Chemically Dependent Agriculture

Chemically Dependent Agriculture

Three problems discussed

1.Central problems

2.Environmental and health problems

3.Deeper problems : Law and regulation

 Central problems

Environmental and health problems

Deeper problems : Law and regulation

Central Problem:
Food availability
Philippines
• heavily dependent in agriculture

What constitutes food insufficiency in the

country
1. Problems with farmers
2. Climate change
3. Role of the government in agriculture
 Central Problem:
Food Prices

• Food prices are going up which results in

people looking for lower costs of food with
higher calorie which influences patterns of food
consumption
 Central Problem:
Species dependence
Reliance on fewer and fewer crops
Genetically engineering crops more and more
• 36 varieties of GM corn which is pesticide resistant and
herbicide tolerant
• Cagayan valley = 200,000 hectares of GMO corn planted
• Occidental Mindoro = 16,000

Effect
•Lesser diversity in crops
• farming is becoming more specialized; farmers are
knowledgeable about fewer crops
• Less capacity to manage problems such as pests, fungi,
insects of different sorts for being chemically dependent
Situation in the Philippines

•The government claims that the increase of

internationally approved GM crops yielded higher
income to farmers, pest resistance and good product
quality

• activists sought to reject foreign safety stamps on

GMO which poses risk to public health and such
stamp might be a ploy to exploit the country’s weak
regulations and policy loopholes on GMOs to have it
released in the Philippines
Central Problem:
Cultivated taste and
Overconsumption
• Social surveys : determine our taste,
flavors and colors and eventually
pervades food industry

• Response of buyers: by looking for

lower cost food and that seem to provide
taste or appeal

Effect
People consume more calories
According to Philippine Diabetic Center =
• Philippines (5th) in number of diabetics
• over 5 million diabetic Filipinos
(diagnosed) and approximately same
number of those undiagnosed or have
predabetes
Central Problem:
Cultivated taste and
Overconsumption

•Filipino children are spending

more than 3 hours per day in
electronic equipment
• They stay longer indoors

Effect:
People consume more with lesser
activities to burn the calories
Chemicals retain in the body more
Central Problem:
Processing, Packaging & Waste

Processing
• little understanding of how food are
processed to create another product (corn to
corn oil) which solvent is used then residues
go to the food supply

Packaging and Waste

• made out of chemicals – we do not
understand its contents, the energy required
to produce plastics, effect when discarded to
landfills and eventually breaks down to soils
absorbed by the plants
Environmental and health problems
 Environmental and health problems

Pesticides
Fertilizers
Biological contaminants
Worker Safety
Coloring Agents
Flavors and colors
Packaging materials
Processing Effects
Contamination
Genetic Modification
Deeper problems : Law and regulation