I’m outraged. How long are we to sit back silently and be abused and used? What will offend us enough to rise up against the shameless food traders who are slowly poisoning us and charging a pretty penny for it? At what point will it be seen as a serious enough issue for any of our political leaders?
Will it take a sizable chunk of our future generations to be cancer patients, amongst other ghastly illnesses, for us to then understand the price of our inaction now? Will it take hundreds of deaths from ingestion of poisoned fruits for someone to give this issue the respect and attention that it deserves? Or are we destined to read newspaper articles about toxic food being fed to us only to die an ignorant death?
Do I stop eating fruits, vegetables and rice altogether to fight this? Do I have to grow my own produce now? Am I expected to beg my government and Prime Minister, both of whom are servants of the people, to ensure my right to eat food that doesn’t kill or injure me gravely?
Now, after countless reports on how serious and widespread this issue is, most of us are aware of how pandemic food adulteration is. Yet, laws are broken, wrist slapping fines and jail terms are meted out, and adulterated food returns into circulation.
Of all the challenges this government faces, this particular one is the easiest to solve – if they really want to. Unfortunately the political will to do anything concrete is non-existent. And it’s not just the present government that lacks the fortitude to do something about it. Everybody is either mute or playing to the gallery.
I confess that I too have ignored this issue. Like with any other depressing item of bad news that pervades our daily lives, we tend to ignore it and move on. I did so because a threat we cannot see is sometimes hard to be concerned about consistently, especially when the local market salesman declares, “All of our stuff is formalin free”, pointing to a hand written sign that reinforces that claim.
The traders know we never demand information or verification on their claims. Even if something were to be discovered, they know that all we will do is get outraged and then quickly forget. In the war to secure food safety standards in Bangladesh, we the consumer, the common men and women, have already lost several key battles and it’s depressing. I no longer know whom we should go to for a solution.
Somewhat selfishly, the sense of hopelessness is especially potent for my wife and I since we are expecting a child soon. For us, food safety has more relevance than any one issue at this point in our lives because it is linked directly to the health of our unborn child. There are perhaps countless others in Bangladesh today suffering from the same experience as us.
A few reports in the Dhaka Tribune last week caught me totally off-guard. One of the reports stated that formalin-laced fruits were recently discovered in our markets again, especially in imported fruits. The toxic substance was found in 82% of randomly sampled fruits. My wife and I had gorged on Malta oranges for months prior to the report, thinking they were perhaps safer due to their foreign origins, were found to be 100% contaminated.
I’m sure I don’t have to lecture the readers of the effects of having exposure to formalin and calcium carbide-laced foods on adults let alone children, the elderly, and, most seriously, on pregnant women. I panicked as a knee jerk reaction, worrying my wife to the point that we threw out all fruits. Immediately after, I realisedthere was literally nothing to replace it with that would give my wife the proper nutrition she requires. What do we do?
I live in what is considered an affluent neighborhood of Dhaka with access to “the best” available food money can buy, but they were found to be contaminated. I wonder what those in less affluent neighborhoods around the country are putting into their bodies right now? What future are we leaving to our children?
In the long run, not fighting this war more proactively is going to cost this nation more than it realises. Desperate times call for desperate measures and, even though other Asian countries, our neighbors, and nations worldwide are fighting this well, stronger and more consistent efforts are required here since we are behind the curve on this. We are fighting a losing battle and our enemy has the upper hand because they know they will never receive penalties harsh enough to stop them.
The stakes are gargantuan and therefore I’d like to request the Prime Minister’s undivided attention on this crisis. There is a lot that can be done: increased fines, seizure laws, life-time bans on offending traders, serious jail terms, cancelling trade and import licenses. A lot more can be done to increase cooperation between ministries and organisations dealing with food safety, such as creating an effective fast track court to deal with instances of abuse.
A world class food testing lab inaugurated in 2012 at a cost of Tk. 220m sits idle today because it lacks the fifty or so expert lab officials it requires to be fully functional. The deaths of several children and adults could have been avoided, not to mention the damage that is silently being caused in the interim to so many people consuming toxic food now, if the government were more proactive and consistent, it’s Health and Family Minister more concerned and if it’s Public Administration Ministry was diligent enough to find the man power we need to staff this lab.
I ask you, is this all we can do and do we really deserve this?
