I was listening to a podcast from the magazine The Economist today. If you're not familiar with the magazine, you should be. It's a British publication that is stuffed every week with world political and economic news, and it's always a fascinating read.
This issue is a little different. It has a special report on the world's oceans, and the podcast gave a synopsis of it. It covered some items we're probably all familiar with - the effects of warming water temperatures and overfishing, to name two easy ones.
But here's something I hadn't really thought of: the effects of agricultural chemicals on the oceans. It's so simple. Fertiizers go on crops and get into the local waterways. The local stream feeds into a river, which feeds into the ocean, fertilizer and all. Fertilizers are very good at making plant life grow, and animal life die. And they can't just dissolve in water, or they'd get flushed off crops by rainfall. Their effects on ocean life are no different from their effects on land life. Sea plant life explodes. Sea animal life suffers. And we can't see it and counteract it the way we can on land. What will the long term effects of this be?
Reading so many reports and articles on organic food, I see both logical and emotional arguments that organic foods are no more nutritious, and that chemical fertilizers and pesticides are completely safe for human consumption. Let's say that's true. Does our responsibility stop there?
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