"Small, sustainable farms provide better and healthier foods compared to large, industrial farms," said a group of organic farm supporters, Wednesday.
The forum was part two in the Learning Community portion of the Freshman Connections program, in conjunction with the book "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser.
Organic farm owners, Dave and Sara Ring, along with retired industrial farmer Rodney Walker, presented their view of sustainable farming.
The Rings said that their sustainable farms are better because they are not reliant on fuel and petroleum. The food from the farms also do not need warning labels because they do not contain toxins.
Dave and Sara Ring, who are Ball State graduates, attended the forum to offer a more traditional alternative to industrial farming. The Rings both come from farming backgrounds and began organic farming more than five years ago in Lake Tahoe, Calif. They returned to Ind. to pursue organic farming on a small piece of land 20 miles from Muncie.
They achieved success through selling mainly to local restaurants and farmer's markets.
Abel Alves, associate professor of history, moderated the forum and introduced the concept of food as not only a biological necessity, but a cultural symbol, as well.
"We create many values and symbols in our cultures, but they are constructed from fundamental underlying realities," Alves said.
Alves also said that food can bind and divide. He offered the example of food in religious ceremonies as a way of binding people. "However, food divides people such as when the Spanish used it to control the Native Americans," he said.
One of the Ring's main supporters, Rob Hansen of Mezza Luna restaurant, also attended the forum and gave a short improvised presentation.
"Farming doesn't have to be scientifically formulated," Hansen said.
Hansen presented himself as a supporter of Dave Ring's farming philosophy of leaving the land better than what they found it.
Walker, who worked on an industrial hog farm for six and a half years, spoke, as well. His work mainly included pig breeding, and he described himself as being a "midwife" for livestock.
Walker became disgusted with the cyclical breeding process and began to turn against corporate farms while he continued to work for one, he said. He initiated contact with sustainable agriculture advocates while still employed by Seldom Rest hog farm. Among filing complaints, writing articles and attending Farm Aid, Walker wrote songs to express his disapproval of factory farming. He sang three songs that expressed the perspective of life inside industrial agriculture, including one of a pig living on an industrial farm.
The next Freshman Connections event is a viewing of "Super-Size Me" at 7 p.m. on Oct. 12 in Pruis Hall.
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