The main environmental issue with food is food production or agriculture. The amount of environmental issues surrounding food is so large that I couldn’t begin to cover it all here. Instead I’ll present to you a list of major issues so that you can research those that concern you in more depth. I’ll attempt to cover everything from production to consumption.
Production:
Pesticides – Chemical pesticides used to increase crop yields are often poorly understood when it comes to human and environmental interactions. Somewhere around 85% of pesticides used do not have complete MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets). These chemicals leak into ground water and nearby streams and can cause massive amounts of environmetal damage. New pesticides rely on genetically modified plants that can survive them whereas everything else is killed off.
Monocrops – Agriculture has shifted to monocrops which means planting a single type of crop in an area. After a few harvests the nutrients in the soil have been extremely depleted as a result of monocrop fields. This means synthetic fertilizers have to be used. The alternative is growing multiple crops and rotating them each harvest so the nutrient content in the soil can maintain a balance.
GM Seeds – New genetically modified seeds produce crops that are resistant to specific pesticides. Not only is there the risk of these crops getting loose and spreading but they use antibiotic genes to obtain this effect. It’s theorized this might result in antibiotic resistant bacteria being produced as a result of this exposure.
Waste – Most of the time a large amount of a harvest is simply discarded for being outside of certain parameters set by the markets. If an apple isn’t quite the right shape or color it will be thrown away even though it is perfectly fine except cosmetically.
Transportation:
Oil Use – Transportation of food consumes immense amounts of oil products. Many people don’t realize it but a crop could be harvested in the US. Then shipped to Ireland to be processed. Then shipped to Taiwan to be packaged. Then finally shipped back to the US to be sold. All this shipping uses a lot of fuels. Next time you’re in the produce section look at where the food is from. Many times you’ll find berries from Chile or similar out of country products.
Seed Dropping – Transportation (save money) of the new GM seeds mentioned above often results in spillage from trucks spreading them all around the country. Some farmers have even been sued and lost their farms simply because a truck carrying GM seeds spilled them along their farm.
Consumption:
Packaging – Almost all of our food is packaged now resulting in a lot of oil being used. Plastics used for packaging are produced from oil. Alternatives like cellulose plastics are on the rise but still very limited.
Plastics – Eating food that has been stored in plastics can result in contamination from endrocrine disrupting chemicals. A couple examples are bisphenol-a and pthalates.
Dept. of Energy News
Food and Environment
The main environmental issue with food is food production or agriculture. The amount of environmental issues surrounding food is so large that I couldn’t begin to cover it all here. Instead I’ll present to you a list of major issues so that you can research those that concern you in more depth. I’ll attempt to cover everything from production to consumption.
Production:
Pesticides – Chemical pesticides used to increase crop yields are often poorly understood when it comes to human and environmental interactions. Somewhere around 85% of pesticides used do not have complete MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets). These chemicals leak into ground water and nearby streams and can cause massive amounts of environmetal damage. New pesticides rely on genetically modified plants that can survive them whereas everything else is killed off.
Monocrops – Agriculture has shifted to monocrops which means planting a single type of crop in an area. After a few harvests the nutrients in the soil have been extremely depleted as a result of monocrop fields. This means synthetic fertilizers have to be used. The alternative is growing multiple crops and rotating them each harvest so the nutrient content in the soil can maintain a balance.
GM Seeds – New genetically modified seeds produce crops that are resistant to specific pesticides. Not only is there the risk of these crops getting loose and spreading but they use antibiotic genes to obtain this effect. It’s theorized this might result in antibiotic resistant bacteria being produced as a result of this exposure.
Waste – Most of the time a large amount of a harvest is simply discarded for being outside of certain parameters set by the markets. If an apple isn’t quite the right shape or color it will be thrown away even though it is perfectly fine except cosmetically.
Transportation:
Oil Use – Transportation of food consumes immense amounts of oil products. Many people don’t realize it but a crop could be harvested in the US. Then shipped to Ireland to be processed. Then shipped to Taiwan to be packaged. Then finally shipped back to the US to be sold. All this shipping uses a lot of fuels. Next time you’re in the produce section look at where the food is from. Many times you’ll find berries from Chile or similar out of country products.
Seed Dropping – Transportation (save money) of the new GM seeds mentioned above often results in spillage from trucks spreading them all around the country. Some farmers have even been sued and lost their farms simply because a truck carrying GM seeds spilled them along their farm.
Consumption:
Packaging – Almost all of our food is packaged now resulting in a lot of oil being used. Plastics used for packaging are produced from oil. Alternatives like cellulose plastics are on the rise but still very limited.
Plastics – Eating food that has been stored in plastics can result in contamination from endrocrine disrupting chemicals. A couple examples are bisphenol-a and pthalates.