Contaminated Water Equals Contaminated Food: Implications Of Water Toxicity On The Food

Industry And World Food Supply

We would never drink our own dirty bath water, yet with the level of water toxicity and
contamination in the world today, our food also becomes “soiled” with a myriad of
contaminants.

Chemical and organic contaminants are tarnishing our water at every turn, through ineffective
waste disposal, heavy metal leaching from decaying household plumbing, cement plants
and industrial waste from local industries, landfills, and the billions of tons of pesticides and
insecticides being dumped on agricultural crops. In many countries, agriculture is the number
one cause of water pollution.
Our storm water, creeks, rivers, and canals eventually lead to the ocean, where food sources are
contaminated once again. Our produce isn’t safe, our meat and dairy that feed on those crops are
not safe, and neither is the seafood that is increasingly being contaminated by plastics, micro-
plastics, and other waste products in the world’s oceans. Fish are now mistaking plastic residue
as food.

Ground and well water is also increasingly unsafe as these toxins seep into underground water
supplies that were once pristine.

Add to these, harmful microorganisms, bacteria, viruses, nitrates, organic chemicals from
pharmaceuticals, petroleum and its byproducts including fracking chemicals, disinfectants,
solvents, paint, and around 1000 additional chemical and organic waste products, and it is no
wonder that the food industry is scratching its head at the reduced value and quality of food
products.

When both our food and water are contaminated it impinges on every aspect of life, from our
ability to provide sanitary water to bathe in and drink, to the water we provide to farmers to grow
crops. The implications of water-borne illness caused by pathogens or toxins are immense.

The United Nations has even admitted that water contamination is costly, and difficult to reverse,
with almost 80 percent of the global wastewater left untreated. Possible solutions to the water
contamination problem have surfaced around the world, and while they address water pollution
on a micro-level, helping small communities in some of the most polluted areas of the world to
find clean water, large scale-solutions will need to be implemented to protect the food supply and
human and animal health.

Novel approaches such as MIT’s device that pulls clean drinking water straight out of the air, or
the surgical lens that removes toxins from water for surgery may address smaller water
shortages, but there are more people than ever are relying on food producers and aid programs to
get enough to eat already. Without clean water, food shortages and proper nutrition will only
become a more serious problem, with hunger statistics burgeoning as a result.

Widespread, over-arching water cleaning methods must be captured to alter the trajectory of our
food and water shortages, and the food industry can play a big part in altering the course of
human health.

We can achieve food security without further harming our water supply, but it will be a joint
effort between food producers and government regulators for this change to transpire.

We take for granted the safety of drinking water sources as at present it is available. However,
the evaluation of potability is doubtful. This session will discuss the methods to counter the
problem of source water protection and the possible influence on the food industry.

Reference By: https://www.symposiumgo.com/blog/contaminated-water-equals-contaminated-food-

implications-of-water-toxicity-on-the-food-industry