Agriculture is fundamental for the production of the products that arrive on our tables but in recent years, the increase in the population has introduced an excessive increase in production, using genetic variations to encourage the plant to incessantly produce fruits that are also immaculate.
In nature, all the plants that produce fruits are treated with substances that, for example, prevent the fruits from having small bruises, signs that justify the waste in large distributions. Who would buy a fruit with a dark spot caused for example by rain or hail or by midges? None, or almost. The use of chemical products such as sulfur ensures fruits that are beautiful to look at but still not very genuine for our diet. Who guarantees us that what we eat is truly uncontaminated? After all, would you trust the data that the company that sells you its product provides you?
The large global distribution chain needs to always have stocks of multiple fruits, often even out of season, grown in greenhouses, genetically manipulated to produce larger and more numerous foods, free from defects. But why are we so attracted to aesthetic perfection while knowing that the taste will be completely altered? Would you eat a strawberry-shaped cardboard box? No right? Well actually if you buy strawberries in autumn and winter that's what you've been eating, the flavor of a carton is identical to that of strawberries at that particular time of year.
I personally am fortunate to come from a family of farmers: my grandfather, who cultivated his land until the age of 95, has always told me that a land that feels loved is a land that will produce the best fruits of the world. The intensive exploitation of the land, the lack of rest, the chemical fertilizer, are all factors that determine a scarce product, devoid of the right amount of vitamins, sugars and acids that make up each fruit or vegetable.
It reminds me a little of the episode of The Simpsons in which Homer cultivates the soil with radioactive waste and produces tomatoes of a fluorescent green. No one would eat them as they are toxic and yet everyone buys them because they look inviting, albeit a disgusting taste.
Taking care of our land and our fruits means taking care of our health because we are what we eat. The number of intestinal cancers or allergies has increased exponentially in the last few decades but no one seems to care. We don't just die of Covid. We must respect our diet and opt for fruit and vegetables, paying attention to these details. Eating seasonal fruit and vegetables is a great start, better if they are produced nearby because it reduces the risk that those products can be contaminated by other factors. For this reason, eating a fruit just picked from the tree is the most righteous thing we can do for ourselves.
Enjoy your meal