Industrial Farming
I've known about the vanishing of the bees for many years, my parents often talked about it when I was in high school. The thought of having no bees left is very scary. I cannot imagine a world in which we do not have fruits, vegetables or honey. What will civilization do if all the bees die out? It would be impossible to individually fertilize every flower on industrial farms. It seems that science has no solution for this pressing problem. Many say we need to change environmental problems. Is it too late for that? I do not know but we need to act as fast as possible.
Dirt! The Movie, is a very interesting documentary on the relationship between humans and soil. Basically we would be no where if we didn't have soil and we probably would not exist because soil provides nutrients to grow food. We must take care of it and not abuse it in order for the soil to continually provide us nutrients and a place for food to grow.
In London there are no factory of mega farms near the city. However, they do exist in the U.K. There are 789 mega/factory farms that exist. A mega farm is classified as a facilities that can house 125,000 broiler chickens, 82,000 laying hens, 2,500 pigs or 700 dairy or 1,000 beef cattle. In the UK, special permits are needed if they house more than 40,000 chickens, 2,000 pigs or 750 breeding sows.
I'm used to the ideas of factory farming because I grew up in Southern California and when I drove to Northern California I would drive by and see/smell the farms. Do I like factory farming? Absolutely not.
Currently I do not compost because there is no where to bring my compost. Unlike San Francisco, London does not collect composting garbage. It would also take some logistics to collect composting because in Central London you just toss you trash on the street and every morning someone comes to collect it. There are no special bins. If you want to recycle you need to call your government council and they will mail you specially labeled recycling bags. Do I think most people recycle here? No because I hardly ever see any recycling bags on the street. I would like compost if I had a large yard, my parents just started and they really enjoying composting at home.
Hi Caitlin,
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed reading about your experiences in London. It is nice to read and compare to my daily life and the differences here in San Francisco. Do you think if proper bins were provided already for recycle and compost, more people within London would do both? It seems like San Francisco has made it very easy to be able to compost and recycle because they have provided the bins and the services for picking them up.
Hi Caitlin,
ReplyDeleteThat is really interesting the way that London handles their garbage system, and that they do not have regular recycling. I thought for a big city like London, they would. Although, maybe just San Francisco is the model city and not many other large cities have it either. I would also love it if where I lived, they would pick up for compost. It surprised me when I learned that SF does that, and wondered why here in Sacramento we have yet to.
Hi Caitlin,
ReplyDeleteIts also interesting reading your post since you are in Europe now. I feel like there are stricter and better regulations around many issues in UK including these mega factories. I am a vegetarian, so I always feel bit uneasy around the animal factories, but I have nothing against meat consumers. I think what will be important is how we regulate the slaughter house and emphasize the regulation on humane killing of the animals killed for human consumption.
The bee extinction also scares me. Its not until recently that I found out about the importance of bees. When we were growing up, I only know that bees are important for pollination. Hopefully, we are as a community is doing more to making sure our bee population is not extinct. Maybe we can start from being ultra careful when spraying pesticides on our farms, so not to harm the bee population indirectly