Modern scientific farming and animal husbandry have no doubt made possible spectacular increases in food production to match the fast rising population. But they also pose grave hazards to the health and lives of the very humans they help to sustain. So serious and widespread is the new danger that the Agricultural Examination and Research Institute based in Kiel, West Germany, recently gave expression to its sense of alarm over this situation. According to the institute, it is practically impossible to find in West Germany to-day food products that do not have an element of residual and toxic wastes, though the use of pesticides and insecticides on growing crops. Flour, vegetables, milk and other animal products were all found contaminated with such poisonous impurities. While realiable data are not available regarding how harmful these toxic residues are to grown-ups, children are feared to be particularly susceptible. A tendency to cancer, cell damage and disorders in the biological regulatory systems are said to be among the hazards posed by these toxins.
