These past few days have been really eye-opening for me as a consumer. We generally assume our green products from agriculture farms to be less pollutive to the environment, especially compared to livestock, but this might not always be the case. As a typical Asian household, my family and I consume rice at least twice a day, every day of the week. Little did we know that rice cultivation globally accounts for about half of all crop-related greenhouse emission (Kritee et al., 2018). Maybe it is time we reconsider our carbohydrates once in a while?
But then, there is also pollution due to excessive fertiliser use and from the agricultural land-use change itself that we need to account for too. Hence, as consumers, we should also take additional efforts to understand what goes on before our food arrives on our plate and make more informed choices to help reduce pollution as well as our own pollution foodprint [footprint].
We also must recognise the pollution that is caused by pesticides that are used in agriculture as well. While it might not be as visible as the pollution by other factors, it does not mean it does not exist. Well, these posts may then have got you thinking “What about organic food? Is it better for the environment? Since it uses no or little pesticides and natural fertilisers?”. Well, the answer is not as simple as you might think. Watch the video below to get more information about how pesticides can be pollutive and if organic food is better after all (SciShow, 2018)!
So would you make some changes to your diet now that you know more about pollution from agriculture? What are some steps you might take as a consumer to make sure the products you consume are least pollutive as possible? Leave a comment down below on your thoughts!
We covered the livestock and agriculture that utilises land space for the production of food. So where do you think our path is to next?
Trailing off,
Ridzuan
References
Kritee, K., Nair, D., Zavala-Araiza, D., Proville, J., Rudek, J., Adhya, T.K., Loecke, T., Esteves, T., Balireddygari, S., Dava, O., Ram, K., S. R., A., Madasamy, M., Dokka, R.V., Anandaraj, D., Athiyaman, D., Reddy, M., Ahuja, R. and Hamburg, S.P. (2018). High nitrous oxide fluxes from rice indicate the need to manage water for both long- and short-term climate impacts. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, [online] 115(39), pp.9720–9725. Available at: https://www.pnas.org/content/115/39/9720 [Accessed 3 Sep. 2020].
SciShow (2018). How Safe Are Pesticides, Really? YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF_fbTbHdyg [Accessed 3 Sep. 2020].
