THE ORGANIC IMPERATIVE

Chemical fertilizers and pesticides leach into groundwater, streams, lakes and rivers, affecting the food chain all the way to mammals

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Organic food is often derided as being expensive, which it can be, and elitist, which it isn’t, the focus in such categorisation being on the consumer.

Yet, there is little understanding of the systemic and human consequences of conventional agriculture, as chemical-centric farming is termed. For instance, there is little acknowledgement of what a farming family endures in their daily life when supplying the market with produce that is grown with a cocktail of chemical fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides and the unintended consequences of having these poisons lying around in the farm or their home.

The agrochemical stores that sell these products almost never offers safety gloves or advise the farmer on personal safety. The safe-application dosage is provided in gross — and, I would argue, negligent — approximation. As a consequence, it is common to see farm hands fill up the sprayer with water, add the chemical — often a deadly poison — with bare hands, load the tanks on their back and spray without any sort of protective covering. While some crops require less sprays, others, such as cotton, demand heavy dosages of pesticides and the outcome is expected, if depressing. Since everyone uses these chemicals with little caution, it is seen as the norm and not unusual in the least.