Need to take a stand

We in Jordan, as indeed elsewhere in the developing world, hear a lot, on periodic basis, about the rise in the rate of diseases among people, especially the major and more scary types, such as cancer, cardiovascular ailments and diabetes, but what do we, the people, do to combat them?

Waiting for the specialised government agencies to protect us from health hazards is obviously not enough. Much more needs to be done by consumers themselves.

There are always calls to raise awareness about major diseases, but soon enough all warnings disappear into thin air and are forgotten till another health scare surfaces.

What should worry us most of all is what we eat and drink.

The public cares a lot about the prices of tomatoes, cucumbers and other basic fruit and vegetables. But what about the insecticides and pesticides that go into them because they are being generously used by farmers?

As long as no one is asking questions, farmers will keep on using chemicals in abundance to make sure their produce is protected and they have bumper harvests. 

No one seems to care; all that matters are the prices and the availability.

Authorities are rarely there to keep a close watch over what contaminants are being added to our food chain, as if this matter could be left to the better judgements and scrutiny of farmers and consumers.

Consumers have no way of knowing how many carcinogenic products are being injected into their food items because of a lack of the necessary culture in this field.

Organic farming is not being promoted either by the government or by the public, which leaves consumers at the mercy of what the market offers them. And when organic produce is offered, the cost is prohibitive.

Canned foods, which have become abundant and are sold relatively cheap, are full of sodium and other additives that are so harmful to one’s life, but no one seems to care.

It seems that producers and consumers in our country, and perhaps the concerned authorities, have acquired the culture of “tawakol”, meaning putting one’s fate in the hands of God Almighty, and eat and drink what is put before them.

Many of us in Jordan believe that the fate is predetermined and that whatever one does would simply not change the final outcome.

This conviction ignores the profound religious edict in Islam that calls on people to use their minds first and then hope for the best.

It seems that neither consumers nor producers have the correct religious and cultural values to protect themselves from man-made threats to their health.