In our second series, we will talk about how toxic the foods that we eat are. If you haven’t seen our first series, please do give it a read. The world is dying and we are the culprits. We are selfish humans who want everything that surrounds us, we name galaxies after ourselves and name stars as though they’re beneath us. We expect so much but do so little in return, the earth has given us everything from water to fresh air to minerals and nutrients that are not found on any other planet, we live on this earth, the only planet so far that has life existing on it.
Humans are always searching for the “perfect” the word that in itself is a flaw, to begin with, we search for perfect clothes, the perfect house, the perfect vacation spot and all, we even search for the perfect food, the one that is perfect in the eyes of the media that we are slaves to that means the half-forgotten decaying nutrients that reside inside our refrigerator are overlooked, left uneaten and in turn look and smell as though they’ve been turned into corpses. It is said that about 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted each year worldwide, which includes mutant food, food that is left uneaten and in turn, turns wasted and other aspects included. Estimated about 70% of all freshwater is used for agriculture this is because fruits and vegetables are among the most water-laden food products, simply because they contain more water (about 81% water!)
These are some of the few reasons of toxicity that is harmful to the earth and its inhabitants:
- Methane gas
When food is thrown out, it eventually makes its way to landfills (which can themselves be a problem for the environment). As that food begins to decompose or rot, it releases methane gas which is a greenhouse gas, many scientists believe that global warming is adversely affected by methane gas and many other factors included.
- Wastes land
The irresponsible use of food products has an adverse impact on the physical land itself. The most important factor for evaluating how food waste affects land is understanding which land that can grow crops or the land that cannot. Most of the food wasted worldwide, regardless of the type of land about 900 million hectors of unsuitable farming land are used in the production of meat products apart from this about millions of pounds of fruits and vegetables we waste each year, the use of land skyrockets. The problem lies within the fact that land is not taken care of and the fact that we waste a lot of food, it may include food that is edible but is not “perfect” in nature, food that is left half eaten and other stuff like that. this in turn eventually produces far less than can sustain the people living in the region/world.
- Chemically induced fruits and vegetables
Since the worlds land is different in different parts of the world, it is easily understandable that some fruits or vegetables are not found in some regions, scientists have discovered new ways through which they are able to produce fruits not found in the region. Use of chemicals has become a norm by the people to produce artificial food, which in itself is not a healthy lifestyle to have, yet it is still used though not nearly as harmful to us as it is to the land for too many chemicals put in the land can lead to a barren land.
This wastage of fruits and vegetables and the deteriorating nutrients of the land is the reason why food that is now grown is mutant or not in its actual physical form, Global food production is estimated to be 6273 million tonnes per annum. The future work should also focus on the extraction of novel nutrient-rich bioactive compounds from the food wastes suitable for human consumption. We as humans need to take it upon ourselves to stop food wastage and not throw away food that we think does not fit the criteria of “normal” food.