The problem with the agricultural industry

The agricultural industry isn’t how it used to be, in the effort to make a profit many “farms” are producing more quantity than quality products. In doing so the results are incredibly harmful to our environment, health, the animals and economy. Many of the foods we buy at the grocery store start out on these corporate farms. The high amounts of water, pesticides and fertilizers that are used to produce, and often genetically modify plants and animals, do nothing good for our environment or our health. The use of chemicals and toxins to make food look deceivingly healthy when we purchase them in store are not only being absorbed into our soils and washed into our water supplies, but going directly into our bodies! 

Our bodies also can suffer from the inhuman treatment of animals on these farms. Animals that are cruelly treated, living a life of misery being tossed around, harmed, and stuffed into small spaces with no room to move until they are slaughtered. Because of these conditions when one animal becomes contaminated with disease it spreads quickly amongst the other animals. In some cases these diseases, such as Mad Cow disease, can be transmitted to humans. 

The economy also suffers with this kind of food production. The use of mechanized equipment eliminates much of the need for human labor, taking jobs away from thousands of people. The workers that are on these corporate farms are paid low wages, especially for the dangerous, labor intensive work they do. 

Not to stop there, much of the food we buy is also processed foods. Most of the food in the supermarket aisles is processed, meaning it is a combination of raw food materials that are formed into a new product. Some of these can be good for you but others are not, however, processed food has a much higher likelihood of becoming contaminated than unprocessed foods. During the processing period because of things like improper food handling deadly pathogens can spread. Not to mention the additives that are put into processed foods that aren’t always so good for our bodies. Those labels we see on processed foods often don’t even list out all of the additives that were used so we don’t always know what we are getting either. 

It is our job as consumers to know where are food comes from. The more you know about where your food comes from the more you will know about how it is made. Buying from your local sustainable market and farmers will help to ensure that the foods you are buying are doing good, not bad for the planet and your body. In doing so you are not only helping yourself, but building a stronger local economy that is sustainable, rather than one that is more profit driven than the impact they create. 

For more information check out: http://www.foodwhistleblower.org/the-lifecycle-of-food