Bradley emphasized qualities such as location, freshness, availability, price affordability, and many other characteristics of a good food product. These attributes are all ingredients to a recipe of success and satisfaction. Coming from an employee of the California Farm Bureau, one should constantly reinsure oneself that these are qualities included in their business. Negative attitudes from consumers are also very important factors to take in consideration. Attitudes such as farm and labor working conditions, environmental poison, air/water/land pollution, and illegal immigrants cause many negative perceptions towards agriculture.
In Chapter 4, he explained why plant and animal domestication were important factors for the ability of Eurasians to produce the technologies that conquered the rest of the world. Diamond mentioned that a population that can produce more food could yield a higher population size. The majority of plant and animal material found on Earth is unpleasant-tasting, bitter, or lethal. When people manage the resources that the land produces, they can determine to breed the plants and animals that are the best available elements of food. Domestic animals like the cow, sheep, and goat are the major sources of fertilizer, meat, milk, and fuel for fires.
This required repairing walls and roofing when necessary. In a single day, a tool crafter might gather crops from the fields for meals throughout the day, collect grass to repair parts of the roof that is starting to fail, and trade with another specialist for supplies that his house hold may be running low on. A tool crafter lived life just as most commoners did. There was nothing overly monumental about a tool crafter’s daily life. The life of the elites was more interesting than that of a tool crafter or craft specialist.
These values are almost contrary to the ideals of the labor movement whose focus was the use of force and other tactics to increase wages, benefits and improve working conditions. Southerners, given that they mostly worked in agriculture, were not forced to deal with some of the dangerous working conditions seen in the industrial cities, and were happy when they were able to provide food for their families. This is not to say that agriculture was not dangerous or that it paid well, only that given the perspective of these people, lacking the exposure of industry and having strong family values, they would have a hard time relating to those who advocate for organizing. As it became increasing apparent that agriculture would not sustain the economies of Southern states, there was a growing atmosphere of anti-union sentiment in the region. Many states enacted right-to-work laws making closed “union only” shops illegal, in an attempt to lure businesses away from their Northern strongholds.
As discussed in class, the butcher, the baker, and the brewer provide goods and services to each other out of self interest; which is the unplanned result of this division of labor, which creates a better standard of living for all three. By concentrating on one particular discipline, each in his or her respective discipline becomes a professional, who produces reliable stores and predictable quality goods or services. For example; if you have an injury you do not go to the butcher but rather you see a physician and the inverse is when the physician is hungry he goes to the butcher, not another physician. This allows for pursuit of perfection in one’s area of specialty and accidentally creates a revolving economy. There are two important features of Smith's concept of the "invisible hand".
All of these communities feed on the surplus food and people of the surrounding countryside. Towns serve the immediate surrounding countryside by selling goods, buying surplus, and offering the services of craftsmen and professionals. The city is a larger extension of the town, but has its own benefits and problems that do not grace the magical medieval town. Though titled On the Magical Medieval City, this chapter discusses trends found in all urban environments, from small towns to metropolises. Towns are usually the conservative side of the trend, while metropolises demonstrate the extreme of the trend.
Prior to the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution Paris contained vast amounts of rural land. Families lived agricultural lifestyles on farmlands distant from each other, almost to the point of isolation. They survived by growing their own food and making their living necessities by hand. Occasionally, families would join together to exchange food and their custom trade. This was probably the most interaction people would have with each other; yet, a very respectful and genuine concern of welfare seemed to show among the rural communities.
In the novel, Animal Farm, George Orwell rewrote the statement from the Declaration of Independence. Some think and politicians say that we’ve finally gotten past the rich and poor divide. And most will say that segregation of race is completely over, but is it? Equality is a very noble concept, but we all aren’t equal no matter which document says so. The pigs in Animal Farm believed that they were more equal, or better, than all the rest of the animals on the farm.
According to BBC News (2013a), the numbers of UK schools are begin with their own farms in educating pupils is increasing. Pupils are staring up with doing farm work can help them grow up better with basic knowledge such as where the food comes from, animal welfare, poor diet and waste. However, thing always has two sides. The worst thing happen is how pupils feel when they know that the animals fate that they are taking care everyday with love definitely belong to slaughter and become a nutrition food for their meals. It has a little bit influence on pupils’ thinking and ethics, but it’s also the morally method to let them know how difficult their life will be in the future, and force them try to live with the problem they have to face with.
There are solutions to better “well-being” of animals such as finding an alternative system to intensive animal farming; genetic changes the behavioral or physiological nature of the animal and therapeutic help such as tail docking or beak trimming. In this scholarly research about animal well-being in intensive production systems, Swanson (1995) argues that even with better animal management, handling and care, public acceptance will be uncertain. With the help of mechanization and new technologies, farmers have increased their production efficiency to meet the demand. He states that intensive animal farming is the process of raising livestock in confinement at high stocking density, in which the farm can be compared to a factory. Swanson notes that intensive animal farming first started with the poultry industry and now, hog farming is following the trend.