{"id":52831,"date":"2016-03-10T22:12:54","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T04:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=52831"},"modified":"2016-03-10T12:51:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-10T19:51:00","slug":"whole-some-agriculture-for-a-toxin-free-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/03\/10\/whole-some-agriculture-for-a-toxin-free-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a0\u201cWhole-some agriculture\u201d for a \u201ctoxin-free nation\u201d ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada.<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

The President unveiled a three-year program put forward by the\u00a0 agriculture minister,\u00a0 promising a toxin free nation\u201d based on \u201dwholesome agriculture\u201d. The minsters as well as Ven. Ratana are acting with what they believe are the best interests of the people. That modern agriculture\u201d is responsible for an alleged\u00a0 deterioration of public health is a common belief\u00a0 among\u00a0 the more affluent concerned individuals\u201d\u00a0 all over the world, and not just in Sri Lanka. This is often coupled with\u00a0 proposals to return to\u00a0 traditional ways\u201d of doing things, and opposing genetically modified foods at all costs\u201d!<\/p>\n

What are the most important toxins consumed by the public? The very day that the\u00a0 Toxin-free nation\u201d was heralded, a newspaper reports that\u00a0 Mountain-Dew\u201d has been approved for Sri Lanka. We already have Coke, Pepsi, etc., and local carbonated drinks, all containing\u00a0 at least five table spoons of sugar per cup! They contain high amounts of phosphates and other additives.\u00a0\u00a0 Sugar\u00a0 is a major toxin that causes innumerable illnesses like diabetes, cardio-vascular diseases, cancer, allergies etc. But no one is ready to ban\u00a0 sugar. It is traditional\u201d to consume whole-fat buffalo curd and palm treacle\u201d and\u00a0 other traditional\u201d Sri Lankan deserts based on treacle. In ancient times, ordinary people lived at subsistence level and ate\u00a0 rich food rarely. Thus\u00a0 corpulence and a big belly, known as a ping bandiya<\/strong>\u201d\u00a0 were signs of aristocratic bearing and high status!<\/p>\n

Another class of ubiquitous toxins is spewed all over the country by diesel and motor engines and even by kerosene cookers.\u00a0 These are class-I carcinogens in the World Health Organization list, i.e.,\u00a0 they definitely cause cancer.\u00a0 These toxins accumulate in the fatty layers of the body and cause chronic diseases. But we use the largest fraction of the national income to import these toxins and vehicles, instead of using electric vehicles and trains. We are even going\u00a0 to use coal-fired power in this toxin-free nation\u201d and please the Indians who sell coal!<\/p>\n

Having spent millions for\u00a0 petroleum and vehicles, we create huge traffic jams on highly polluted roads. The people in these vehicles and outside breath the fuel tainted-air while in\u00a0 traffic jams. They become impatient and generate adrenaline, an anger hormone that shuts off insulin and pumps up the blood sugar. Even those who only drink\u00a0 plain tea and Kola-Kaenda (leafy-broth)\u00a0 eventually get their diabetes from the traffic, even without sugar!\u00a0 The minister’s plan to create a Toxin-free nation\u201d ends right inside his super-luxury Mercedes Benz!<\/p>\n

Even\u00a0 the tobacco industry accepts that tobacco and even second-hand smoke are\u00a0 class-I carcinogens.\u00a0 Shouldn’t one ban tobacco outright,\u00a0 and destroy the tobacco plantations? Instead we\u00a0 put\u00a0 horror-show pictures on cigarette cartons\u00a0 and sell\u00a0 them with ghoulish glee to collect big taxes!\u00a0 Some five trillion tobacco butts saturated with toxin are tossed out the world over annually,, and Sri Lanka’s contribution per head is outstanding!<\/p>\n

It is not only cigarette butts that are thrown out with such little thought. What happens to the flash-light batteries (torch\u201d batteries), used batteries as well as old\u00a0 cell phones, computers, toys, watches, hearing aids, fluorescent bulbs,\u00a0 medical gadgets and a myriad other electronic devices? What about dead computers and monitors, TV sets printers etc? They are ultimately tossed into the garbage. But they contain Cadmium, lead, gallium, indium, antimony, arsenic, mercury, transformer oils,\u00a0 old paint cans, and a whole host of dangerous toxins. All used up batteries, dead computers and dead electronic equipment, unused paint etc should be returned to the seller who should arrange for the technically correct disposal at the wholesale ware house.\u00a0 Until then, you can forget about a Toxin free nation\u201d.<\/p>\n

The English invader opened taverns in every village in the late 19th<\/sup> century to subdue\u00a0 the natives\u201d. The natives had observed temperance or consumed weak-alcoholic drinks like toddy. But today, taverns have been replaced by ubiquitous drinking holes and night clubs. They sell not just alcohol, but narcotics and\u00a0 mind-altering Crystal-meth, K2, Spice, Flakka etc. The country is awash with such toxins. So an intoxicated nation\u201d talks of\u00a0 getting rid of agro-chemicals\u201d while drunkenly hitting at an\u00a0imagined\u00a0 fly when\u00a0 it is\u00a0 already\u00a0 in the tiger’s mouth.<\/p>\n

It is easy to blame agro-chemicals\u201d, and Big Business than cut off\u00a0 sugar, petroleum, alcohol, tobacco, and drugs.\u00a0 However, do we have a case for cutting agro-chemicals? Agro-chemicals are most used\u00a0 in the mono-culture of the tea plantations where the soil has become acidic enough to have a pH of five!\u00a0 However, we are importing artificial fertilizer and exporting tea;\u00a0 and it makes some sense as long as it makes a clear profit, employs people, and makes no one sick. No one has found significant levels of toxins like Cadmium, Lead\u00a0 or Arsenic in tea, although tea uses the same fertilizers and herbicides (like glyphosate)\u00a0 as used for vegetables and paddy. But eventually nothing\u00a0 will\u00a0 grow in such abused soil.<\/p>\n

Ven. Ratana’s campaign was triggered by the rise of chronic kidney disease of unknown origin (CKDU) in the Rajarata. The irresponsible Naatha-Deiyyo myth\u201d, put out by a so-called Dean\u201d of science who claims that science is in fact an unmitigated fraud, claimed that the Rajarata is poisoned by Arsenic from imported fertilizers\u201d.\u00a0 CKDU was identified around 1992 and the number of patients has steadily increased.\u00a0 Doctors and scientists have not been able to unequivocally\u00a0 link CKDU to known medical causes, or agro-chemicals, petrochemicals, geological or other contaminants.\u00a0\u00a0 However, they have proved that there is no toxic arsenic in the Rajarata water, soil or food<\/strong>. It has also been tentatively identified that residents who consume house-hold well water (rather than flowing water in canals, rivers or water from reservoirs) contract the disease, and programs to provide clean water have been launched.<\/p>\n

Chemical analyses of the soil, water and food\u00a0 have NOT revealed any relevant toxins\u00a0 from agrochemicals. An outcry against the herbicide glyphosate has been created, but the presence of green algae in tanks, rivers and even in shallow wells shows that even traces of the herbicide glyphosate are absent. Yet\u00a0 the herbicide has been banned\u00a0 by the Sirisena government, the only government in the world that has heeded such\u00a0 hysteria (first launched in California!). Canada reviewed its Glyphsate policy recently\u00a0 and re-confirmed its release as a very safe herbicide. The European food safety agency\u00a0concluded that even a daily intake of 39 mg by an ordinary person (70 kg weight) would be a safe maximum. A very instructive discussion of glyphosate and agor-chemicals may be found in the TV-Ontario\u00a0 broadcast:\u00a0 https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pE_vjC0z-z4<\/a><\/p>\n

The claim that imported fertilizers\u201d contain dangerous\u00a0 toxins like arsenic, cadmium, etc., has been rejected by the import controllers. The locally produced Eppawala phosphate\u00a0 has more arsenic ( 23-27 parts\/million of arsenic) than the\u00a0 maximum allowed limits (MAL).\u00a0 If the final concentration of, say arsenic, in the soil AFTER the fertilizer is spread\u00a0 is less than the MAL, then the so-called contaminated\u201d\u00a0 fertilizer can be safely used. The public does not often realize that the environment naturally contains a certain amount of toxins and that is one reason why we have MALs.<\/p>\n

Organic fertilizers made by repeated composting of leaves can have\u00a0 dangerous amounts of metal toxins like Cd and As as plants bio-accumulate them.\u00a0 The ancients solved this by chena cultivation\u201d where the plantation is moved from place to place and used large amounts of water for weed control. Such\u00a0 practices are no longer possible in a densely populated country. Even in ancient times the county lurched from one famine to another, and even the writing of the Buddhist scriptures at Alu Vihara was prompted by the fear that even the monks will be exterminated by the famine that had prevailed in the country. There has has been an occasion when Sri Lanka exported some rice recorded in the historical records, but most of\u00a0 the time feeding the people had been a struggle. Today we have largely acquired self-sufficiency in food, but the policies of this government will rapidly destroy our capacity to feed our people.<\/p>\n

The Dadabbha Jathaka\u00a0 tells of a hare hit by a falling fruit. The hare cries that the earth at its end, the sky is falling, and starts a stampede of animals.\u00a0 But a lion halts them, and investigates the cause of the panic. The Jathaka story\u00a0 teaches the need\u00a0 for rational\u00a0 investigation. The Toxin-free Nation\u201d policy directed at agro-chemicals under the anusaashana\u201d of Venerable Ratana is an effort that\u00a0 misses the major toxins affecting the public. It is not the traces of agro-chemicals that even chemists find hard to detect, but the tankers\u00a0 of petrochemicals burned in the country, the kilos of sugar burnt in the body, the alcohol, drugs tobacco and meat that are freely consumed\u00a0 that poison us.<\/p>\n

By Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada.<\/p>\n

\u00a0[The author was instrumental in launching the first food chemistry programs in\u00a0 Sri Lanka,, four decades ago, at Vidyodaya University. Today it is known as the Sri Jayawardenapura University, and boasts of a full-fledged department of food science and food technology.]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada. The President unveiled a three-year program put forward by the\u00a0 agriculture minister,\u00a0 promising a toxin free nation\u201d based on \u201dwholesome agriculture\u201d. The minsters as well as Ven. Ratana are acting with what they believe are the best interests of the people. That modern agriculture\u201d is responsible for an alleged\u00a0 deterioration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chandre-dharmawardana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}