Is there anything safe to eat these days? No to Pesticides & Micro Plastics
I watched a scary programme on BBC the other day about what we are really getting in the food we buy at supermarkets.
We try to eat healthily and to that end we have really cut down on red meat. Partly because of the amount of land it takes to produce a kilo of red meat, partly because of the scary amount of antibiotics used and also to reduce the carbon footprint.
Fish of course in the heavily polluted seas of today with all the micro-plastics and mercury/ heavy metals we hear about. No thank you!
So that leaves chicken and vegetables – organic free range chicken for us only please. At least that way we know (i hope) that the chicken has has a reasonable quality of life and then we can make chicken broth afterwards.
So then I watched the programme discussing vegetables in supermarkets and how much pesticide is used to make the uniform veg we get from them.
Up to 80 separate pesticides are available for use in UK agriculture and while the farmers bleat on that the levels of pesticide residue is tiny of their produce, new science is showing that the mixture of tiny pesticide residue can create a toxic cocktail that can really damage our health.
So it is organic vegetables and fruits only for us now and eating with the seasons wherever we can. Who needs strawberries in december? And that is exactly the point. We have become spoilt in the last 70 years and our expectations have grown to a point where they are unsustainable without the pesticide culture and incredible amounts of food miles.
I remember my folks telling me how they saw their first ever banana after WW2 and how strange it was – well we are going to have to head back in that direction and eat what nature can provide.
There is a farmer near us who forces 5 crops a year out of his fields. How is that possible?
Well he sprays and sprays and sprays. The ground looks so tired and without the chemicals he couldn’t do it but at what cost? And that is before we discuss how much roundup he uses.
Let’s keep it local and in 2020 we are starting our proper veg beds to become as self sufficient as we can.
