Is India a test ground for pesticides?

You be a vegetarian or non-vegetarian, do you know the quality of the food you are having on daily basis?  The entire food chain is polluted because of the excessive usage of pesticides to increase the yield without minding its side effects. While most of the European countries and US has a very strict quality check on the food items it generates and imports for their citizens, India does not bother to have anything of that sort.

It is really amazing to see the kind of study being done outside India on the usage of pesticide on food chain and its effects on food. One such information can be found which details how much of poison or pesticide is in our food stream is as below.

http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/pesticide.jsp?pesticide=900

In a recently concluded convention of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee in Geneva,  while most of the governments are taking stands in favor of a global ban on Endosulfan, India is opposing it because it is a cheap pesticide. Government also claims that the adverse impact of Endosulfan has not been fully established.

India the world’s largest user of endosulfan,[6] and a major producer with three companies—Excel Crop Care, H.I.L., and Coromandal Fertilizers—producing 4,500 tonnes annually for domestic use and another 4,000 tonnes for export.

In Kerala alone around 500 deaths had been officially acknowledged to be because of Endosulfan, but unofficial figure stands at 4000+. Another 10000 people are having health problems in the Western-ghat section of Kerala where endosulfan has been used as a pesticide for cashew plantation. Karanataka has another 150 victims so far and numerous people suffering because of its side effects.

Endosulfan is only an example, there are numerous other dangerous pesticides used in our food stream, of which nobody knows the exact side effects of those. Off late there is a surge in percentage of cancer affected people in our population, these are mainly attributed to the dangerous pesticides.   It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that its citizens are producing and consuming  quality food.

It is not only you and me affected, it is our coming generation as well affected. Request you to propagate the idea of organic farming to protect your coming generations from cancers and dangerous diseases. Let us also urge the  government to bring in strict laws to protect the citizens from these dangerous pesticides.

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