Don’t all these foods look delicious? (I’m drooling as I’m inserting all these pictures) So why did I bring in food when this blog is about air pollution? Does food have anything to do with air pollution? Sadly, it does. We are living in a highly interconnected world, where one thing can easily affect another.
In our past few posts we have shared the different causes of air pollution and today I’ll be blogging on how air pollution is greatly associated with food security. I’m sure that most of us here are foodies and take joy in exploring new food places and tasting different foods. However our food security is at risk due to air pollution from agricultural activities which pollutes the air we breathe.
According to a journal article on air pollution, it talks about how food production, food security and air pollution have negative impacts on not just humans, but plant and animals’ growth. Agricultural emission is present from every stage along the supply chain and contributes to a significant amount of air pollution (Sun et al., 2017).
To simplify it for you, I have done 2 short infographics to illustrate how air pollution and agriculture affect each other.
(Note: just a brief summary, not a detailed one)
Farming Stage
Sun et al., (2017), pointed out that large amounts of air pollutants namely greenhouse gases (GHGs), ammonia (NH3), and particulate matter (PM) are emissions from the agricultural sector. Not just from crop cultivation, the raising of livestock generates substantial amounts of GHGs. There are different elements within the agricultural sector that contribute to the massive amount of air pollutants released. Let’s take a look at some of those elements.
- Land/Soil
Land releases massive amounts of GHGs naturally through microbial processes. However, human actions such as tillage(preparation of land for growing crops) have greatly amplified the amount as it generates PM. - Human Activities
The overuse of fertilizers, wrong timing, and methods of fertilization, and the burning of crop residue have led to the increase of air pollutants being emitted. - Machinery
The use of machines for farming generates large amounts of carbon dioxide which contributes to the overall GHGs emission. - Agrochemicals
During the manufacturing of fertilizers, harmful air pollutants are released into the atmosphere. - Fodder
To boost the growth of the animals, antibiotics are usually fed to them, and similar to the use of agrochemicals, it may result in air pollution as well.
Processing & Distribution
After yielding, the crops and animals will have to go through processing. The processing and packaging of the food contribute to air pollution through the combustion of fossil fuel.
With the increase in urbanization, transportation of agricultural commodities increases and thus increasing air pollution. Furthermore, vehicles that are used to transport agricultural commodities use diesel oil, which emits higher levels of air pollutants.
Retail & Consumer
Emissions from refrigerators and other retail processes burn fossil fuels which release air pollutants as well. Even the cooking of food as mentioned previously in our blog (Indoor pollution) indicates that cooking produces air pollutants as well.
From the above infographic and short descriptions, it is evident that agriculture leads to air pollution. It really harms the environment and us (humans) when we grow food for human consumption. Stay tuned to the next post on how air pollution can affect agriculture. Till next time!
Your environmental buddy,
Jeanice
References:
Feifei Sun, DAI Yun, & Xiaohua Yu. (2017). Air pollution, food production and food security： A review from the perspective of food system. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 16(12), 2945-2962. doi:10.1016/S2095-3119(17)61814-8
Ritchie, H., & Roser, M. (2020, January 15). Environmental impacts of food production. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food