Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
9
PARTING THOUGHTS
News at
The Onion
may be fake, but it often speaks a deep
truth about society. In September 2013
The Onion
ran an article
with the headline “Guy Looking to Feel Horrible about Aspect
of Everyday Life Decides to Watch Documentary.” The charac-
ter interviewed in the article remarks, “I already feel terrible
about American politics, advertising, water, dolphins, fast
food, and Walt Disney, so let's see what other documentaries
can make me feel terrible about something it never occurred to
me to feel terrible about before.”
Notice the character included fast food. Over eighteen
documentaries are available on Amazon and Netflix telling
the audience how industrial agriculture is poisoning the soil,
torturing animals, and sickening the public. This at the same
time modern democracies have access to cheap and nutri-
tious food like never before (whether we
choose
healthy food is
another matter). To some, the documentaries (and topic of a
similar spirit) point to real problems in agriculture, but to oth-
ers they are the mere manifestation of “muckrakers” seeking
fame and money.
It was largely these documentaries that provided the moti-
vation to write this topic. We noticed that the public is more
interested than ever about how its food is raised, but scientists
are reluctant to engage that interest. Their reluctance is under-
standable. Regardless of what they say, somebody is probably
