‘FROM FARM TO PLATE’: The Food Safety Issue: Adulteration

‘Plates are the manipulators of the fates we carry.’

Have you ever wondered: 'why is adulteration deemed so fatal?'. Click back to ruffle
your science textbook...right to the part about adulteration. Milk
adulterated with water ; papaya disguised as spices. Not that harmful,
right? The practices learnt at school were the tamest means of
adulteration.

We only ever talk about adulteration in packaged products. Have we noticed that
packaged produce was once organic itself? When fertilizers are used, only
1% of it actually kills the insects. The rest 99% settles into the environment
and produce. In 2015, noodles were found to have lead in them. Factories
only play a small part in adultartion of food. Since lead is pretty
expensive, it can never be preferred to use. If the 'maida' in noodles has
metals, doesn't your 'chapati', too?

A few years ago, GM (Genetically Modified) Crops were highly popular. Government
Scientists thought that by if the plant can be taught to create its own poison, then
perhaps pesticides would stop harming the environment. Bt Brinjal and Bt 'Bhindi' were
sold to farmers, which in turn, ended up on our plates. If these 'modifications' could kill
insects, should they not affect us? Have you ever wondered why the eggs we eat don't
hatch? Haploid eggs are forced using a set of growth hormones and a single parent. If
reproduction can be stopped in eggs, can these hormones not also make us infertile?

Just in 2021,the food industry was blamed for adulterating honey with fruticose and
rice syrup. A few days ago, dealers in Kondhwa were slammed for making paneer with
powders and oil instead of milk. Children are growing sensitive towards all kinds of
food such as milk, wheat and even vegetables. It is not just us humans being modified,
but also the soil and the produce growing on it. Racks and racks on the supermarket are
constituted to produce with organic labels. A few years back, these would have been
rare to find. Business only delivers what is demanded. If synthetic is popular, they'll
deliver synthetic. If organic is popular, organic is supplied.

Our soil has been tainted highly. Whatever is popular can no longer be organic. Earlier
in the decade, 48 farmers suicided every day. The cost of the chemicals injected by
business lowers down the farmer's pay. Sometimes, the chemicals itself cost more than
the produce. An average farmer's income is reduced to only ₹5000 per annum. The
pollution, fertilizers and pesticides used on plants have seeped into the soil, always
finding way back to the new batch of plants grown. What we had put to affect ends up
affecting us.

There are drives, campaigns and wise officials in the government that take initiative
towards being pesticide- free. The Center for Sustainable Agriculture was created by
Ramanjaneyulu GV. The whole of the corporation is devoted towards healthy, safe and
beneficial crops with no synthetic materials at all. This has proven that while we can't
reverse the fate of our soil, we can stop and rewrite it. We aren't the only ones affected
by food adulteration. It harms the environment, farmers and the lives of the future
generations. Remember, the fates of tomorrow can be manipulated by the plates you
and I eat today!