The agriculture sector is one of the most influenced fields by technology in the world today, and its impacts are immeasurable judging by the world's food production, processing, and consumption rate. This isn't just about developing machines to do the jobs faster anymore, technology has taken things to a whole new level which includes artificially growing crops and even meat for consumption. These developments have helped reduce the stress and cost of labor on farmlands, boosted our productivity, and further improved food safety.
Currently, the world population is approximately over 8 billion, and it's impossible for food supplies to go around 20% of this number conveniently without the help of technology. However, while our dependency on technology for food is inevitable due to the world's drastic growth in population over decades, we mustn't turn a blind eye to the consequences attached to our daily consumption of artificially grown foods.
Out there, we have the genetically modified food, lab-grown food, cell-based clean meat, and others, which I am glad have raised concerns among some people who understand that these foods definitely can't meet the nutritional standard we get from naturally grown food. However, our concerns have shifted from just the depleted nutrients to the fact that these foods are somehow cutting lives short, but it looks like the human race is stuck; we act like there aren't other options to counter this issue, even to an extent.
Look around today; there are so many illnesses we never heard of as kids, but they have become rampant, and you should trust that scientists will always have a suitable name for every new illness threatening lives just because we have to fill our bellies.
It's a win for the medical field because the impacts of these foods on our health are nothing to write home about, and this easily explains why millions of people across the world are struggling to stay healthy. Hospitals have become our homes, and it's sad seeing people ignore the real sources of the problem to protest against hikes in hospital bills and insufficient medical facilities.
Although I wasn't born 100 years ago, I have met elderly people who are still surprisingly hale and hearty. During the few conversations I had with them, I learned that their secret to staying healthy is what they eat, and there is no lie in that because everything that passes through our mouths into our bellies determines a lot about our health conditions.
Our ancestors didn't have the technology we have today, so their food was natural. They tilled the soil and raised animals as they should, which helped them a lot, but that's not the case anymore. A lot of people don't want to even get involved in agriculture; we can't create little spaces for gardens or birds for meat and eggs, so anything sold to us regardless of how they are produced is fine.
It's easy to blame the producers of the food for giving people terrible things for consumption; we can call them greedy and selfish. We can blame the government for allowing such, but if we look deeply, we have the biggest blame. Artificial food production might be profit-driven truly, but somehow, these foods are meeting the people's needs, and without them, a good number of the world population would be starving since naturally grown food won't be enough to go around.
I am fond of telling people that we are the ones encouraging and empowering the artificial food production since we keep buying because we don't want to take farming compulsory despite knowing the consequences of continuously consuming these foods.
In a situation where we are growing some vegetables and crops in our backyard individually, the human race wouldn't be completely dependent on artificially grown food. It's not possible we don't use the help of technology at all when it comes to farming, but it would be minimal; therefore, we will be able to create a proper balance.
A lot of people still do not know the negative impacts of these foods, while some know but don't feel concerned. The simple truth is that we are at the crossroad, and it's time we start taking our well-being seriously by placing priorities on the things we feed on. Growing some of our food won't cost us anything as long as we have the space to do so, and regardless of the stress or challenges we encounter, it's worth it.
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