Traditional Farming Vs Modern Farming

In the article “Practicing Complexity” by Michael Pollan the author uses a different way of raising livestock. we see how the farmers take a more complex approach for farming turning the traditional farming method into a production line, introducing a new way of raising livestock, and we also see how Pollan's method of farming allows him to maximize profit without sacrificing any for production cost.

The introduction of the production line during the industrial revolution it allowed the manufacturer to produce complex well in a timely and orderly fashion. Pollan uses his own version of a production line when he explains the process that he takes when raising his livestock Pollan concurs when he notes “ the birds also get corn toasted soybeans and kelp, which we scooped in their pens. But Joel claims the fresh grass, along with worms, grasshoppers, and crickets they peck out of the grass pervades as much as 20 percent of their diet”( Pollan 210). he explains that Salatin's method of farming is based on the interactions of the livestock and the environment around them.

He recognizes that if chickens alone are allowed to roam free they will damage the soil if they are allowed to over-fertilize it. Instead, he develops a relationship between the chicken and the cow by regularly allowing the chickens to eat larvae from manure left behind by the cow. In this way, what could be a source of the animal by-product instead becomes a rich source of ferial food for the chicken? This is a much more efficient and different approach to farming then industrial framing due to the complex nature of how Salatin uses multiple different animals to ensure the growth of others. As opposed to industrial farming where they only raise one type of animal and try to make their production as simple as possible without using much effort to achieve a simple but satisfactory product however Salatin traditional framing method requires more time and dedication but produces much more fruitful results.

Many animals live a completely different lifestyle in traditional farms than in industrial farming. As Pollan watches the pigs as they devour the cow's excrement, he thinks about the distinction between the lives of these pigs and those of pigs raised on industrial Farms CAFOs. Pollan states that “A normal pig would fight off his molester, but a demoralized pig has stopped caring. learned helplessness is the psychological term and it’s not uncommon in CAFOs where tens of thousands of hogs spend their entire lives ignorant of earth or straw or sunshine, crowed together” ( Pollan 218).

He is especially attracted to their tails since modern pigs have just a stub of a tail the farmer clip them off. Restricted around other pigs without daylight, pigs in CAFOs will chomp the tail of the pig close them. The pigs are demoralized to the point that they won't avoid their attacker. By leaving just an increasingly delicate stub of the tail behind, the farmers render the attack progressively agonizing, guaranteeing that the pigs will stand up to. Joel takes extra steps to ensure that his animals grow up happy and healthy he begins to develop the idea that his animal is truly happy. For Pollan, the pigs at the farm are happy because they are free, but not free as in running out in the wild and uncontrolled by humans but free in the way that they can allow themselves to enjoy the pleasure of their natural animal habitat. On an industrial farm, the needs of a pig are not taken into consideration, in the name of “efficiency.” At the farm, pigs can indulge themselves in their natural way by living a life that allows them to be free and do the activities they were meant to do.

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