I still think it’s possible to make our life least poisonous and safe based on cultivation. I have experienced practical conventional farming and get upset to notice how insects and soil have mutations like Covid 19 with the improper usage of insecticides and fertilizers but still, our farmers are magnificent and most interestingly our soil is the grace of Allah’s amazing outcome with efforts it’s a miracle that we are self-sufficient on food supply…… and our agricultural wing of the nation has done their job.
But what makes me paranoid is the distribution of food even if you don’t compromise food safety during cultivation it gets haywire once it’s gone out from the farmers…… we all know the mangoes are mixed with carbide to protect quick ripen, and the papayas, the bananas even the rice is transformed into Nazirshail which is to thin the rice with machine mixing some chemicals to ensure look and feel is great. I can bet none of the Kalojaam you see in the market is safe since it’s a quick ripen fruit….none of the honey sold in the market within the range of 1,000 kg is without sugar, we are unsafe on the oil ecosystem, the demand of acidity pills and usage is pandemic; we can’t produce soyabean oil but we forgot last time when we enjoyed a proper natural pure mustard oil. it’s easier to make ghee out of butter but to enjoy pure mustard oil is a somewhat fairy tale story.
We have been trying to contribute to food safety through organic fishing……. all fishes are fed metals and scraps nowadays……. chicken we failed (cause it’s very tough near to impossible what you feed your children now is full of antibiotics and hormones that is making your son transforming into feminine), livestock is manageable but expensive still manageable. we have been trying for quite some time with honey that costs us four times the regular market price but great to see people understand the meaning of food safety and they are fine to spend more for organic produce……. fortunately, our produce is not huge so no pressure whoever takes honey from us are regular customers.
With the same spirit of food safety, we donated Mustard seeds to the farmers of Sitakundo who were concerned about not going for it because of the uncertainty of selling the seeds not getting a good price and the desired results because they mostly rely on vegetable production during the gap between two paddy harvests. It was heart-rending to see that they sell cabbage at 2 taka piece and tomato at 5 taka kilo in winter so it was easier to convince them to try out mustard this time and Alhumdulillah it has been successful and I am proud to see it’s covered as national news.
Now MFJF will buy seeds from them and will make oil under the strict supervision of MFJF soldiers and people can buy mustard oil without any chemicals. the best part will be if things go right we will expand it and make the basin a source of pure mustard oil.
People want to change and they always follow good if they are guided well. But most of the time we still see these changes are done casually I was telling one of my villagers to feed their children pure juice once every three months rather than concentrated chemical unhealthy juice once a week/ month. This consumer behaviour is important not to compromise food safety over affordability……….this realization is important else we will end up eating our own poison and make a further unhealthy population. I wish this feed business will come under strict supervision and licensing.
Thanks again to our upazila officials and MFJF tigers they are Alhumdulillah working towards a positive change across the ecosystem.
#mfjf