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M6.4 Blog: Industrial Farming

M6.4 Blog: Industrial Farming


The Vanishing of Bees captures the issue of "colony collapse disorder". This means there are no dead bees around, no mites or pathogens to explain the problem, and the hive abandons the queen and babies. This movie touches upon the political, ecological, and economic impacts that the disappearance of bees have on our society. I think the two main reasons losing bees is important to pay attention to is because first, bees are an indicator of environmental quality. If bees are dying by the thousands, there is something terribly wrong with our environment that must be addressed. Secondly, bees pollinate 15 billion dollars worth of food annually in the U.S. Losing bees will impact the economic nature of our nation.

Just like The Vanishing of the Bees, Dirt! the movie, talks about the economic, environmental, social, and political impact soil has on our society. It particularly looks at how humans have impacted our natural soil for the worse. We are destroying soil by paving over it to build cities and freeways. We are using it to mass produce agriculture, and we are digging it up to mine for resources like oil. 

Using the factory farm website, no factory farms were found in San Francisco based on 2012 data.

I do compost in my household. I think San Francisco is in the minority of cities/ counties that compost. Even going a short distance to Seattle, I found my friends did not compost. I believe that composting is very important, and should be promoted throughout the U.S. more (especially on the East Coast). 

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