E-Journal #3. The Way to Protect Your Health and The Earth

<The Way to Protect Your Health and The Earth>

  Today more various kinds of foods are on our table than before. Importing all sorts of agricultural products enabled people to eat many foods around the world. The examples of this in Korea are Philippine bananas, Chilean grapes and American rice. This is really common situation not only in Korea but also all over the world. By the way, do you know these imported farm products that you bought carelessly due to cheap price can pollute our planet? These products can cause air, soil and water pollution, which harms the Earth.

  First of all, imported agricultural products are major contributors to air pollution. Imagine that the whole journey from foreign farm to our table. Philippine bananas flew about 2,600km and Chilean grapes, surprisingly, flew about 18,000km to come to Korea. During transportation, it passed a lot of vehicles like truck, ship and airplane. Actually, there are approximately 16,000 planes to transport the foods. They emit 600 million tons of carbon dioxide, which account for more than 30 percent of entire emissions of carbon dioxide in the world. In this way, the long-distance transportation of imported farm products uses huge fossil energy and emits enormous greenhouse gas in storage, package and movement.

   Another pollution caused by imported foods is soil pollution. Since imported foods should go through the long-term distribution process, it is true that chemicals such as pesticides, disinfectant, insecticide and herbicide are used excessively to maintain the quality. There are more than 1000 types of pesticides and the amount of the usage is tremendous. This usage has a bad impact on our soil as well as our health. That is because it is not removed naturally but accumulated on the land. These accumulated chemicals devastate the soil and cause all animals and plants that grow on this land to become polluted. Terribly, it can lead to serious problem of ecosystem.

  Lastly, imported farm products have the possibility to pollute our water. To increase price competitiveness most imported product are mass produced with non eco-friendly ways. Especially, the usage of chemical fertilizers improved agricultural productivity but it also caused a lot of damages. The chemical fertilizers are mainly made up of nitrogen and potassium, which flow into stream or lake and thus lead to eutrophication of water. Other chemicals used in production and transportation of the imported groceries are the same. These all things can become a significant source of water pollution.

  Reducing the imported agricultural products and choosing ‘local foods’ is a good alternative way to ensure a sustainable future. The reason is that local foods are transported shorter, emit less amount of carbon dioxide and use less chemicals than imported ones. Therefore, if Korean choose domestic tangerines instead of imported orange or eat some fruits and vegetables in season instead of them all year round, people can enjoy fresh foods and help the national economy. Moreover, they can save our environment. Protecting our health and our Earth at the same, What an effective way we can!