HOME GROWN UK

There are multiple ways in which current agriculture practices can impact on our health. The first of these is through chemicals applied to plants to enhance growth by adding excess nutrients through fertilisers or deal with pests through herbicides, insecticides and pesticides. These chemicals can have harmful effects on people if not treated properly. These substances are distributed on plants in a commercial farm, they are done as efficiently as possible to minimise costs through large ground-based sprayers and even aircraft. This broadens the distribution of the substances. However, problems arise when these substances spread into the wider environment due to wind and rain and enter water courses and other environments. 

 

Once in the wider environment there can be multiple negative impacts. The affects on the environment will be discussed in the next section, but people will be impacted by chemicals such as Metam sodium is a herbicide which can cause birth defects and is toxic to birds and fish. Methyl bromide can cause also birth defects, as well as cardiac arrest and nervous system damage. Chloropicrin can cause severe respiratory damage and is very toxic. Another such chemical is glyphosate which is applied to crops directly before harvesting to dry them out more quickly and make them easier to harvest, meaning it is in end products which we buy in supermarkets. Whilst the current usage falls within EU safety limits the World Health Organisation has ruled the substance as a probable carcinogen, meaning it can potential cause cancer.

 

As mentioned, this process is made worse through commercial farming as farmers need to produce large amounts of crops regularly and quickly. There are of course health and safety standards that try to reduce the impact of these chemicals on the environment and people and, the UK’s current standards are amongst the highest in the world. However, this does not remove the problem entirely nor does it remove the usage of potential dangerous chemicals all together.

 

Another way that people’s health will be affected by the current system is how it will be put under more pressure as the negative impacts of climate change become more apparent. As climates become warmer and with more frequent flooding, storms and heatwaves it is expected that available agriculture land will shrink. This is true in the UK, as a study by the European Commission in 2015 revealed that there would be a loss of 1.7 million km2 across the entirety of EU members at the time, including the UK. 

 

This impact will naturally have an overall negative effect on both the agricultural industry and as well as the general public. Health will suffer as different crop varieties become harder to grow in large numbers and therefore more expensive. This may exclude people of low income from getting all of the necessary food they need. There are numerous large scale ways to tackle the larger issue of climate change and changes that could be made to the agriculture industry to reduce the impact. However, the focus of Home Grown UK is what we, the consumers, can do. Learning about these problems is the first step, the next is to see what you can grow in your own home to reduce pressure on the farmers.