A heartbreaking realization

I was in India for the past few weeks, and had a heartbreaking realization. I find that I can no longer trust the food, water and the air in India. It is shocking that a country rearing to attain a position among the world's most powerful nations cannot guarantee these basic necessities. There seems to be nothing in place to ensure that the food and water supply is not tainted with pollutants. Even if there is such a government agency, it cannot be trusted because of corruption.

Let us talk of water. All rivers are polluted by industrial waste, including heavy metals, as well as raw sewage. It is illegal to dump these things in the rivers but I doubt that is stopping anybody. Heavy metals can cause severe damage to human body, esp to babies and fetuses. In the US most pregnant women are advised to avoid fish because they can contain heavy concentrations of mercury. In West Bengal people love to eat fish from the Ganga river almost everyday. It is even believed that eating fish in pregnancy is really good because it boosts the brain of the unborn child. But what if your fish is laden with lead and mercury? If you remember the "pesticide tainted Coca Cola" scandal in India, the problem was not that somebody was adding pesticides to Coke but rather that the groundwater used to make Coke contained pesticides. If that is the case, can you even trust bottled water?

Talking of the food supply, and I am not talking of the hygiene standards of roadside food but of the raw materials themselves. Most of the vegetables that my parents buy are grown on the shores and dried up banks of the Ganga river - one of the most polluted rivers in India. In addition to that there are stories of the vendors injecting various chemicals into the vegetables to make their color or form more appealing. You can buy pasteurized milk, but do you even know what chemicals the cow was fed to increase the milk supply?

Food contamination is a problem in the US too - I am still a little vary of packaged Spinach. However, we know there are controls in place and those controls work. For most foods, you can trust the packaging as the ingredients are truthfully listed. You know which milk has added hormones and which does not. You have the information needed to make a choice as opposed to being blind-sided with no recourse.

I am truly heart broken at this thought.