“The increase in chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes and cancer is directly related to the food we eat.The synthetic hormones present in fertilizers and pesticides that come into contact with food are very dangerous for health and are not usually detected in toxicological analyzes, so the principle that the ‘dose makes the poison’ is invalidated.
With this warning as a letter of presentation, the documentaryist and journalist Marie-Monique Robin introduces us into the world of agribusiness, her research field for more than a decade, and on which she deals with her latest essay: the cropsof the future.How agroecology can feed the world (Peninsula).
A work as a result of the comparative analysis of various food production systems that, in tune with other previous ones such as our daily poison and the world according to Monsanto, questions the myth that the drop in the price of food or that the end of hunger in theworld are only possible through industrial food production.
The main novelty that the author gala with this last book is that there is a demonstrable alternative, "more outstanding than she believed before starting the investigation", and that is called agroecology.Brain cancer and leukemia are growing at an annual rate from one to three percent among children, according to WHO.
The transition from agribusiness to agroecology is still possible, Robin explains, but even there is the political will necessary to promote the legislative changes that allow it, "it will have been discontinating the ground and groundwater for many years to produce healthy foods."That is why, in the first place, limit the use of pesticides and transgenics."Spain is the most permissive country in the EU with the cultivation of genetically modified organisms (OGM) and the marketing of other toxic substances, such as bisphenol that in other places such as France is prohibited."
A permissiveness, warns the author Gala, with more than visible consequences: "Spanish couples are the most problems of infertility throughout Europe, affecting one in four."
At the same time, brain cancers and leukemia are growing at an annual pace from one to three percent among children, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), which also highlights the rise of the originfetal of diseases in adulthood (allegedly due to the type of feeding of the pregnant woman).
“The European Food Security Authority itself (EFSA) is already realizing these consequences and recognizing the deficiencies of the toxicological principle that 'the dose makes the poison' due to the undetectable synthetic hormones, as the majority of scientific literature onThis issue, ”says Robin.
The zenith of oil and cheap food
Traditionally the low cost of food with monocultures, the use of pesticides and fertilizers to reduce pests, as well as other modern large -scale production techniques has been related.However, Robin states that "the prices of the food we buy in the supermarket are completely false because they do not include direct or indirect costs."
The expenses derived from the treatment of contaminated water, the payment of fees for greenhouse gases, subsidies (for diesel, to export or directly from the common agrarian policy of the EU), as well as public systemsHealth, due to the increase in chronic patients, are some of the costs associated with agribusiness that do not include the price of origin.
“If we add all these costs to the products at origin, their priceIt would rise and be more expensive than ecological. ”In addition, Robin adds, more than half of the price is fattened by intermediaries and finalists. They will have to spend many years to decontaminate land and groundwater until they can produce healthy foods.
A reality from which we are not far away, according to the author Gala, for whom he will have to shoot the price of food before, either for the end of subsidies (as expected with the PAC), for the growing speculationStock market with raw materials in future markets, or by the no less imminent increase in fossil fuels such as oil and gas, due to its zenith.
The chemicals used in agribusiness are made from oil and gas, so an increase in the price of these resources, together with water scarcity, would put agribusiness at the crossroads.“This is the great weakness of food industries.They are based on a model that depends on fossil fuels, and it is clear that their price will be increasing, so that of food will be even.It makes no sense that food in the world depends on oil production in a region as convulsive as an Middle East, ”laments Robin.
healthy foods in a sustainable world
The pernicious consequences for the health and environment of industrial agriculture, as well as the chronicle of an announced death that Robin began to describe even before the first food crises in Latin America (related to biocarbons) occurred have led to theFrench to travel the world in search of ecological alternatives.
After studying different agroecological techniques, he could verify that his performance can be greater than with techniques of agribusiness. The great weakness of agribusiness is that a model dependent on fossil fuels is based on.
“Many times, when we talk about agroecology we think it is about returning to the techniques used by our grandparents.
It is not so, it is much more complex practices that will depend on the geographical area where they develop, the type of culture or the type of land, ”explains the author.However, Robin could verify that all of them agreed in a basic principle: complementarity.
"It is a common principle through which it is sought to complement the biodiversity of the medium, by means of crop rotation or interfering in the biological cycles of insects, to prevent pests and increase production."
The demand for organic products by consumers has increased proportionally to the deterioration of the food chain, "but the supply does not yet come to supply them all," says Robin.To extend it to everyone does not arrive with the consumer awareness, which after all is the one that holds the most with its purchase decisions, but rather need concrete political measures.
Among the most urgent proposals to facilitate change, the journalist cites “the prohibition of food speculation, the promotion of food sovereignty through a strong protection of local markets and farmers, and the shortening of distribution chains looking for direct connections looking for direct connectionsbetween consumers and producers ”.
Only by eliminating intermediaries and finalists, explains the French, the price of organic foods would be reduced by up to 90%.
The bases to enable a change of model are put "for many years", but if a prompt transition is not initiated, Robin warns, "we will not be able to anticipate the food crises that will resurface at any time."