Our Daily Bread

I watched "Our Daily Bread" and it had a very powerful impact on me. I feel that since there was no direct talking to the camera and just listening to the sounds of industrialization made it's point stronger. This movie is very powerful in the sense that it is very persuasive to try and change people's eating and consuming habits. More than anything I think this movie just opened my eyes to the horrors that are happening behind the scenes of our food, mainly. Initially this movie is a good educational tool, but it doesn't really set up people with ways to change their daily habits. Industrial food is EVERYWHERE so it's very hard for most people to change where they get there food right away. Changing people's habits and perspectives is going to take a lot of time. I think this movie portrayed awareness and knowledge but it didn't give people options of what to do next and how to act, which is what environmental education does.

This movie had a big impact on me because I am already environmentally aware, but I feel that people who don't have the same perspective as me wouldn't think anything is wrong with industrialization. A lot of people think that industrialization is the best thing that has happened to this world. But this movie might change people's perspectives a little by the method of filming. The movie was filmed by showing what goes on behind the scenes. It was very interesting to see and hear what went on behind the doors of the industrial chaos. I actually had to watch the movie is segments because I could only handle so much! I watched this movie a few weeks ago so not all the images are still vivid in my mind, but the one image that I can still clearly see is the mass amount of little baby chickens riding on these escalator things to be checked and then shipped off to live in a tiny, dark room until they were big enough to be killed. It was like that for all farm animals but I think the chickens stayed in my mind because they were so tiny and cute and I love eating chicken but after that I felt sick to my stomach.

"Our Daily Bread" did a very good job of portraying it's view and what it wants people to know, but like I said it's hard to change people's perception and habits. The movie changed my perception though and made me want to change my habits. It's hard to get to the farmer's market on Saturdays but I really want to make it a habit. I really liked this movie and I suggests others to watch it.

King Corn as EE-Heck Yeah It Is!!

I believe King Corn is a great example of teaching environmental education. The film is well done, easy to understand, and entertaining (plus, the guys aren't too bad to look at either). It not only tells a story of small town farming communities, but ties it to things that are in our every day lives that we don't think come from small farmers in Iowa. It was also great because you watch the film and not only feel like you are learning something, but that the guys that created the film are learning and about what they are learning their roots to the land.

The film starts off a little slow. We find out that the guys both have great grandfathers who were farmers in the same small town in Iowa. They find a guy to house them and who will let them grow one acre of corn on his land. One acre is pretty small, but when the film start, you get the feeling that they think it is going to be A LOT of hard work. It's amazing to see the process of them growing corn and the small amount of money that is made from their one acre. Since they don't have too much to do in their small acre, they try to follow all the possible places where their corn could end it. They travel to CAFO's, learn about High Fructose Corn Syrup and the low income people that it affects, look at grocery stores at all the ways corn could be used in everyday foods. They then look at the way corn had been grown and used back when their grandfathers were farming and the ways in which farming has changed over the years and who this change has happened.

So why do I consider this EE. Well, it teaches people to think about where their food comes from. When you go into a grocery store, I guess you just assume that everything comes from something that was grown by a little farmer on his farm as you sing "Old MacDonald" in your head. Not the case. Most things do contain corn, but the farmer has so little to do with the production of this corn that it doesn't even feel like a farmer-consumer relationship once it hits the shelves. It also teaches about the affect corn has had on the citizens of the United States and the problems that have come along with it. We learn that because of our diet, we are almost made completely of corn. Well, there's the old saying "you are what you eat" coming to haunt us. They talk about problems with diabetes in young children and the diabetes rates among lower income people. They also talk about the affect soda has had on obesity rates. Not only do you lean about the way corn is grown, the health risks, socio-economic impacts, but also about the history of corn and the way corn and farming has changed over the years. It is sad. It's nothing like us kids from the city would every think of. And, that is the problem, we don't ever have to think of any of it.

Which, is a great thing about the film, it makes you think. It makes you think about what you buy, what you put into your body and what it is doing to you and us as a nation. It makes you think of the farmer that grows this food and the way it must be grown. It makes you think of the injustices that happen to the farmer that doesn't listen to the big corporation and the way they tell him to farm. It makes you think of our change from slow foods to fast food. It makes you think about our connection to our land and to our food. It just makes you think, what else is EE all about?