Yes, the food we eat is as much nourishment as poison. Yes there is pesticide in what we consume. We know all the facts. Yet, the organic food industry, though in an expansion mode, suffers from many a bottleneck.
Ilyaas, a vegetable vendor, complains that the fruits available nowadays rot from inside before time. He holds a fresh looking apple with tiny spots on its surface that would escape anyones attention. He cuts the fruit into half to prove his point. The vendor blames this internal rotting of fruits on the chemicals used to produce them and says that the whole stock of apples will rot internally without the knowledge of the customer.
If he is unable to sell the apples in the next few days, he will have to bear the loss from the rotten apples and if he sells them late, the customer buys the decayed fruits. This seemingly trivial problem has disturbing origins the excessive and indiscriminate use of pesticides in agriculture by the farmers.
These chemicals kill more than just pests. They kill humans. Sometimes, instantaneously. The mid day meal that recently killed 23 children in Bihar had pesticides called monocrotophos in it and the infamous Bhopal gas leak that killed 4,000 people also occurred in a pesticide plant.
These are extreme cases where the effect was immediate and deadly. But in most cases, pesticides are a slow poison leading to a gradual break down of the human body and occurrence of several ailments. Most people blame the growing number of diseases on changing life styles, but miss out on the fact that almost everything we eat today has some amount of unwanted constituents. Some of these constituents are banned while others have known adverse effects. Agricultural chemicals are some such that are legally and openly injected into the food chain, experts say.
A recent study by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India points out that most common food items contain pesticides and harmful chemicals in quantities thousand times beyond the legal limits. Random samples from across the country collected for the study indicated that Brinjal topped the list of lethal veggies with level of banned chemicals 860 per cent above that permissible, followed by cauliflower and cabbage. Wheat and rice, apples and oranges, all were heavily laced with these toxins, the survey found.
Ilyaas, a vegetable vendor, complains that the fruits available nowadays rot from inside before time. He holds a fresh looking apple with tiny spots on its surface that would escape anyones attention. He cuts the fruit into half to prove his point. The vendor blames this internal rotting of fruits on the chemicals used to produce them and says that the whole stock of apples will rot internally without the knowledge of the customer.
If he is unable to sell the apples in the next few days, he will have to bear the loss from the rotten apples and if he sells them late, the customer buys the decayed fruits. This seemingly trivial problem has disturbing origins the excessive and indiscriminate use of pesticides in agriculture by the farmers.
These chemicals kill more than just pests. They kill humans. Sometimes, instantaneously. The mid day meal that recently killed 23 children in Bihar had pesticides called monocrotophos in it and the infamous Bhopal gas leak that killed 4,000 people also occurred in a pesticide plant.
These are extreme cases where the effect was immediate and deadly. But in most cases, pesticides are a slow poison leading to a gradual break down of the human body and occurrence of several ailments. Most people blame the growing number of diseases on changing life styles, but miss out on the fact that almost everything we eat today has some amount of unwanted constituents. Some of these constituents are banned while others have known adverse effects. Agricultural chemicals are some such that are legally and openly injected into the food chain, experts say.
A recent study by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India points out that most common food items contain pesticides and harmful chemicals in quantities thousand times beyond the legal limits. Random samples from across the country collected for the study indicated that Brinjal topped the list of lethal veggies with level of banned chemicals 860 per cent above that permissible, followed by cauliflower and cabbage. Wheat and rice, apples and oranges, all were heavily laced with these toxins, the survey found.
Punjab and Kerela are living examples of the ill effects of pesticides on human health. Punjab has increasing number of cancer patients and Kerala has been much in news for the effects of the pesticide Endosulfan. Keralas Kasargod, known for its cashew plantations, is one of the worst examples of pesticide related disorders. Banned in almost all developed countries, Endosulfan was sprayed by helicopter for as long as 25 years in the town. It led to cancer, miscarriages, mental and neurological problems. As many as 5,000 people were reportedly affected by 22 lakh litres of pesticides sprayed over an area of 15,000 acres of land.
Experts believe that the insecticides in soil make the soil infertile and incapable of growing different crops, which ultimately leads to monoculture. It is often said that the Green Revolution helped India increase its agricultural production to a great extent and helped feed the increasing population but environmentalists like Vandana Shiva disagree. She puts light to the fact that India is now in fact importing more oil and pulses than before the revolution, because the Green Revolution encouraged monoculture and led to the extinction of many varieties of crops.
The irony of the situation is that the farmers spray pesticides only on that portion of crops that they wish to sell. They keep a certain portion of the produce chemical-free for their family as they are well aware of the hazards related to pesticides. Besides, lakhs of farmers have committed suicide in the last three decades because they were unable to pay debts incurred on these farming inputs. The use of pesticides increased the cost of production for the farmers and they also sold their produce at lower margins. In fact, the farmers consumed pesticides only to commit suicide.
Little monitoring, lesser choice The usage of pesticides is regulated by two regulatory bodies in India namely the Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee (CIBRC) and the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI). These organisations are responsible for advising the state and central government on the usage, safety and manufacture of pesticides.
The regulatory bodies have created concepts like Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) and Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) to keep a check on the pesticides residue in the human food chain. However, in reality, the usage of pesticides has crossed all limits and there is no proper check whatsoever on their usage in the farms and neither are they kept in check on fruits and vegetables in the market.
The ineffectiveness of these monitoring agencies has been proved by a recent research on Mothers milk. Mothers milk is considered the purest form of food for a newborn, but research has proved otherwise. Rashmi Sanghi, a research scientist at IIT Kanpur, studied samples of mothers milk and found that Endosulfan was 800 times more than its acceptable daily intake (ADI) and Chlorpyrifos was 400 times more. These results would come as a shock to any pregnant women and her family.
The pesticide crisis has always been overshadowed by the larger issues of food adulteration for which there are established laws and guidelines. Unfortunately, there are no strict laws to stop or regulate the excessive spraying of pesticides on crops. There are, however, court rulings against the use of chemicals like DDT and even Endosulfan, but these are still being used in many areas illegally.
Dr Purnima, an Ayurvedic doctor with Phoenix Hospital, accepts that it is not possible to avoid the slow poison, but one should follow a healthy life style and a balanced diet. There are various health problems associated with pesticides, there is PCOD (Poly Cystic Ovarian Disease) which is a commonly occurring problem in girls, she says and adds, Pesticides also cause Cancer, HPV (Human Papeloma Virus) and tumours (fibroids).
Experts believe that the insecticides in soil make the soil infertile and incapable of growing different crops, which ultimately leads to monoculture. It is often said that the Green Revolution helped India increase its agricultural production to a great extent and helped feed the increasing population but environmentalists like Vandana Shiva disagree. She puts light to the fact that India is now in fact importing more oil and pulses than before the revolution, because the Green Revolution encouraged monoculture and led to the extinction of many varieties of crops.
The irony of the situation is that the farmers spray pesticides only on that portion of crops that they wish to sell. They keep a certain portion of the produce chemical-free for their family as they are well aware of the hazards related to pesticides. Besides, lakhs of farmers have committed suicide in the last three decades because they were unable to pay debts incurred on these farming inputs. The use of pesticides increased the cost of production for the farmers and they also sold their produce at lower margins. In fact, the farmers consumed pesticides only to commit suicide.
Little monitoring, lesser choice The usage of pesticides is regulated by two regulatory bodies in India namely the Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee (CIBRC) and the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI). These organisations are responsible for advising the state and central government on the usage, safety and manufacture of pesticides.
The regulatory bodies have created concepts like Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) and Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) to keep a check on the pesticides residue in the human food chain. However, in reality, the usage of pesticides has crossed all limits and there is no proper check whatsoever on their usage in the farms and neither are they kept in check on fruits and vegetables in the market.
The ineffectiveness of these monitoring agencies has been proved by a recent research on Mothers milk. Mothers milk is considered the purest form of food for a newborn, but research has proved otherwise. Rashmi Sanghi, a research scientist at IIT Kanpur, studied samples of mothers milk and found that Endosulfan was 800 times more than its acceptable daily intake (ADI) and Chlorpyrifos was 400 times more. These results would come as a shock to any pregnant women and her family.
The pesticide crisis has always been overshadowed by the larger issues of food adulteration for which there are established laws and guidelines. Unfortunately, there are no strict laws to stop or regulate the excessive spraying of pesticides on crops. There are, however, court rulings against the use of chemicals like DDT and even Endosulfan, but these are still being used in many areas illegally.
Dr Purnima, an Ayurvedic doctor with Phoenix Hospital, accepts that it is not possible to avoid the slow poison, but one should follow a healthy life style and a balanced diet. There are various health problems associated with pesticides, there is PCOD (Poly Cystic Ovarian Disease) which is a commonly occurring problem in girls, she says and adds, Pesticides also cause Cancer, HPV (Human Papeloma Virus) and tumours (fibroids).
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