Socks Na Yo/VO|20\7 LOsNcer's Wenn: Ruale Essay - Thess ZT Once 49 oh Wades 0 Usd sae | RVC, AO. Aine WES 6 OER WETY « Ww Bre GR. E ue Garnet to We ANS comtecc, SEcass Th ANAK Oe Se eee ee Voce Thy SOF Ss Bd a OO Taco Sere er lossbe WO. WOH NACE 1, AS XT Faal We Tl ek Wikis AS ee = AK Hy ae CEKSS_ESNED HIS. 10 RY TERE -QS gVO ee =e Wok? Ase Oee eo. A tes a eens ce RO sewJeffs 1 Erin Jeffs Erdiakoff ENGL 134-29 16 October 2017 Profile Essay (Creative Title Will Go Here Later) There are more farm animals in the United States than there are people in the world. Despite this, people are increasingly becoming less connected with agriculture directly, with a mere 1.6% of Americans engaged in agriculture. The number of farms in the United States are significantly decreasing, between the years 1992 and 2012, the number of farms by 26%; however, meat consumption is on the rise, with our country producing 150 billion pounds of meat in 2014. You may be wondering why this is happening, why the number of farms are decreasin, \ Farming is now an extremely industrialized ‘owned operations with a small herd of ten cows and a little homemade if the meat consumption is increasing. \The answer is a simple one: industrializatio [technologically advanced disciplind, Farms are no longer quaint, fami chicken coop. Instead, they have herds of over five hundred cattle and chicken coops are now massive buildings that can hold tens of thousands of birds. Since this rise in factory farming, ‘many have critiqued the industry, arguing that this style is inhumane and a form of animal cruelty. Though I could go down the rabbit hole of this extremely heated debate, it has birthed a ‘movement that began in Berkeley— the hippie, pretentious hipster, and tree hugger-filled town. The Farm-io-Table movement is one that I, growing up in the Bay Area, got to watch and be a part of. For those of you who didn’t have the privilege of growing up in the NorCal region so weird that seeing a guy wearing a green tutu, clown makeup, and space pants on your commute to work is normal, the Farm-to-Table movement promotes serving locally sourced food inJefis restaurants and schools. The movement is calling for us to support the small, family-owned farms that are being phased out; to get back to our Agrarian roots of farming; and to have more humane farming practices. So, when I made my visit to the Avila Valley Bam a few Saturdays ago, [ quickly got a sense of how and why this place is so special to the locals of San Luis Obispo. 2