Agriculture is a big part of feeding. Most of the foods we eat come from farming. Farming on a large scale is the most profitable, but it sometimes, doesn’t come easy, as you have to employ different means to get the most out of the little you have. Chemicals and fertilizers are sometimes used in farming to boost and secure production, and also maximise profit. Unknown to a lot of us though, some of those chemicals are not the most healthy, and continued consumption of them leads to all manner of problems.
Here are some of the dangers associated with the things we eat.
RIPENING AGENT FOR BANANA AND PLANTAIN
Because people are in a hurry to harvest their bananas and plantain, they spray it with Calcium carbide. The chemical is a ripening agent, and it makes plantain to ripen very quickly. It is extremely hazardous to the human body as it contains traces of arsenic and phosphorus.
So oftentimes we buy ripe plantain in the market, chances are we buy plantain ripened with Calcium carbide. The advised thing to do is buy unripe ones, and watch them ripen.
CHEMICALS USED AS PEST CONTROL
In some developing countries, farmers who do not have proper understanding of the dangers of certain chemicals use even the most dangerous ones to keep their produce safe. A common chemical used by farmers is the ‘sniper’.
This particular chemical is too potent, it’s even scary. It is a DDVP, 2,2-Dichlorovinyl dimethyl phosphate compound. A organophosphate that readily binds to the lungs and kidney, which is likely to cause cancer. It is in most farm products we consume.
THE BEANS WE EAT SOMETIMES CONTAIN ALUMINUM PHOSPHIDE (AlP)
This is perhaps, the most dangerous food pollution you have in certain parts of the world. Because weevil can destroy the entire year harvest of a farmer in days, some of them drop tablets of Aluminum Phosphide inside each bag of beans.
The idea is to protect their products, and by extension, profits, but the uneducated ones do not know that a whole tablet is too much for a bag. A tablet can even wipe weevil off an entire Silo.
Unfortunately, it is now one of the most common causes of food poisoning in developing countries. It liberates lethal phosphine gas when it comes in contact either with atmospheric moisture or with hydrochloric acid in the stomach.
THE CHICKEN WE EAT SOMETIMES ARE EMBALMED
Some poultry owners sometime, use the same substance used to embalm dead bodies to embalm other foods. This substance is dangerous, and can kill slowly. I mean, how else do you think chicken and other frozen foods are transported from country to country without a proper cooling system?