The true cost of what we eat
Across the globe, farmers are exploited by giant
conglomerates making eye-watering amounts of money from food production. But
what is the true cost of food that comes from unsustainable sources where
deforestation and extinction are caused by consumerism?
We all grumble at the rising
cost of food in times where austerity is rife and wages are not in line with
inflation. Whilst we chunter to ourselves in the supermarket aisles, many of us
don’t realise the true price of unsustainable food: a price that costs the
environment, costs animals’ lives and costs humans their rights. It is so far
removed from our consumer habits we don’t stop to consider what our want of
falling food prices really entails.
The hidden costs include:
- agricultural-driven deforestation
- extinction
- perpetuation of gender inequalities
- exploitation
- habitat loss for animals and humans.
The sad reality is, our
current food production methods also risk passing costs on to future generations who
will have diet-related diseases, deforestation, soil
degradation, extinction and climate change to contend with.
What is unsustainable food?
Unsustainable food production
means the mass production of products without considering the impact. Whilst
food giants negate responsibility, mass production, distribution and
consumption of unsustainable foods are causing significant damage
to the environment, public health, biodiversity and rural
communities.
The true cost to humans.
Across the globe, men, women
and children toil to drive consumerism forward. In poorer countries,
governments often allow powerful corporations to take land that indigenous
people have used for centuries for their own financial gain.
The global palm oil industry has been linked to many human rights violations with children, in particular, suffering hugely. As plantations expand, habitat loss expands and many people are forced into working for the very plantations that destroy their homes. With an area the size of 300 football fields of rain forest cleared every hour, the production of palm oil certainly has a lot to answer for. People are forced to work in degradation, earning barely enough for themselves and their families to survive. Instead of sustaining their lives, the palm oil industry makes them reliant and they are vulnerable to drops in the world market, meaning wages are not consistent or equal.
Palm oil is found in many household products such as: washing detergents, confectionery, toothpaste, cosmetics, cleaning products and baked goods. because they appear in so many products, boycotting it will be extremely difficult. To protect people from harsh working conditions and illness in the future, governments will need to work harder to protect the human rights of many around the world suffering as palm oil production increases.
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| Ghana where palm oil production is purported to be sustainable |
The global coffee market isn’t
any more sustainable than palm oil. Worth US$50 billion per year, some of the coffee farmers
earn as little as 3 cents for their
efforts. There is no excuse for this greed. It is second only to oil as a
trading commodity, yet human rights are being subjugated by an industry affluent
enough already across Africa, Central and South America and Asia.
The true cost to the environment.
Over in Brazil, said to be
the most bio-diverse country in the world, food production is causing catastrophic
damage to the environment. The 158,000 hectare Serra Ricardo Franco Park is
meant to be a conservation area for rare wildlife. Instead, it is being stripped of trees to
create pasture for hundreds of thousands of cattle that surround ranches.
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| Farming where a forest should be. Photo courtesy of Jon Watts, The Observer. |
Amidst claims of corruption and
bribery, it is surrounded by controversy instead of trees. It was originally planned to be 400,000
hectares with an agreed loan of $205million, mainly from the World Bank. The
Mato Grosso government promised to spend the funds on vehicles, staff training
and research. The reality is much of the
land has been cleared by farmers for cattle and soy fields. Little research has
been conducted and in many areas scientists and eco-tourists require keys from
farmers who have claimed the land.
Farmers argue they were there
legally long before the plans for the conservation area and they won’t be
compensated for leaving. With more farmers moving cattle into the park, who is
legal and who is illegal is becoming a bigger issue and many legal battles have
ensued.
As the cleared areas grows,
so do Brazil’s carbon emissions with 2/3 of them coming from that area. Last
year, they more than doubled their annual allowance of forest clearance that
they promised to reduce by 2020. They also halved their environment budget for
the year even though a 29%
increase in deforestation was reported.
JBS are one meat company
buying cattle from inside the park despite calls not to source cattle from
illegally cleared areas. They are now accused of a fuluginous corruption
scandal of silencing witnesses in an attempt to repair their damaged reputation.
It is interesting that many
politicians own land inside the park. These powerful land owners want the park
abolished and forest protection reductions happen regularly, imbuing negative
effects on the forest and its water sources. Thousands of species including monkeys,
armadillos and pink dolphins are at risk.
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| The home of monkeys, panthers and pumas, Phil Clarke Hill, Getty Images |
It is said that even Donald
Trump is cashing in on the area – not surprising for someone who denies the
existence of global warming and has introduced pro-hunting laws on bears and
wolves. The more trees that disappear, the less oxygen is produced and global
warming will continue to increase as more greenhouse gases are produced.
This is also a worrying problem in Indonesia which has lost lost 76 million hectares of forest in the last 25 years. With the pace of destruction of our forests and the proliferation of greenhouse gases, they won’t be around for corporations to pillage in the next hundred years. The use of ‘slash and burn’ agriculture where trees are cut down and burnt emits substantial amounts of smoke into the atmosphere. It comes as no surprise that Indonesia is now one of the world’s leading countries of greenhouse gas emissions.
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| The devastating effect of palm oil production |
Around the world, deforestation has also been known to cause
erosion and sedimentation. The more trees are cut down, the more forest soil is
exposed to sunlight which then dries out. Trees support the water cycle and
place water vapour back in the atmosphere; with less trees comes less water, hence
forest areas become barren wastelands. Temperatures are ow changing creating
disruption to the flora and fauna in these areas.
The Paris Climate Agreement will have some impact on this devastation but more countries need to take more serious measures to reverse this damage. Sustainable solutions urgently need to be implemented before
they disappear forever and take many species of animal with them.
The true cost to animals
Thousands of species of
animals around the globe are at threat of extinction due to industrialised food
produce. 80%
of land animals and plants live in forests. Many of these cannot survive away from the
forest: in Indonesia alone, a third
of all mammals are on the ‘critically endangered’ list.
In Borneo and Sumatra, 300,000 species are at risk of death, injury and displacement as forests are destroyed for palm oil production. With it comes an increased accessibility for poachers and smugglers to reach iconic species like the orang-utan. With 90% of their habitat gone, they are at serious threat despite being good for the forests they inhabit as they provide the only way to germinate certain seeds which have travelled through their gut.
Orang-utans are being attacked with guns and machetes and others are buried alive. Young are
snatched from their mothers and sold as pets; some are sent to entertainment
parks across Asia. Their suffering is not just a conservation
issue but an animal welfare one.
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| Orang-utans suffer from welfare and conservation issues |
Due to roads being
created by palm oil plantations, other species are also being poached far more
easily: sun bears, clouded leopards and pygmy elephants are just a few of the
species at serious risk.
It isn’t just forest animals whose survival is in jeopardy; marine wildlife is also greatly at risk. Thanks to a growing demand in unsustainable fishing, totoaba swim bladders - said to be more valuable than cocaine – mean totoaba and the vaquita porpoise are now threatened with extinction. Vaquita are the perfect size to become entangled in the gill nets used to kill totoaba. When this happens, they drown. With less than 30 vaquita left in the Gulf of California, desperate attempts to prevent extinction are in place.
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| It is thought there are now less than 30 vaquita left |
The Mexican government has tightened up on fishing laws and put bans in place but with so few now left, unless they are removed from the area it is likely they won’t last the rest of this year.
But, the Chinese, who are
willing to pay up to US$100,000 per kilo of swim bladder, have such an
influential power over the rest of the world that their consumer habits will
cause more damage before they start if improve; if they improve at all.
Still want cheaper food?
Now you know the true cost of
your food, do you still want to purchase mass-produced, cheap food? The unsustainable
methods of food production are one of the most destructive issues facing our
planet today. Every day it continues brings us a day closer to the death of large
areas on our planet. As consumers, we can influence if this continues or ends.
In my next blog, I will take
you through how to be more sustainable next time you go shopping and how you
really can influence a food industry that is killing our planet slowly. Visit
one of the links below to find out more about the damaging effects of
unsustainable food produce.
https://campaign.worldvision.com.au/wp- content/uploads/2014/03/7280_DTL_Factsheet_Coffee_Web_Single.pdf
http://www.saynotopalmoil.com/theissue
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestation/
Good article Liz, let's hope it enlightens people to shop more Eco consciously.
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