Have you gone on vacation and came back wondering why the vegetables and fruits from your own grocery store taste so bland? Have you wondered why there are so many “Organic” food labels popping up everywhere? What does all of this have to do with the environment and why is this important?
Civilizations were established and population began to increase as humans solved the problem of providing enough food to feed everyone in a community. Farmers prepared the land for growth during the spring, reaped the fruits during the summer and fall and stored what was leftover during the winter. Meat, dairy, fish and eggs were eaten fresh and only when available. People practiced what is now known as organic farming. Taking care of the land was labour intensive and hard work. Often drought, flooding and other unpredictable natural disasters affected the farmers’ likelihoods.
With the increase in technology we are now able to enjoy a wide variety of food from all over the world all year long. Modern farming practices to eradicate pests and weeds. Transporting water to areas with not as much rainfall. Adding fertilizers to promote growth in areas with harsh soil. Machines to harvest the crops with little manual labour, transportation to ship food, preservatives to kill bacteria and allow for longer storage time. These are wonderful and breakthrough ideas, but with increased variety and convenience of food there is a cost that is not accounted for and not seen, that is the impact on the environment, the nutrition quality of food, and on health.
Damage to the Ozone
The use of pesticides on crops to eradicate insects releases toxins such as bromine and chloride gas that damages the ozone layer. Also, excess chlorine and bromine compete with iodine, which is important for human thyroid health, the organ that regulates metabolic activities in our bodies.
Greenhouse effect explaining the theory of global warming is where UV Rays hits the earth and rebounds up to release heat but is trapped because of certain gases resulting in more heat trapped in the atmosphere. Two of the main gases that cause this are Methane and Carbon Dioxide.
Methane gas is not as abundant as CO2 but traps 20 times more heat. Modern factory animal farms produce about 40% of the world’s methane gas. That is much more than fossil fuels, car exhaust. Everyone produces waste including animals. However an average dairy cow poo much more than humans do. In a traditional farm the waste is mixed and recycled to act as a fertilizer for the plants in the field. However, the modern factory cow farm may not have enough space compared with the massive amounts of manure to replenish the soil. The waste may have to travel long distances to a farm that may use it as organic fertilizer.
Carbon dioxide is a waste humans create when we exhale, plants take this waste humans produce and transform it into food along with the help of water and sun. Other sources of carbon dioxide come from fossil fuels, volcanic eruptions and forest fires, slash and burn farming practices etc. Thanks to the rainforests of the world, they help take in the CO2 produced. Sadly the rainforest is shrinking.
A few years ago, on a trip in the Amazons I took this picture. Why were there so many cows in the rainforest I wondered? Where did they come from? This was supposed to be one of the most bio diverse places on earth, however I was not expecting to see cows. While making the trip through the rivers I was shocked by the amount of dead trees in the streams and the murky waters. This was not exactly the rainforest I had pictured in my mind. It was only after watching Conspiracy (highly recommended documentary on the impacts of animal farming) that I had connected the dots. The deforestation and cattle ranch practices in the amazons explained the puzzling photo that I captured that day.
Damage to Biodiversity
The Mayan's and Inca's brought the world two very popular vegetables tomatoes and maize. During those times, there were thousands of species of tomatoes, nowadays we might be able to find 3 types of tomatoes in our grocery stores. Modern farming practices have led to the disappearance of many different varieties of tomatoes, potatoes, and corn. Genetically engineered plants and fish are tested to withstand harsher growing conditions, produce higher yield, and grow faster than before. It’s human engineered natural selection and survival of the fittest, but without a counterpart from nature. Once released into the world, there is no method to recall a particular seed or gene. GMO is prone to cross contamination that may threaten different species including monarch butterfly, bees, the organic dairy practices etc. These plants programmed to withstand weeds and bugs are essentially super weeds, once it lands in another crop field, because it is designed to be resistant and resilient. What was originally an idea to provide food to feed the world all year round and allowing people a wide variety of food from differing growing conditions is eliminating the biodiversity of life. Yes GMO provides us a safety against bacteria and diseases, and so does nature, in giving us a variety of different species that can withstand varying diseases or conditions. We have barely began to understand the complexities of certain plants and perhaps their ability to treat diseases. We shouldn't put all of our eggs in a few baskets and diversify our portfolio and risks. Below are pictures from travels in Peru and Spain and some of the corn and tomatoes that you rarely find in grocery stores.
Damage to the Soil
The topsoil was approximately 18-25 inches thick in America in the 17th-18th century. Today it is about 6-9inches. 1 inch of topsoil takes approximately 500 years to replenish naturally. Soil is a living substance and is the medium for all plant life. Healthy soil is rich in minerals and nutrients with billions of living creatures. The best farmers know to replace the topsoil and maintain its health. Modern day farming practices such as heavy machinery, pesticides and herbicides compacts the soil, creates an acidic environment, kills the living creatures that work symbiotically with plants to keep the soil healthy. Oftentimes, eliminating one species from an ecosystem such as insects or weeds has dire consequences to the entire system. The earth has a natural cycle of birth and death, and it’s through this natural cycle that species are able to regulate and evolve. When strong chemicals are used to kill pests and weeds, stronger insects and weeds will evolve to adapt. Super bugs and plants are breed in the process of eliminating pests. How will harmful chemicals that kill off bugs and weeds affect the nutrient content of the plants that are grown? How do humans adapt to the changing content of our food supply? When a plant is not healthy, it natural lifecycle is to rot and be eaten by others in nature. Chemicals from pesticides and herbicides may stay in the soil for a very long time, and may never leave. Reduced topsoil reduces the crop yields; reduced nutrients in the soil mean reduced nutrients in the plant and for animals and humans.
Mono cropping depletes the soil of nutrients that aren’t replaced. Traditionally crops are rotated such that nutrients depleted by one will be replaced another in order ensure the balance of the soil. Now fertilizers are created such that nutrients can be replenished without the need to rotate crops or as often. Humans are highly intelligent beings, but can we make the perfect concoction soup of nutrients in the fertilizer to produce optimal sized tomatoes within a predictable duration? Well we are using farming techniques already such as greenhouses and hydroponics where a tomato does not even need soil to grow or aquaponics, combining aquaculture with hydroponics. Do we know all we need to know to create food in a sustainable way?
Damage to the Water Supply
Improper disposal of manure waste, pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals can contaminate our water system. Excess chemicals can leach from the soil into ground water and downstream water systems that can affect wild life and fishes that may be eaten by humans later.
The amount of water used to produce 1lb of meat is approx. 2400 gallons. Almost half of the water used in the states goes into raising animals. This is a tremendous strain on the water system and water supply. [1]
Reduced Nutrients in Foods
The average tomato has loss 30-43% of its vitamin A, C, E, 61% of Niacin and Calcium since 1960’s. However, the sodium levels have increased by 200% in the average tomato. With the use of fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals, the tomato has been able to grow at a much faster rate with a bigger yield, but the nutritional content such as vitamin C, many micro nutrients minerals like Calcium, Iron, have not been able to keep up. We are simply eating more of less. This is just what has happened to one produce.
Food travels on average 2500km from farm to table longer. When foods are travelling longer, they must be picked earlier before it’s fully ripened to ensure they do not spoil during the transportation process. This distance creates a loss in freshness and also a loss in nutritional content.
Impact of environment and food on health
What happens when there are more toxins in our environment and in our food supply? When foods we eat is breed to be bigger, stronger, but are nutritionally depleted?
There has been an increase in antibiotic resistance, allergic reactions, autoimmune and chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes and mental illness in the world.
Here is a map of the world with incidences of IBD.[2]
Now here is a map of places that label GMO foods.[3]
And here is a map of places that consume high amounts of animal products (most likely raised on GMO feed).[4]
Is it possible the food has something to do with the correlation we see? One of the closest ways we interact with the environment daily is by the choices we make with our food. Our genes load the gun, but it is the environment that pulls the trigger.
What You Can Do
Some of you may not be able to afford to buy organic all the time. Some of you live in places where buying local from a farmer’s market is not an option. Some of you may simply have no time to buy groceries or cook and rely on supplements such as protein powder, multi-vitamins to meet your nutritional needs.
This is the evolution of Food. Will this be the end of real Food? No. I say this optimistically because too many of us care about the quality of our food to let that happen. Eating food connects us with nature, connects with others, it is a reminder that we are all one. Buy fresh and local when possible. Ask about how your food was grown or produced. Don’t eat in excess or waste food. Share a meal with family or friends. Spend time to enjoy food and eat consciously. Compost your food scraps. Get up to to date with the latest news of big corps.
We must find how to balance between using technologies to solve real problems vs introducing technologies that create bigger problems to solve. We can find that equilibrium between making money and doing good. And tackle social and political issues such as poverty and world hunger where we are looking at a distribution problem and a culture of excess and greed. Doing all of this without compromising our environment, the quality of our food, and our health.
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[1] http://www.peta.org/videos/meat-wastes-water/
[2] https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/124-a49/
[3] http://riipl.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/CountriesThatLabel-1024x662.jpg
[4] http://chartsbin.com/view/12730
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