I have read several times now from different sources, “who thought it was a good idea to put poison on our food and think it would have no consequences?”
Two of the largest chemical companies (Bayer and Monsanto) in the world have been given the go ahead from the US Dept. of Justice to merge on a massive $66 billion deal. Proponents of Modern Agri-business who measure profits as the sole indicator of success, and consider the health of people as insignificant, think it a great move – monopolizing an industry that controls our global food. I have written in earlier posts about pesticides and food (see Health – Food 2). The current merger is of concern to everyone because it is a monopoly building event, and that alone should concern everyone. Monopolies, like dictators, do not exist to help people but to control them – and public benefit is rarely a central theme of their practices, despite the BS they give out that serves as Public Relations to cover their nefarious activities. Think about it for a minute. These mega-companies started out as CHEMICAL companies – their goal to sell chemicals and make profits. That they got into agri-business selling chemicals (pesticides and fertilizers) and then got to control the seed stock business and food production as well. We have a mega-corporation controlling both vertical and horizontal integration of most aspects of our food supply. And as much as we would all like to believe that they have humanities welfare as their mission, the reality is that they are in it for the money – plain and simple!!
I have many colleagues in Biology that never look below the surface of the BS that passes for science from these corporate dictators. I have friends that still own their family farms and tell me stories about the chemical applications that concern them. Many, however, have often signed non-disclosure agreements that they can not say any more other than they have concerns. Farmers are now dressed in hazmat suits to protect them from the chemicals they apply to the crops – at least here in the MDCs. In the LDCs the farmers are either blasé to the risks or are not told about them since they rarely have more than a large handkerchief over their mouth to protect them. I have talked previously about why we should go organic and use heirloom crops, but the agri-business people would have you believe that these toxic chemicals somehow disappear after they are sprayed on the crops or become harmless. The residues we are told simply need to be rinsed off if there is any chance they might still be some on the crops. When you are walking in the countryside and through farmlands it can a little disconcerting to come across a sign that says, ‘Pesticide spraying in progress – Proceed at own risk.’ About as comforting as one time when I was walking across an open moor (off the path) in the UK and saw a rusty sign next to the path we came across that warned of ‘Unexploded ordnance and mines in the area – keep on path.’
It is no secret that in today’s world we are inundated with increasing ill health. Some of that can be attributed to our global medical systems that encourage us to think negatively about our bodies and as machines to be cured by medical science. When you look at how our technical abilities are now able to detect medical problems in their early stages (this begs another post sometime soon), this might explain some of the apparent increase. If you, however, look at the rising trends, the different types of diseases and the increase of what used to be unusual diseases, they correlate that with the rise of industrialization. There is a clear connection between modern health problems and the rise of chemical use and pollution. It’s not that humans were always heathy in the past, but the major killers before industrialization were bacteria and viral infection usually through poor sanitation. The main problem is that trying to do cause-effect of diseases with modern chemical use is really problematic. We have added some 100,000 chemicals, not natural to the earth, over the last century. Epidemiological studies can only find trends over time and then try and find clusters of patients that can be linked to plausible Chemical insults within a locality. This is the main difference between acute and chronic exposure to toxic chemicals. Acute means when you have a single exposure that can be tied to a specific illness versus a group of illnesses that seem typical of the known side-effects of a group of toxic chemicals, but occur over long periods of time. If you think about the food you eat everyday and then think about how minute amounts of pesticides could build up over time stored in your fat tissues, then you can see how what initially seems innocuous could slowly become quite deadly.
The National Academy of Science, in the U.S. 25 years ago, published a landmark study about children and pesticide exposure. If anything, this study is more poignant today as the use of agri-chemicals has risen steeply compared to 25 years ago. The U.S. National Academy of Pediatrics has released some disconcerting information about how children especially suffer from a range of diseases linked to pesticides. Children it seems are our ‘canary in the mine’ indicators of what these chemicals are doing to the whole population – because of their smaller size they have more toxic exposure per gram of body tissue than adults. In my general lectures, when I did the Toxic chemical exposures from modern living, the students dubbed it the doom and gloom lecture. China, United States, and Argentina top the list for pesticide use in the world, but don’t relax because industrialized farming covers 95% of the planet – how else do you think Bayer-Monsanto and BASF make that much money.
If you choose to eat regular green produce from industrial farms and not to eat organic, then be aware of the foods that are particularly problematic. The dirty dozen vegetables (from the Environmental Working Group) is a list of foods that should be limited because of higher levels of pesticide residues found – Strawberries, Spinach, Nectarines, Apples, Grapes, Peaches, Cherries, Pears, Tomatoes, Celery, Potatoes, and Sweet Bell Peppers. Of course, the organic options will most likely not have any pesticides in them unless the organic farm suffered from some pesticide drift off a neighbor’s industrial farm. Knowing the source of your organic produce will help you here! The first half of my toxics lecture would be the exposé of how they were inundated with chemicals in their daily lives and through their lifestyles. Once I had their attention, I then did the second half showing them the choices they could make that would allow them to avoid the chemical insults that would manifest as diseases and illnesses years down the line. Trying to tell a healthy looking 20 year old that their current diet may disable them 20 years later in their lives is not an easy task. In food, going organic and GMO free is the easiest way to reduce all these contaminants and potential problems. It’s all about choices and long-term thinking. In your lives, be aware of how these chemicals can find their way into your bodies.
From the GRACE Communications Foundation – Sustainable Table website:
Where do you find pesticides? Today we use pesticides in our homes to kill ants, mice, cockroaches, and other annoying creatures. We use them on our pets to repel fleas, and if they get fleas, we “bomb” the house with pesticides to get rid of them. There are signs posted in the subway and in the park next to my house telling me to be cautious of the poisons recently sprayed or pellets left behind. We spray them on our bodies to avoid mosquito bites, and DDT (banned for use in the US) is still used to prevent the spread of malaria in many countries. They are used to keep our lawns weed-free, backyard gardens bug-free and on a much larger scale in industrial agriculture. Industrial agriculture is extremely reliant on pesticides. They are an inherent part of growing monoculture crops, either by direct spraying or by embedding pesticides innately within the plants themselves through genetic modification. Further, industrial farms use these crops to feed livestock. The residues of these pesticides end up in the soil and water and are often found in our food.
And that is just pesticides. Now include the other tens of thousands of chemicals from industrial processes that are out there, along with the additions that manufacturers put in our products with apparent disregard for any testing. Do your homework and look at the products you buy along with the food you eat – what chemicals can you find that are listed on toxic inventories? You’ll be quite surprised at how corporate needs seem to outweigh public health. An informed consumer can make a big difference in how this gets resolved!
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