Mongas, Kathlyn Micah P.

October 19, 2022

4 - BSFT FST 171 Assignment #3

Soil pollution is one of the most impactful types of pollution on food crops, as it
directly affects the crop yield and food safety of the crops. According to the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO), soil pollution is a result of the presence of a substance at
high amounts or concentrations than the normal. These substances mostly originate from
human activities, however, there are some cases where the contaminants are naturally present
in the soil and accumulate to lethal levels. And more often than not, soil pollution cannot be
visually or directly assessed, making it difficult to detect without the proper methods and
equipment. Examples of human activities that the FAO has identified to have great
contribution to soil pollution are industrialization, mining activities, wars, and the intensified
use of artificial pesticides in agriculture. A study by the International Soil Reference and
Information Centre (ISRIC) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) done
back in 1990’s have revealed that an estimated 22 million hectares of land have been afflicted
by soil pollution. Recent studies have shown increased occurrences of soil pollution in
various nations: the Chinese Environmental Protection Ministry reported back in 2015 that
16% of their nation’s soil has been polluted and 19% of their agricultural land have been
categorized as polluted; approximately 3 million potentially polluted sites have been
identified in different European Economic Zones and the West Balkans back in 2014; and an
estimated 80,000 acres of land have been identified as contaminated sites in Australia back in
2010 (FAO, 2018). These numbers have also grown in the more recent years and has reached
a very alarming state due to the huge number of identified polluted areas.

The FAO has identified agriculture to be one of the human activities that have the
greatest contribution to soil pollution, mainly due to the excessive or inefficient use of
fertilizers and pesticides. Excessive use of fertilizers and manure, of which its main
components are nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), can lead to adjustment of the soil’s pH and
salinity, increased chances of heavy metal accumulation, eutrophication, and nitrites
accumulation, all of which negatively impacts soil health. Some fertilizers have also been
identified to be the source of heavy metals in soil. There were also some instances wherein
crops have been contaminated due to contaminated irrigation water that has leached into the
soil, especially for heavy metals that tend to bioaccumulate. Livestock, which also depend on
crops, can become contaminated as well due to the consumption of contaminated feed from
crops. These problems pose a huge threat to food security since access to safe food can be
very limited due to the health risks that result from consuming contaminated crops.

An occurrence of such has been observed in the study by Solidum (2014) on the
presence of lead, a heavy metal, in Filipino staple food, which in this case, is rice and fish
that was obtained from various markets in Metro Manila, Philippines. The researcher
gathered ten different varieties of rice and fish during the cold, dry season of the year 2011
and the lead levels were analyzed using a Flame AAS and compared to the allowable
standard limits set by the US Ennvironmental Protection Agency (EPA). The results of the
study have shown that all the ten varieties of rice contained lead, and two of those have been
determined to have lead levels that went beyond the acceptable limits for lead of 0.5 ppm,
namely the regular Malagkit rice and the National Food Authority (NFA) rice brands. As for
the fish, all the ten samples tested were determined to contain lead amounts beyond the
acceptable limit. These fish varieties include tilapia, tanguigue, galunggong, dalagang bukid,
and matambaka, all of which are common fish varieties consumed in Filipino households.
According to the researcher, however, that a similar study on fish that was conducted in 2012
showed that some varieties of fish that were the same for both studies had lead levels that fall
within the acceptable limits. These findings show that heavy metal accumulation has become
common in various staple food and if not addressed properly, can negatively affect food
security and may cause adverse health effects to those who consume the contaminated food.

References:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265470357_Heavy_Metal_Lead_in_Filipino_Staple
_Food_as_Studied_in_Metro_Manila_Philippines
http://www.db.zs-intern.de/uploads/1525681402-SoilPollution.pdf
https://www.globalagriculture.org/whats-new/news/en/33185.html
https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/soil-pollution-risk-our-health-and-food-security