Pesticides: Do we really need them?

We have been taught since our school days that having a healthy diet will keep us healthy. And it was true at some point but these days with everything getting adulterated we need to think twice before munching on any of the so called “healthy food”. There was a time when eating outside food from street hawkers was considered to be unhealthy. Today even the fresh vegetable and foods we get from the most hygienic places can cause us health issues.

Wondering why?? If you recall seeing Aamir’s show Satyameva Jayate’s episode covering the pesticide topic. Yes!!! Pesticides are the most disastrous poisons our foods have these days. The reason is their excessive use over the years to ensure that they appear fresh from above. Little do these farmers know that the excessive use of these stuffs in the longer run can have disastrous effects?

Pesticides are in real used to ward off the pests affecting crops resulting into lowered productivity. But these days the pesticide use has become so extreme that they result in to lowered productivity, which in turn forces the farmers to use more of pesticides. The cycle thus goes on. Amidst all this they forget that these pesticides over a period of time penetrate through into the plants through soil. Eating such poisoned foods means stuffing our body with those harmful poisonous elements.

It is because of these chemical depositions in our body that humans get diseases like cancers, birth defects and so on. Farmers in India include one of the biggest segments of population which is also the least educated segment. They are just concerned with their yields and the money it gets them so that they can have a good source of earning. Big pesticide companies bribe pesticide sellers in the form of commissions for selling their product in large numbers. Lured by which several shopkeepers simply sell more and more pesticides to the farmers keeping them under the impression that this will make them richer by yielding good crops.

There have been several cases where farmers commit suicide because they do not have money to buy these chemicals or when they fail to earn the expected returns after selling their crops. In the recent years the number of farmers committing suicide is increasing alarmingly. This is all because of their illiteracy. Had they been educated then they would have realized that it is still possible to yield a good harvest without using pesticides i.e. by using the “Organic farming” method.

Organic farming helps to produce crops by using natural fertilizers and yet yields good crops and the most important fact is that the food thud produced is good for health. Several villages in India have taken to this practice. I wish if government supports and provides subsidies for these methods instead of providing subsidies to buy pesticides we can rely that in some years we are actually eating “Healthy Food”.