The Story Behind the Food We Eat

Skott Brill holds the mic for his daughter, Sophia as she sings Old MacDonald Had a Farm.

               If you went home this weekend then you missed out on a great experience. This weekend (Sept. 17^th – 19^th) was the 10^th annual Appalachian Festival. The Appalachian Festival is meant to celebrate all that is unique to the Appalachian region. It had events in several locations, however most of it was held in the upper quad at Frostburg State University. On Friday, Sept 18^th at 4:00 p.m. Skott Brill gave a presentation in the upper quad called Old MacDonald Had a Factory Farm, E-I-E-I-OMG! The Story Behind the Food We Eat. During this symposium, Skott Brill gave a very informative presentation about the food in today’s society and how it is being mass produced in big factories instead of the traditional “small friendly farms.” He had an audience of over 50 people who sat together at round tables facing the front. He had a power point which he used to show several pictures of the inside of factory farms, exposing their harsh conditions. He even included his daughter, Sophia, in the presentation. Sophia came up several times during the presentation to sing the song Old MacDonald Had a Farm. The audience absolutely adored her.  Brill spoke about the horrors that occur in factory farms and how badly the animals are mistreated. He said that a typical factory farm animal spends its entire life in a cage inside a factory. He said that cows don’t get to enjoy eating grass from pastures anymore, instead they eat mostly corn and grain. In fact, 80% of corn produced in the United States goes to feed factory farm animals. The most memorable and powerful thing that he said during his presentation was, “Traditional family farms don’t feed America anymore.”

                I asked several audience members what they thought about the presentation. One of them said “I already had an idea that our food is coming from bad places, but the bottom line is that a lot of people need to eat and small family farms aren’t going to be able to provide enough food.” 

                Another audience member, when asked had this to say, “I was shocked to find out that animals are being treated like that. They even starve the chickens just so that they can mate. That is ridiculous!” 

               I asked one of the audience members if, after watching this presentation will they be making any changes to their diet and food choice. He said, “I’m gonna try, but I can only do so much. It’s hard to avoid foods that come from factories like that because they’re so popular.”

                In the audience I overheard one man whisper to another “depressing.” The other man chuckled and agreed.

                However, the point of the presentation wasn’t to be depressing. He was simply trying to raise our awareness of these conditions of the factories that we get our food from. He ended his presentation on a positive note by saying that small family farms do still exist. He listed some of the farms that come to the farmers market in Frostburg every Friday. The names of these farms and website links can be found below:

Savage River Farm: http://www.savageriverfarm.com/

Backbone Food Farm: http://www.backbonefarm.com/

Cedar Rock Farm: http://www.cedarrockfarm.org/