Toxic

Don’t be shocked that agri-business giant Del Monte is using in its Philippine plantations a chemical pesticide so toxic it is banned in the European Union and several other countries.

Endosulfan is still used extensively for agriculture in the United States where Del Monte is based. And the Philippines is often one of the last to phase out substances that are already banned elsewhere, before the substances are covered by a global ban.

Also, you don’t get such flawless pineapples, bananas, corn, and all those items in your canned fruit cocktail from plantations crawling with pests.

Chemical pesticides are sprayed on almost all food crops including rice, especially products for export. A tiny discoloration or dot on a banana skin could make it unsuitable for export, which is just as well for us local consumers, since we get to eat the best varieties — the ones whose skins are thin and spotted.

In the mass production of food for global consumption, product standards put a premium on appearance. And it does make sense. Who wants rotten or even overripe fruits? Who wants local agriculture to be devastated by an imported pest? A banana or pineapple must pass stringent requirements for size, shape, color and degree of ripeness. Products are graded and priced by such standards.

To produce such uniformity in the appearance of agricultural crops and minimize unwanted spots and other discolorations that could indicate pest infestation, what else do you do but zap the darn creatures at the source with pesticides. Poison has its uses. There was opposition in several countries even to the ban on DDT, which was highly effective in killing malaria-causing mosquitoes. You can’t kill ants, bugs and worms with sugar; you use toxic substances.

What those toxic chemicals do to our bodies when we finally consume the products, we don’t really know. Food producers will of course reassure us that by the time the pineapples and bananas end up in cans, or in supermarket shelves when they are rejected for export, the pesticides and chemical fertilizers used have long been washed away.

We also don’t know how the stuff that goes into the canned products so we can keep them in our pantry for months can affect our health.

Modern shopping habits put a premium on shelf life. We like the convenience of buying products that we can leave forgotten in the pantry or in the refrigerator for months without developing mold or turning stale.

But long shelf life comes at a price. Almost all processed foods with a long shelf life need substances to make that shelf life possible and prevent spoilage. Processed meats are among the worst, laden with nitrites and artificial food colors. Remember the scandal about formalin, used to kill bacteria and also for embalming, in White Rabbit chewy candy?

Look at the fine print in the products — including breads that claim to promote health — and note the substances that you can’t identify. Extenders and improvers are mostly chemical-based. Scandals erupt periodically about their harmful effects on humans. The substances are phased out, only to be replaced by new ones under different names.

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I have long suspected that the life expectancy of my generation has been drastically reduced by years of ingesting processed foods with a long shelf life, particularly sausages, corned beef, instant noodles and soda.

Too many of my peers have died or are dying of cancer. A dear friend from my college days finally found her soul mate overseas and got married, only to find out that both she and her husband are suffering from cancer.

A colleague from my days as a Malacañang reporter died at 37. Once when she was doubled over from pain and we were rushing her to a nearby hospital, I asked her what might have caused her colon cancer. She said it did not run in her genes, and the only reason she could think of was that she slathered monosodium glutamate on everything she ate. MSG makers will probably argue that too much of anything is bad for your health.

A miniscule dose even of deadly substances can have benign uses. Consider the botulinum toxin, which in certain doses can be used for biological warfare. Type A of the toxin is used in Botox, savior of people who can’t stand looking old, to wipe away wrinkles by paralyzing facial muscles.

But even in moderation, how long before the buildup of nitrites, flavor enhancers and all those preservatives become bad for our health? Are those chemical fertilizers and pesticides ever completely eradicated from food crops, and how do those substances affect our health?

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The world may need to change its food production and consumption habits. Organic farming has caught on even in the Philippines, although the prices of the products will have to be brought down.

In reaction to the fast-food culture, a “slow food” movement has developed – slow cooking, no instant mixes, ingredients freshly harvested. Pasta is hand-made and the sauce newly pureed from freshly picked organic tomatoes. Bread gets its flavor from a slow rise and flour that is stone-ground and unbleached (which means the crumb is not white as most Pinoys prefer their bread) from newly harvested wheat.

Obviously there are some things we can’t indulge in since all our flour is imported. And for many people, modern lifestyle simply does not allow for slow cooking or slow eating to savor the food. For many of us, fresh means anything hot off the grill, or straight out of a freshly opened can.

If the hotdog or burger or the longganiza in our longsilog is laden with nitrites, we really don’t want to know. Life is too short to deprive ourselves of longganiza, and there are simply too many other things to worry about in the day-to-day challenges of survival.

If we turn green from eating seafood or a pineapple, that’s the only time we wonder if the fish has ingested endosulfan or if the pesticide was not properly washed off.

And by the time we start worrying, it would likely be too late to do much about it. So why worry?