Scare of food

June 3, 2009

A famous quote goes like this – ‘We are what we eat and drink’. Our increasingly insecure existence is mirrored in our food fear: pesticides in fruits and vegetables, mercury in fish, bad fats in snacks, bird flu in chicken and so on. Is the whole world conspiring to kill us or is it just that we’re getting too stressful and risk-averse on our way to become an aware-citizen? For instance, take pesticides. The average housewife in every home has turned paranoid, washing, rewashing and boiling everything, unable to trust any fruits or vegetables she uses for her family. We believe strongly that most of the foods we eat contain hazardous chemicals and are prone to cause cancer. Perhaps, it may lead to stomach, skin, and breathing ailments and even to an extent of causing problems in the womb. In short, we are taken in by scientific jargon ignoring the disclaimers in the studies, even the ‘mights’ and ‘coulds’ , and we tend to look at the small numbers affected, not giving attention to the fact that a large number is perfectly doing well. Studies show that most pesticide complaints pertain to only one crop ‘cotton’ and the farming community uses Rs.3000 crore of pesticides every year. See more about pesticides in the next post.