There are aspects of modern agriculture that grieve me, but the technological advances and accomplishments of modern agriculture are undeniably impressive. With that in mind, I found this BBC Harvest 2015 series a real delight to watch.
I learned a lot watching this series. Like, for example, I learned that sweet corn is an "exotic" new crop in the UK, and that the harvesting of some crops (berries mostly) must still be done by hand. If you have an interest in agriculture, you will enjoy these videos.
Mr. Kimball,
ReplyDeleteI too enjoy those types of agriculture videos. I'll check these out. But, like you, many aspects of modern industrial agriculture that they showcase trouble me. If you enjoy videos about the agriculture of other places, the Arkansas Farm Bureau YouTube page has many interesting videos about Arkansas agriculture. These are typically short videos of 2:00-5:00 minutes, so they just give one a brief look at the topic. Of course, as an Arkansawyer (the old fashioned name for us, rather than Arkansan) these videos about the diverse agriculture of Arkansas are interesting. There was a couple recent videos about sweet potato production on an organic sweet potato farm and muscadine harvest at winery. The latest, about the cotton ginning process at a small gin in the Delta, was also interesting.
Though these videos also occasionally reflect the sad aspects of modern industrial agriculture, they also frequently showcase positive examples of families still making in their chosen way of life in the perilous world of agriculture today.
Another interesting video on that page is entitled "Back to Basics." Because of issues with a chemical herbicide to control pigweed, the farmer went back to using a cultivator pulled behind a tractor, followed by folks with hoes chopping weeds. Perhaps they'll continue having issues with the herbicide so that they must continue the traditional method.
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