Dangers of Synthetic Fertilizers
Kills Soil Microbes:Synthetic fertilizers have long-term negative effects. Synthetic fertilizers kill beneficial microorganisms in the soil that convert dead plant and animal remains into nutrient-rich organic matter.
Impact on Environment and Humans: Since synthetic fertilizers are water soluble, Nitrogen- and phosphate-based synthetic fertilizers leach into groundwater and increase its toxicity, causing water pollution. Fertilizers that leach into streams, rivers, lakes and other bodies of water disrupt aquatic ecosystems killing the aquatic organism and making them toxic for human consumption thereby causing cancerous diseases. Synthetic fertilizers increase the nitrate levels of soil. Plants produced from such soil, upon consumption, convert to toxic nitrites in the intestines. These harmful nitrites react with the hemoglobin in the blood stream to cause methaeglobinaemia, which damages the vascular and respiratory systems.
Nutritional Deficiency: Synthetic fertilizers tend to replenish only nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus – while depleting the other nutrients and minerals that are naturally found in truly fertile soils. Plants that grow in overly fertilized soil are deficient in iron, zinc, carotene, vitamin C, copper and protein. This leads to increase in nutritionally-deficient foods.
In order to accommodate growing meat demands, livestock production has become increasingly more industrialized.
Approximately 80% of the antibiotic in United States for sales and export are used in meat and poultry production.
—Antibiotic used in animals promote the hard-to0treat resistance in human.
—There are presence of super bugs in meat and poultry, where they transmit genetic immunity to antibiotics to other bacteria, including the ones that make and people sick. In essence, it causes loss of effectiveness of drugs in human.
Antibiotics contaminate ground and surface waters, posing a significant risk to human health. This is concerning as humans are increasingly exposed and infected with resistant bacteria from agricultural practices. Alarming resistant bacteria from agricultural been found in waters used for drinking and agricultural purposes.
It causes obesity in animals depositing harmful fat in human body. Antibiotic resistance will soon become epidemic if proper attention is not taken, growing organic.
Growing animals in a less crowded, stressful ad sanitary condition will aid them to provide more nutritive value to human.
The farther we go from what is natural the less healthy we become; we have a rising diet related ill-health and we need to produce healthy food, cut green house gas emission and protect our planet.