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 Midget Lover
     
Location: Kentucky | Anyone watch this documentary? We are going to be watching in class tonight. What did you think of it? |
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Hungarian Midget Woman
Location: Midwest | It's actually not a bad watch entertainment-wise, but I'm not sure how accurate it is. It suggested that family farms are falling by the wayside due to the industrialization of agriculture, and that corn syrup is the devil, and so on...
The premise is that two guys rent one acre of land to farm for a year. The farmer planted corn. They followed where the corn goes in the food supply and the economic/government related aspects of farming, as well as the environment effects of modern farming.
As with any documentary, it's pretty biased and not very scientific. At the end of the documentary, they rent the acre for the following year and leave it unplanted, if that gives you any indication of the tone of the film. |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | I've never bothered to watch it, but I do know it's anti production-Ag. Farms have been consolidating for decades due to government policy changes, costs, and volatile market prices. Economy of scale is very much a thing--you can't buy a $250,000 combine for 300 acres. Something like 97% of farms are still family owned tho, they just got bigger and a lot are incorporated for the tax and liability advantages as well as estate planning. There was a huge exodus of farmers in the 80s, another one in the late 90s/early 2000s, and there will probably be another one soon. We have boom/bust cycles just like most industries, and only the better managers stay afloat when things go south.
Btw, our corn acres were cut drastically this year due to market prices being at or below cost of production. We needed some for diversification and crop rotation purposes. The weather this spring is estimated to have prevented about 1,000,000 declared corn acres to not be planted, so that's giving us hope for a possible small rally in the market. |
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 Ima Fickle Fan
Posts: 3547
Location: Texas | I haven't watched it. But it's also because I choose not to support a movie that is anti-agriculture. Planting and harvesting corn on a small acreage simply to track the process does not make one an expert. Too many people get toe-deep in areas and then claim to be an expert.
The vast majority of our population has no concept of the agricultural industry. They are happy to fill their plates at least three times a day and the gripe about the "autrocities" committed by farmers. Even worse, they have the misconception that big business is the one that pays when "documentaries" like this come out. It's not big business that takes the hit. It's the little guy and the consumer. |
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Midget Lover
Location: Kentucky | My college is very liberal, so I'm going to try to arm myself with as much info as possible. We do have a discussion after the movie. |
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Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | You know the worst thing about years with a high acreage of corn? YOU CAN'T FREAKIN SEE. Try riding a spooky horse between 2 fields of corn. It's like a thrill ride...your life will flash before your eyes multiple times.
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 372
| barrelracr131 - 2015-06-04 7:31 AM
It's actually not a bad watch entertainment-wise, but I'm not sure how accurate it is. It suggested that family farms are falling by the wayside due to the industrialization of agriculture, and that corn syrup is the devil, and so on...
The premise is that two guys rent one acre of land to farm for a year. The farmer planted corn. They followed where the corn goes in the food supply and the economic/government related aspects of farming, as well as the environment effects of modern farming.
As with any documentary, it's pretty biased and not very scientific. At the end of the documentary, they rent the acre for the following year and leave it unplanted, if that gives you any indication of the tone of the film.
I agree with this human.
Some truth, sort of, buried in a bunch of bugaboo propaganda
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