Health Problems Associated with Irresponsible Agricultural Practices

Agricultural practices and how our food is cultivated can have huge impact on personal health, public health, and the health of the environment. Even so, how often do we ask ourselves, “Where did this food come from? How was it grown?” Many people are becoming more interested in how our food is produced, but as a society we don't ask these questions when we are cruising the grocery store or sitting down at a restaurant.

However, it may behoove us to start asking these questions; we should take a look at industrial agriculture and the effects it has on our health and planet. As food production operations have gotten bigger, there have been fewer owners, which is to say that food production has gotten more concentrated -- bigger farms, fewer farmers. It has become standard practice to use synthetic chemical fertilizer, insecticides, and herbicides on crops to minimize loss. What we are finding though, is that these synthetic chemicals can have adverse effects on people who are continually exposed to them. That means not only the consumer, but also the farm workers and people who live in proximity to food production. People have experienced occupational asthma, birthdefects, and an increased risk of cancer as the result of prolonged exposure. Another public health concern is the industrial use of antibiotics. Some 70% of antibiotics produced in the U.S. go toward promoting growth in livestock, or toward treating them when they get sick from poor living conditions. Such frivolous use of antibiotics, which are then ingested by the consumer, make a perfect environment for resistant strains of bacteria to evolve: “resistant strains of Salmonella, Campylobacter, Enterococci and E. coli have been transmitted from animals to humans” (Johns Hopkins, 452). This transmission of communicable disease is an obvious public health hazard.

The effects that mainstream agricultural practices have on the environment (and by extension, our health) are equally alarming. For example, soil is being eroded because of the constant and expedited cycle of planting and harvesting. The soil is not given a chance to regenerate and is losing vital nutrients with each cycle, which produces lower quality food. Furthermore, food production occurs on such a large scale that it taxes other natural resources such as water and fossil fuel.

It is worth taking a closer look at our agricultural practices and how our food is produced. Viable sustainable agriculture is attainable, but it is complex and will require collaboration and structural policy change to make the responsible choice the easy choice.

Photo Credit

Photo Credit

Photo Credit