Know Your Food
"He who asks is a fool for 5 minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever." (Chinese proverb)
"He that takes medicine and neglects diet, wastes the skills of the physician." (Chinese proverb)
Chemicals, n: Noxious substances from which modern foods are made. ~Author Unknown
They say 'you are what you eat'! They also say that our Food is our best Medicine. However, what would happen if the very food that we consume to stay alive and stay healthy becomes toxic?
DID YOU KNOW?
- Nearly 99-9% of pesticides used never reach their target organisms – they end up in our air, soil, water, food etc.
- In India, hundreds of pesticides have been registered by the regulatory authority (234, as on January 20th 2012).
- Many banned and restricted pesticides in India routinely appear in residue testing done by government and independent agencies.
- India has at least 67 pesticides in use which have been banned elsewhere, as per Government’s information shared in the Parliament.
- Controversies – scientific and otherwise – abound in the regulatory system related to pesticides in India. Pesticides manufacturers have been caught bribing officials to get their products registered.
- Several studies indicate high 'body burden' of pesticides in Indians.
What if many of the toxins that end up in our food are also known to be endocrine-disrupting (affecting hormones and thereby our reproductive health for example) or even have effects on the next generation? What if a pregnant woman starts passing on such toxins to her unborn child? Isn’t this extremely unfair on the next generation? Isn’t there something that we should be doing about it? INDIA FOR SAFE FOOD believes that we can indeed change this alarming situation. As many of you know, right from the fields where our food is produced by millions of farmers, to the time it ends up in our plates, food products change hands between many players who are taking up “production”, “processing”/”value addition” etc. The possibility of external and unnatural materials being added to the food in the production and post-production processes is quite high in terms of pesticides of different kinds, use of genetically modified seeds, antibiotics, hormones, ripening chemicals, chemical additives , flavours etc. These controversial products are all added in the name of either increasing yields, or protecting the crop from yield losses, or for faster/bigger growth and ripening, specific colors/flavors, increased shelf life etc. These products that are added to our crops and foods are indeed a cause of concern for a variety of reasons. Here, we will focus on chemical pesticides (this includes poisons used to kill and control insects, weeds, rats, snails, fungi etc. etc.) and the havoc they wreak.
To understand the sorry state of affairs with regard to chemical
pesticides all around us, including as residues in our food and as
toxins in our own bodies, please click on the following links.
pesticides all around us, including as residues in our food and as
toxins in our own bodies, please click on the following links.
Pesticides and Health