biomedical / carbon / climate change / doctors / Ecology / economy / environmental_impacts / food / global warming / greed / soil_erosion / temperature

Once, when I was in 7th grade, I read about the genetic modification of organisms for the first time. I had mixed views about it, just as I do currently. The one thing that changed in me was that I wanted to know if each and every grain of rice I ate was a clone or a selective breed.

Later on, i realized one more fact. My grandparents used to tell me about the time they used to frolic around in gardens during summer and how all they would eat are summer fruits like mangoes and others like jack-fruit, cashew-nut and tapioca, etc the whole day for weeks. They rarely had staple food and their health compared to mine was(read:is) 30 times better. How and why did that happen? How come they were healthier than I am when I live in a technologically advanced age of easily available food and medicine?

Now, I was not this unhealthy 2-5 years ago. I had high immunity.

Before I begin, I live in a hostel in Delhi and I have chapatti and sabzi everyday. I start my day with oatmeal. Yet, I fall sick at least once every month.

I balance my vitamin intake without taking extra supplements by having vegetables and fruits. Yet, I’m unhealthy. So, I tried to find out why and I’m quite surprised.

Blame it on human developed evolution in plants. We try hard to grow crops that are pest resistant, bulkier, having more stability on climate change and most of all, and higher crop yield with maximum growth rate. True, for the increasing mouths to feed, all these advances had to be developed. But, in that race to achieve that, the reason why we require food was forgotten; the basic need of vitamins, minerals and nutrients for our lives to sustain.  Like I mentioned, genetic modification and selective breeding ignored this vital requirement. Now, this struck a thought in my head, it’s not to feed the increasing human mouths, it is to feed the increasing mouth of globalized economy; the race to make more money by using agriculture as a masquerade mask.

Mining has depleted the soil naked of minerals. We can’t expect to have those minerals in the food on our plate when it is all there adorned on your necklace and mobile phones. But, we require all these gadgets and accessories in today’s world and it cannot be compromised. So the problem arises when these extracted soil minerals are not returned back to the soil. Wait, it is returned, but only in terms of soil pollution, which causes more harm than not returning it.

When the mineral cycle is affected, the biogeochemical cycles in the atmosphere such as the oxygen cycle, phosphorous cycle and water cycles, etc is affected in big ways. The quantity and quality of the minerals is depleted and the soil will not get what it needs to grow a plant which has specific mineral requirements.

Hence, the yield and number of plants will decrease. To substitute for those lost minerals, the plants will consume more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere which is on an increasing alert due to global warming. So, the plants have started to be packed with more carbs than nutrition. This means that, I have to eat 3 apples to get the nutrition that my grandparents got from one apple but what I get here that they don’t is more carbs and body fat.

Now I was thinking about what I can do about this. I started to take in more food and to reduce the carbs, I have also increased my workouts to stay fit. Another best way to boost mineral absorption in the body is by combining food, for example green tea and lemon. The vitamin C in lemon helps to absorb the antioxidants in green tea faster than it would have if you drank it alone. Reducing the requirement to buy extra products and recycling are other long term ways to make sure that the mineral cycle is the least disturbed.

We can’t fully get back the gold that was once there in the soil years ago. Year by year, our health decreases and pharmaceuticals increase. Everything can be cured naturally. The need for taking medication that is mined from the soil to make the medical supplements rather than relying on plants which do the same job is the primary focus that can be avoided. After all, the pharma is now a money hogging global unit and we are its bed ridden patients.

22 Comments

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