Hi folks, welcome back! 😀

As we are wrapping up our blog 🙁 , we thought it would be a good idea to share how we can play our part, as individuals, to help in the reduction of Agricultural Pollution! As many of us would know, Agriculture is a huge industry in the world we live in and we might feel that we are very out of touch of the pollution processes to help in the reduction of pollution.

Here are some ways that we can reduce our own footprints to in effect, reduce Agricultural Pollution:

1. Choose environmentally-friendly food sources
   • Certain food products cultivate the habit of using antibiotic resistance, and some utilise massive use of pesticides and fertilisers. Even products from your local supermarket may carry such branding.
   • Perhaps shop at the organic section from time to time. Although it may be more expensive, organic food cultivate their products using natural sources, unlike non-organic products which may utilise synthetic chemicals which is terribly bad for human health [4].
   • A small step could be to alternate your diet with organic food from time to time, slowly and progressively leaning towards organic produce. Every step counts, even if it is a little change in our consumption behaviour.
2. Reduce consumption of meat and choose alternative food
   • Not only does the consumption of meat lead to possible enteric fermentation and eutrophication, animal rearing use up massive amounts of water, vegetation and produce a huge amount of waste.
   • In the global perspective, animal rearing accounts for 14.5 to 18% of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.
   • The most concerning meats  are lamb and beef. It produces 20 times more greenhouse gases per gram of protein compared to other plant proteins, such as beans.
   • This diagram shows how resource intensive it is to produce lamb and beef compared to other foods:
     

     Greenhouse gas emissions produced to the production of certain food

   • A possible step to reduce agricultural pollution would be to swap your proteins in your diet to less resource intensive foods such as beans and nuts.
3. Reduce food wastage
   • The massive agricultural expansion is also due to our massive demand for supply of food despite the fact that we still waste a lot of food.
   • In a global scale, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, it is estimated that 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted annually. This is 1/3 of all the food produced for human consumption. The amount of food lost or wasted in monetary terms can be equated to be 2.6 trillion USD annually which is more than enough to feed all the 815 million starving people in the world for 4 times! 🙁
   • Closer to home, in Singapore as a whole, we are wasting 342 million SGD of food annually! For a easier reference, that is 52 plates of Nasi Lemak a year per household!

Singapore household food wastage infographic

Food wastage in Singapore as a whole

• •  With what has been mentioned above, we should learn to be more responsible citizens! We should have a habit of purchasing the portions that we can finish.
  • Hopefully. with a lower demand in food, the agricultural industry would not be producing so much excess food a year which is only going to waste! This could possible reduce the amount of unnecessary pollution produced to the environment and the ecosystem.

This list is not exhaustive and there is many more ways we can help with the reduction of Agricultural Pollution. But with small steps,  everyone can play their part in reducing Agri-llution! 😀

References:

Folk, E., 2019. 10 Keys to an Eco-Friendly Diet. The Environmental Magazine, [online] Available at: <https://emagazine.com/10-keys-to-an-eco-friendly-diet/> [Accessed 24 July 2020].

Robinson, L., Segal, J. and Segal, R., 2020. Organic Foods: What You Need To Know – Helpguide.Org. [online] Helpguide.org. Available at: <https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/organic-foods.htm> [Accessed 24 July 2020].

Friedman, L., Pierre-Louis, K. and Sengupta, S., 2018. The Meat Question, by the Numbers. The New York Times, [online] Available at: <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/climate/cows-global-warming.html> [Accessed 24 July 2020].

R. Waite, T. Searchinger and J. Ranganathan, “6 Pressing Questions About Beef and Climate Change, Answered”, World Resources Institute, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.wri.org/blog/2019/04/6-pressing-questions-about-beef-and-climate-change-answered. [Accessed: 24- Jul- 2020].

Depta, L., 2018. Global Food Waste And Its Environmental Impact | Green Living. [online] RESET.to. Available at: <https://en.reset.org/knowledge/global-food-waste-and-its-environmental-impact-09122018> [Accessed 24 July 2020].

2019. Advancing A Circular Economy For Food: Key Drivers And Recommendations To Reduce Food Loss And Waste In Singapore. [ebook] Singapore: Singapore Environment Council (SEC), pp.Page 9, Page 11. Available at: <http://sec.org.sg/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/SEC_Food-Loss-Study.pdf> [Accessed 24 July 2020].