I am writing a research paper/argumentative paper for my english class and I needed some help... If anybody can help that is! I am doing this paper on Factory Farms vs Micro Farming (small time farms/farmers markets/local produce ect).
I will be interviewing a few people on the small scale farming side (mostly because the info for factory farms is so available! But there is very little solid sources regarding the small scale farmers, so I put an ad on Craigslist and will be interviewing a few folks who have their own dairy cattle, beef cattle, chickens and/OR crops for personal use or sale.)
I need some help coming up with interview questions.... I would like to talk about the factory farm competetion, the struggles and achievments, the animals and/or crops.
I am on the side of micro farming. In my perfect world everybody would support local producers of crops/food and farmers markets would be the new "safeway". If anybody could help me come up with any good interview questions please do respond!!
Also, if you are a microfarmer yourself for family use or sale, and would like to be involved I would absolutely cite every interview and source I come across. Basically I want to open the eyes of people that there is another way, even for those who do not want to raise animals or grow crops themselves.
Here is the START of my paper, will be 7-10 pages. No critique needed, just giving you an idea of what I am doing:
"Do You Know Where That Food Has Been?
When you go to the grocery store and are looking at eggs, milk, butter, even fine meats, you usually view a happy farm scene. Whether it is a flock of chickens scratching around a large oak tree, or cattle grazing on forever green pastures, the images are all the same. Happy animals, and rural farms. The picture on the product is one of mankinds more warped ideas of how things really are. It is a selling point really, a silent guarantee that this particular animal did scratch around a green field for most of its life. Well, unless you are shopping at a local farmers market or cattle auction, chances are the fine meats of grocery stores are raised and kept in less then humane settings. Before I go on to share the horrors of this chopping block for you, I would like to say that I love meat. Beef, chicken, pork, lamb, I love it all. I am not against using animal products, in fact I have a small flock of laying hens myself. What I am against is the idea behind Factory Farming and how dependent we have become on it. I believe the US should take a step back in time and support our local, and struggling, farmers and ranchers. How better to support the American Dream then to support the local producers?
Factory Farming is not biased on the type of animal. There are farms that handle beef cattle, veal calves, egg laying hens, broiler chickens, pigs, lambs and bison. The list goes on and on. The start of this epidemic began in the 1920s with the discovery that supplementing Vitamins A and D would replace the work the sun and fresh air offers. Farmers learned that adding these supplements would allow the animal to grow well enough inside, therefore shutting out sunlight and outside air and experience to all factory farm animals. 20 years later, in the early 1940s, antibiotics took the stage. Farmers realized that they could use massive doses of antibiotics to control illness from spreading and still keep the animals in awfully close quarters."
I will be interviewing a few people on the small scale farming side (mostly because the info for factory farms is so available! But there is very little solid sources regarding the small scale farmers, so I put an ad on Craigslist and will be interviewing a few folks who have their own dairy cattle, beef cattle, chickens and/OR crops for personal use or sale.)
I need some help coming up with interview questions.... I would like to talk about the factory farm competetion, the struggles and achievments, the animals and/or crops.
I am on the side of micro farming. In my perfect world everybody would support local producers of crops/food and farmers markets would be the new "safeway". If anybody could help me come up with any good interview questions please do respond!!
Also, if you are a microfarmer yourself for family use or sale, and would like to be involved I would absolutely cite every interview and source I come across. Basically I want to open the eyes of people that there is another way, even for those who do not want to raise animals or grow crops themselves.
Here is the START of my paper, will be 7-10 pages. No critique needed, just giving you an idea of what I am doing:
"Do You Know Where That Food Has Been?
When you go to the grocery store and are looking at eggs, milk, butter, even fine meats, you usually view a happy farm scene. Whether it is a flock of chickens scratching around a large oak tree, or cattle grazing on forever green pastures, the images are all the same. Happy animals, and rural farms. The picture on the product is one of mankinds more warped ideas of how things really are. It is a selling point really, a silent guarantee that this particular animal did scratch around a green field for most of its life. Well, unless you are shopping at a local farmers market or cattle auction, chances are the fine meats of grocery stores are raised and kept in less then humane settings. Before I go on to share the horrors of this chopping block for you, I would like to say that I love meat. Beef, chicken, pork, lamb, I love it all. I am not against using animal products, in fact I have a small flock of laying hens myself. What I am against is the idea behind Factory Farming and how dependent we have become on it. I believe the US should take a step back in time and support our local, and struggling, farmers and ranchers. How better to support the American Dream then to support the local producers?
Factory Farming is not biased on the type of animal. There are farms that handle beef cattle, veal calves, egg laying hens, broiler chickens, pigs, lambs and bison. The list goes on and on. The start of this epidemic began in the 1920s with the discovery that supplementing Vitamins A and D would replace the work the sun and fresh air offers. Farmers learned that adding these supplements would allow the animal to grow well enough inside, therefore shutting out sunlight and outside air and experience to all factory farm animals. 20 years later, in the early 1940s, antibiotics took the stage. Farmers realized that they could use massive doses of antibiotics to control illness from spreading and still keep the animals in awfully close quarters."
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