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hlehman's picture

The Real Deal

 Our trip to Westtown was much like what I expected.  Knowing in advance that it was not an organic farm, I was still excited to go on the trip and learn something new, but I wasn’t expecting anything out of the ordinary for a farm.  Since I’ve lived in the North East all my life, I’m used to seeing farms like Pete’s and going to local markets like his.  The most striking thing to me on our trip was Pete himself.  Like we discussed in class, his comment about the Mexican workers caught my attention and through me off a bit, but what followed I found even more interesting.  The in depth way he discussed the science of cows and their digestion process showed me that he isn’t just another slightly racist farmer, but he really knows what he is doing!  Not only did he also give intelligent reasons for not being an organic farm, but he also showed us that he is a good person inside because of his contributions to the food bank and employment of students in his shop.   By the end of the trip, I had a good impression of Pete.  I thought it was interesting listening to what he had to say and I enjoyed meeting someone so honest and willing to tell us the “real deal” on farming.   

I also think it was worth the amount of gas we used to take the trip for 2 main reasons.  1) If we always did things based on how much gas we were using, we would never go anywhere and never gain real life experience that is almost always more important and interesting than just sitting and discussing in class. And 2, although like I said I have seen farms like Pete’s before and therefore could picture most of the farms we’ve been discussing in class, we have a lot of international students in our class and I think it’s great that they were able to witness Pete’s and get the experience of a true American farm. 

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