Discussion: The Fruit and Veg trade isn't exactly innocent

There is argument upon argument as to why the meat, seafood and dairy trades are not ethical. I briefly mentioned the land-loss scenario in my introduction video to this blog, which is also linked to the 'lots of fuel is wasted transporting such products for thousands of miles before they reach their destination' statement. There are also other issues linked with such trades, such as diseases spreading into natural waters from fish farms (fish factory farms more like, since the fish are kept crammed so close together and are highly treated with drugs to combat common infections), as well as the overuse of chemicals in the treatment of animals in factory farms. That was how Swine Flu evolved.

So there are people out there who believe that our food supply, health and environment would be better safeguarded if meat, seafood and dairy were cut out entirely. But that would ignore the various problems affecting the fruit and veg trades. Not to mention the chocolate trades, but there have been tons about those so I really don't feel the need to elaborate on them.

We can now enjoy eating summer fruits all year round because of warmer countries exporting their fruits. This not only means more demand for products to be eaten out of season, but more fuel on transport and there is the question of whether such products meet correct industry standards. This then ties into organic vs 'unnatural' products, which tend to have GM and pesticide-grown products lumped together. It also ties into more developed countries not paying enough attention to a sensible agricultural policy at home, meaning a stronger dependence on imports (*cough* UK *cough*).

As you can see, even looking at fruit and veg trades in particular opens a massive can of worms. So that will be the topic I'll stick with for the next couple of discussions...