.

There are some kinds of human work that is involved in the Polyface Farms. Humans move the cattle every evening, drag the broiler pens, and tow the chicken coops. These all require physical, mental challenge, and ability to solve new problems. There are no institutional supports for this kind of farms. Institutional supports are provided to those where chemicals are regarded as important materials for the farm. Intelligence and local knowledge has been removed since machines and chemicals are in charge of farming in this farm. The owner of Polyface Farm does not need chemicals since the farm is treated as a biological system.

2.

Monoculture farming has different features from Polyface Farms. Managing to raise single species of animal is not easy without the use of chemicals. “Meds just mask genetic weakness”. Meds, which is chemical medication hinder farmers from checking the inner conditions of cattle.

3.

To accurately measure the efficiency of the farm the “450 acres” of wood lot has to be counted too. Wood lot is another important source of the farm. The water supply is dependent on this forest, trees in forest work like an air conditioner, and the trees also reduce evaporation in the fields thus making it possible to store more water in the grass. It multiplies farm’s biodiversity, and produces much more biomass than grass. The whole wood lot is not just a waste of land, but is a productive place for the farm.

logistical requirements: word limits, due dates, number of quotes,

content requirements: goal, background-ideas, questions

rhetorical requirements-audience, genre

goals in this paper:  think critically about what other writers have written, and working my own way to state beliefs about eating ethically

Section 1

present critique of kingsolver and pollan (Bittman)

Section 2

what are some factors are possible to get in the way

why some people might resist

use language from Dalai Lama, Herzog(morally), and Pollan

Section 3

what would it look like the things I value the most

What do they do, and why (Polyface)

 

1.

Polyface is an example that shows people can properly use a soil by developing it autonomously rather than by leaving it alone. By using the mess chickens make in a day, Polyface Farm becomes completely self-sufficient in nitrogen. Chickens make steps on every square of foot during the season where they defecated copiously. These features make Polyface Farm distinct from any other farms. By copying the relationships found in nature, Polyface Farm becomes successful. Another feature of this farm is that it has an operation called ‘Eggmobile’. It stores four hundred laying chickens and allows other people to pick those up from outside. By using relationships between animals, this device contributes the birds to do effective job of sanitizing a pasture.

2.

A holon is an entity that from one perspective appears a self-contained whole, and from another a dependant part. Eggmobile is one of the holons comprising the farm. Eggmobile relies on poops of cows and fertilizes the whole ground using those excretion. The turkeys and grape are other holons, and they each produce efficiently without using fertilizer, weeding, or pesticide. This concept of holon can be applied to another area. To get into the World Cup each countries have to compete against other countries in the same continent. This continent qualifiers is holistic from one angle, but it is dependent on larger part from another angle that it is just a pathway for entering into actual world cup.

3.

“efficiency” is a term used in large scale industrial farms. Humans decrease the biodiversity of their lands to a small chosen species for their industrial system, and efficiencies are achieved through this simplification. Standardization and mechanization contribute to this simplification in industrial agriculture. The efficiency is measured by the yield of one chosen species per acre of land or farmer. Efficiencies of natural systems, in contrast to industrial system have features of complexity and interdependence. To measure the efficiency of natural system, you need to count both the products it produces and the costs it eliminates. Polyface farm takes advantage of natural species’ tendency in a way that benefits each other.