What societies eat reflects their position on the modernity trajectory. Poorer countries have health problems because of lack of food. Then as people get rich, they end up losing the health advantage of food availability. They eat processed food that is high in salt, sugar and fat, which make them obese and ill. It is only when societies get very rich that they rediscover the benefits of eating real food and value sustainability.
One often finds unsuspecting people buying bottled water or packaged drinking water thinking its safe. Well think again.
G V Ramanjaneyulu1 Today, our farming and food is full of toxins and synthetic substances in the name of ‘modern agriculture’ and a thrust to increase yields at any cost. The cumulative and synergistic effects of all these products cannot even be estimated by the producers and users. Hundreds of pesticides have been registered in the country over the years even as the government takes years to ban or restrict a handful of chemicals every decade or so.
The pesticides’ regulations in India are governed by two different bodies: the Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee (CIBRC) and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
Today, I want to tell you a true story of extraordinary courage. The past week, I was in Kasaragod, a district in Kerala, splendid in beauty and with abundant natural resources, but destroyed by the toxic chemical, endosulfan. The pesticide was aerially sprayed over cashew plantations, for some 20 years, in complete disregard of the fact that there is no demarcation between plantations and human habitation in this area. It is also a high rainfall region and so, the sprayed pesticide leached into the ground and flowed downstream.
For years corruption and irregularities in the pesticide registration system in India has been a well-documented norm.
There is never any end to learning. And so, surprises. We have learnt, over 20 years, that environmental governance in India is lackadaisical.
CSE Study finds residues of 6-13 pesticides in blood samples of villagers in Punjab.
KUSHAL P S YADAV blows the lid off dirty tactics adopted to give clean chit to endosulfan
One often finds unsuspecting people buying bottled water or packaged drinking water thinking its safe. Well think again. As the Centre for Science and Environment laboratory report found after analysing bottled water samples from Mumbai and Delhi these products can be far more lethal than one can imagine. The samples contained a deadly cocktail of pesticide residues.
About CSE Laboratory
Packaged drinking water or natural mineral water is everywhere. It is now available in pouches, cups, bottles and bulky transparent jars.
Pesticides are commonly used in India but this comes at great cost to human health. The Centre for Science and Environment decided to investigate the matter and looked at the agricultural heartland of Punjab. It found that 15 different pesticides in the 20 blood samples tested from four villages in Punjab. But what is more important to find out is how much of pesticide in blood is ‘safe’. Does a safety threshold level exist?
New Delhi, August 4-5, 2004
Pesticides are widely used in agriculture without paying much heed to the consequences of its unregulated and indiscriminate use . This fact has been known to our policy makers for nearly five decades. The government is atleast under law supposed to regulate its use.