One of the greatest aspects of my Farm experience has been the variety of opinions and perspectives that I have been exposed to. But this accumulation of diverse information about our food production system has also caused me a lot of confusion. Sometimes it can be difficult to decide what is right when you are surrounded by conflicting voices, which are each equally certain of the truth of their own opinion. The confusion that this has caused me in the past was actually one of the main reasons why I wanted to come on the farm trip to Iowa in the first place. While in a way coming here has added to the pile of conflicting information floating through my brain, it has also helped me to begin to put the pieces together to be able to step back and see the bigger picture.

One such issue that we have been learning about is obesity in America and its implications for our food system. Opinions on this topic disagree on the causes as well as potential solutions for alleviating the high prevalence of obesity. Some like to argue that obesity, particularly among children and minorities, is the fault of fast-food establishments and other corporations with their influential advertisements and large amount of lobbying money. This is a favored approach of many food documentaries such as the one our class saw a few days ago, Fed Up. This perspective often also attacks conventional agriculture with its corn and soybean subsidies that provides the food industry with its resources for an excess of cheap, processed, and fast foods. Many who agree with this view are more likely to support regulations, mandates, or taxes on the food industry. However, critics turn their attention away from the food-industry and focus in more on individual choice. These same critics would probably be reluctant to impose any legislative restrictions on food, opting instead for public education programs. One of the strongest arguments against any sort of aggressive policy to combat obesity is the right to make personal choices as well as the reluctance to stigmatize an entire group of people due to their body type, which may be something they have little control over.

Perhaps the greatest subject on which perspectives clash is where the balance should be between conserving the environment and harvesting its resources to “feed the world.” Today we watched two different documentaries that addressed this controversial issue, Ocean Frontiers: The Dawn of a New Era in Ocean Stewardship and Symphony of the Soil.   Ocean Frontiers approached the issue by focusing on how we are in the middle of serious environmental crises such as the depletion of fish, pollution of oceans, and the creation of ocean dead zones. But the solution that the documentary proposes is one that calls for the modification of current methods of production through promoting dialogue among businesses and environmental conservation groups. This contrasts with the message of Symphony of the Soil, which called for an urgent revolution in agricultural practices that would reverse the work of the Green Revolution. This would include a return to an organic mode of agriculture without the use of pesticides or other chemicals as well as conservation practices such as cover-crops and no-till farming.

While I have been confronted over the past 12 days with a variety of opinions that seem to all conflict at some level, the amount of information I have learned has allowed to me form my own opinions. While I have always been fond of forming my own opinions on things, especially on food policy, I haven’t always done so based on a balanced knowledge of facts. This balance is probably one of the greatest things the farm experience has given me so far. It is a good feeling to be able to watch a food documentary such as Fed-Up, and while I still agree with many of the things the film claims I can also discern some of the opposing issues that the film may not have addressed or glossed over. While I still find myself holding strong opinions that are generally opposed to conventional agriculture and lean far towards organic and conservation-oriented practices, at least I can rest assured knowing I have listened to the other side.