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Page added on December 16, 2014
The Sci-Fi Farms That Grow Most of Our Food
According to the creation narrative, God made green plants on the third day, an idea that inspired the title of Henrik Spohler‘s project, The Third Day. His series documents industrial agriculture’s obsession with monoculture and large-scale farming across Europe and the US. The title isn’t a religious reference, but instead intended to comment on how we now play creator, conquering and manipulating plants in “unnatural” ways.
“Nowadays the landscape is dominated by industrial interests,” he says. “It’s not God creating new genetic species, but humans.”
The series was released as a photo book earlier this year and features images taken throughout Europe—from German tree nurseries to giant Spanish greenhouses. Spohler also spent several weeks in California’s Central Valley, wandering from Sacramento south to the Mexican border. His landscapes are washed in colorful hues and and show crops growing in orderly, almost surreal, rows. Alternating between open terrain showing the enormity of modern industrial farming and detail shots focusing on the repetitiveness of monoculture, Spohler hope the work has a sci-fi edge.
“I want a fictional quality that is reality based as a way to draw people into what can be a difficult discussion about these crops,” he says.
Industrial farms like those Spohler photographed took off after World War II. When the war ended, many munitions factories switched to producing cheap nitrogen fertilizers that allowed for greater agricultural productivity. Other biological and mechanical advances like genetically modified seeds and more advanced irrigation systems have over the years also increased the harvest.
This boost has lowered food prices and helped keep pace with the planet’s burgeoning population. Still, such alternative methods do raise concerns. Industrial agriculture has been heavily criticized its pollution, its overwhelming thirst for water, its reliance on pesticides and production of food some argue is not as healthy. That’s created a growing movement toward more sustainable, organic farming, but studies suggest that as the world’s population continues expanding, we will not meet our food demands without large-scale farms.
The Third Day is a statement about modern farming techniques, but it’s also part of Spohler’s wider interest in globalization and modernization. Currently, he’s working on a project In Between that tracks the various ways goods (including the food from this series) are transported and distributed around the world.
“I’m not interested in dealing with history,” he says. “And instead I’m always trying to photograph what’s most important in the contemporary moment and trying to think what will follow.”
11 Comments on "The Sci-Fi Farms That Grow Most of Our Food"
Dredd on Tue, 16th Dec 2014 11:17 am
There is always the Rapture if you-know-what happens (A Rap About The Oil-Qaeda Rapture).
Richard Ralph Roehl on Tue, 16th Dec 2014 11:21 am
Like most other Amerikans, ‘junior’ loves to slather his I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-real-fuckin’-butter… on his Caucasian Wonder-bred french toast every morning. And for dinner… the entire family waddles into McFondle’s faster poo-food… where we guzzle GMO sugar-pop Pepsi… and munch merry on mystery meat nuggets peddled by McFondle’s corp-rat pedophile clown. ‘Junior’ can’t get french toast at McFondle’s faster poo-food at dinner… butt luckily they sell
industrial french fried potatoes (served with ‘Ronald Reagan ketchup’).
Phuck! Phuck! Hooray! Life is good! I’m really lookin’ forward to voting for ‘President Jeb’ (Bush) in 2016… butt not ‘President Hillary (Clinton). And if the old lesbian femmist sexist somehow ‘beats off’ Bush-3 in the 2016 $ellections, I plan to start SHOOTING! SHOOTING! SHOOTING!
Richard Ralph Roehl on Tue, 16th Dec 2014 11:25 am
Oh! I forgot to mention lunch. The family favorite is triple cheeeeeese and mayonnaise pizza with Pringles for dessert. Yesssssssss… there’s nothing better than Pringles making liquid the poo!
Davy on Tue, 16th Dec 2014 11:31 am
Richard from dumbass. I bet you are an ugly looking pitiful example of a man living in some shit hole part of the world. You have nothing better to do then crow about how bad Amerika is. Go pull your pud some more and leave us alone.
Apneaman on Tue, 16th Dec 2014 11:33 am
We need more mad scientist food and farms so me and my fellow privileged Canadians can remain in our god given state of entitlement. Were gonna send in a wave of C-F18’s to fire bomb the Ghawar Field, and thus increase the value of the tar sands. Econo-priest, Stephan Harper will be supreme leader of the the NWO. Free Tim Horton’s dough-nuts and coffee for our allies.
Canada’s annual food waste a staggering $31B. Here’s how to reduce it
http://globalnews.ca/news/1718940/canadas-annual-food-waste-a-staggering-31b-heres-how-to-reduce-it/
MSN Fanboy on Tue, 16th Dec 2014 11:50 am
Richard has a point lol
Express yourself
Richard Ralph Roehl on Tue, 16th Dec 2014 1:59 pm
I am a member of the ‘asset class’. I own and control assets.
Needless to say… I eat all organic foods and drink $100.00+ bottles of wine. My cat eats better than I do.
I have purchased four brand new cars in the last 9-10 Earth years. The dashboard in my latest ride… is the internet. And I live on a ‘hill’ near a balmy and rather picturesque yacht harbor.
It is guys like ewe (in lieu of you) that live in a shit hole called DENIAL! DENIAL! DENIAL! DENIAL! DENIAL! DENIAL!
bobinget on Tue, 16th Dec 2014 6:12 pm
I challenge one and all to browse your best produce
store, stand, tell us the number of veggies or fruits that have NOT been changed radically by
plant hybridization. In the last two decades we masted technique of gene modification speeding up a process that has been ongoing for a thousand years.
If you have a deep seeded religious conviction science is somehow ungodly, stop reading.
One example no ‘organic farmer’ has been able to answer. If today you are under the age of forty your chances of living a useful, creative life have doubled just in the last decade.
Would you reject a GMO new heart or kidney if it would extend your or a loved one’s life?
Most of us have no problem with a machine that could detect breast cancer despite radiation.
How about a test less invasive that will do the same with inner cheek swab? Would you reject that test because genes were modified in the making?
WE really can’t go back to the ‘good ole’ God Fearing Silent Spring Days’ can we?
Davy on Tue, 16th Dec 2014 6:31 pm
Bobby, come on man, Monsanto has zero future. Lets hope their legacy will not haunt us.
Makati1 on Tue, 16th Dec 2014 6:34 pm
There are brainwashed American flag wavers here and those who see thru the fog of the MSM Iron Curtain. Americans need enemies to exist. Without enemies they would be forced to look at themselves, and the picture would not be pretty. So the bullshit will flow in tsunamis to prevent that self evaluation. More drugs anyone?
Makati1 on Tue, 16th Dec 2014 6:49 pm
Ooops! Too bad I could not remove my mis-post, but…
Anyway, Apneaman, you are correct. Americans that can still read should read the labels of the slop they consume. Oh, that’s right, most could not pronounce the words or would have any idea what they meant. But the picture on the front looks yummy!
Too bad most of it is sawdust, rat feces, insect parts and 35 chemicals from Dow and Monsanto. That beef has more growth hormones than the average teenager. Your daughter”s monthly started at age 8? Thank Monsanto!. Your son is more feminine than Marilyn Monroe? Thank Monsanto! You are pushing 350 on the scales? Thank the many who have convinced you to over consume their junk food. Read your labels…