Farm to Table 5/31

Yesterday we visited Ethos Farm. We toured the farm and got to pick strawberries, learn about compost, and learn about the difficulties of farming organically. Then we went inside and had a food demo to create a hummus-like dip from almonds, ginger, peas, cilantro, and lime juice. After eating the dip with some cut-up vegetables, Doctor Weiss talked to us. He had some very interesting opinions and avidly argued that we should disregard all kinds of animal products and only eat things that came from the soil. He even refuted hydroponically grown food completely! He basically said that since hydroponically grown food came from water and not soil, the plants did not get the same exposure to the billions of microorganisms that live in dirt. I don't know if I necessarily agree with that because hydroponics saves water, space, and is very effective. The debate when we finally got back to school yesterday was probably the most intriguing part of the day because in that time, as a group, we all tried to reckon the consistencies of the different people we have heard talk and make sense it. It seemed that there were a lot of people who thought that what Weiss said was, quite frankly, crap. I, myself, don't really know if I can necessarily give up food that I have been eating for 15 years of my life on a whim because the good doctor said so, but I do think there is some value to what he had to say and again, frankly, he would not be spouting this stuff if there was not any truth to it.