America's farm families
"Five Farms" explores the lives of farm families who plant, feed, herd, harvest and deliver food to our markets.
It's a good time to be a farmer in Iowa. Corn prices are soaring, and with help from chemicals and biotechnology, Midwestern farmers produce more corn on an acre of land than ever before. Craig and LaVon Griffieon and their four children are the fifth and sixth generation on the family's farm near Des Moines. They raise corn, soybeans, and livestock on 1,100 acres. They say times are good financially, but they’re ambivalent about the direction of American agriculture. Craig and LaVon disagree over how they should manage their farm and their land.
Most Americans know little about where their food comes from and even less about the lives of farming families who plant, water, feed, herd, harvest and deliver that food to market. PRI's "Five Farms: Stories From American Farm Families" confronts that information gap head on.
This remarkable series of five one-hour documentaries uses compelling first-person storytelling to personalize the lives and work of five farm families in New England, the South, the Midwest, the Southwest and West Coast. By tracking these families for a full year-long cycle of the seasons, "Five Farms" reveals the resiliency of the American farmer and documents what they do to help feed the nation, while being caretakers and conservationists of the lands and resources they use. "Five Farms" profiles people who work hard and make considerable sacrifices, but who can also flourish, and for whom the benefits — including a deep understanding of the land they work — are rich.
Each episode of this powerful series helps listeners make the critical connection between the food on their tables and families who work to produce it.
Watch the series overview:
"Five Farms: Stories From American Farm Families" is produced by Wesley Horner Productions in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. The series will be available beginning April 27 on PRI Affiliate Stations across the U.S.
I think the misinformed choice of words 'chemicals' and 'biotechnology' do not tell the whole story. These practices are used in all parts of the country, even on farms that claim to be organic. I would think PRI would be much more thorough in the reporting and research. The ag industry is really struggling, and the fact that US farmers have been pushed to the breaking point to produce the cheapest safest food in the world within our outdated ag policies, they can do nothing but farm the way they do just to be as efficient as the economic system forces them to be. Farmers are much more regulated them wall street financiers. They also need to produce commodities that are efficient to produce. I am sure if farmers were given appropriate compensation, then they could afford to hire people to hand garden their crops in leiu of the small amount of pesticides they use. Sometimes it is inavoidable, it is their insurance on their investment. Farmers are pushed to produce so much more per person each year and for less costs and for a very uniform product. I would not paint such misconstrued photo.
Oh I forgot Big Ag has completely muzzled the news media so the only writing allowed are pro-big Ag articles
Special education costs are skyrocketing!
Children's hospitals are bulging at the seams with very young cancer patients, children with kidney failure, down syndrome, and every other disease fed to them through the placenta.
Let us not forget that also, according to the Environmental Working Group, fetal cord blood has as many as 200 different toxins in it.... Not a very pretty picture for a society that prides itself on "protecting" citizens and whose "pro-life" movement speaks loud and clear about abortion.
What about poisoning fetus's with uses neurotoxins used widely on animal feed?
What about using the milk intended for calves to feed children, consequent;y, growing them TOO BIG, too young and increasing their risk for breast, prostate, ovarian, uterine and colon cancers?
What about huge subsidies that negate the true free market being paid to commodity producers that feed the federal food programs with the MOST unhealthy and unsustainable animal derived fats, cholesterol and a mix of food born bacteria to boot?
A nations "health" is seen by the rates of both physical and psychological diseases. America build hospitals and prisons and prides itself on the growth of the "health care" sector which from my seat, is nothing more than a tragic and terrible system of disease detection and maintenance.
We do live by a very troubling double edged sword that we seem to be impaling ourselves on.
PRI or NPR would never do a program on doctors who use plant foods as medicine , nutrition as medicine, as it was always suppose to be....or would they?
Many doctors are doing what doctors are charged with, doing no harm and telling patients to get off meat and dairy to reverse disease.
Our current "food" system is a plague upon earth.It's killing everything.
From a midwestern corn/soybean perspective, here are some tidbits:
Ethanol subsidies now make the price of corn and soybeans dependent on crude oil prices TO A LARGE DEGREE, not exclusively.
Other than dairy and hogs, most corn and soybean farmers became wealthy during the first decade of this century. The pork/dairy complex almost got wiped out because corn ethanol drove the price of feed too high and their operations into deep losses.
Ag-welfare (subsidies) are making the rich richer and the poor poorer.
There is very little evidence of stewardship and conservation. The ties between subsidies / ag-welfare checks and soil erosion are almost non-existent. Enforcement is nil.9 out of 10 farms *demonstrate* that short term profits win out over pollution, erosion, and sustainability issues.
This is big-ag's lobbying influence. As soon as somebody proposes decreasing erosion in exchange for the welfare checks... the crying starts.
AND THAT CRYING IS LOUD.
I applaud the series as it's good to get people aware of some things, even if it represents a small slice of a large pie.
Thank you.
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