A natural extension of my work has been an increased interest and preoccupation with agriculture, farming, and food production. One of the most noble professions, growing food is actually one of the most precarious foundations of human society, with the great majority of us taking for granted that a constant food supply is an easy feat to achieve. As the pandemic has demonstrated, it actually doesn’t take very much to destabilize food production and distribution, and with so many millions of us now living on the planet, disruptions to food supply can have extremely rapid and destructive effects on the stability of our communities and economy.

One of the things which has helped to stabilize and secure food production is the industrialization of most production operations. Use of industrial fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, water use, and transportation has converted agriculture from something which was highly variable and vulnerable to natural cycles to something which can be controlled nearly in spite of those things. This increase in stability has lead to marked reduction in food insecurity across most of the world, but an unfortunate side effect of this bounty of production is the health and environmental consequences of these chemicals and practices.

One of the most surprising is the high rate of obesity and metabolic illness among communities who produce food. Farmers used to be some of the most healthy populations due to their abundant access to nutritive food and calories, but invariably now any survey of agricultural regions will produce a much greater percentage of overweight and obese individuals in spite of their access to good nutrition and abundant food security. I once even looked on Google maps street view at a farming community to which I was contemplating a relocation and all the people walking on the street were morbidly obese. A farmer I once saw on a YouTube video had such an extreme case of obesity and gut distention I was surprised they could actually walk, let alone manage a farm.

I do not mean this to sound like fat-shaming, as I am a fierce advocate for acceptance and self-love, and fat is in truth a protective mechanism which saves our body from health stress, and is not a cause of it. But, anecdotally, one would think that a community with regular access to the outdoors, an active lifestyle, and engaged in the production of and access to good food would be far more healthy than is now, sadly, not the case.

One of the primary mechanisms of the high rates of obesity and metabolic disease as seen in agricultural communities is direct exposure to the very toxic herbicides and pesticides which are so carelessly and widely used in their work. These chemicals function by binding or chelating important trace elements like zinc, manganese, molybdenum, etc., in the environment and the plants, bacteria, and fungi they affect and likewise have the very same effects on our own bodies. Molybdenum, for instance, is one of the most important and vital nutrients in our diet, but it is very scarce in our environment and glyphosate, a common agricultural herbicide, strongly chelates molybdenum, among other important elements. We need very little molybdenum to be healthy, if we are already healthy, but it participates in so many very important biological pathways that a deficiency can be extremely devastating to human health. One function of paramount importance is in a molecule called ceruloplasmin which helps our body use and regulate copper and iron and without which we are unable to efficiently use or manage them. This dysregulation of copper and iron in turn results also in an increased susceptibility to pathogenic infection by opportunistic organisms which need them to infect us and in turn catalyze a wide range of metabolic diseases like obesity, diabetes, autism, etc. The morbid gut distention seen in extreme cases of obesity so frequently common in agricultural communities occurs because of uncontrolled microbial growth within our guts caused by dysregulation of immune defenses which normally regulate the gut microbiome, as a direct result of exposure to these harmful agricultural chemicals which both destroy our native, healthy, commensal microbes and immune function which helps regulate those that reside in our guts.

Another consequence of industrial agriculture comes from artificial fertilizer. The amendment of soil with synthetic fertilizer increases levels of nitrates both in the environment and in food grown in synthetic fertilizer. This has been historically such a problem it could actually lead to the poisoning of children, elderly, and sick, and many people died from nitrate poisoning before it was officially regulated by the government. Nitrate levels are supposed to be capped in drinking water and food distribution, but excess nitrate is still a widespread problem and in a human body this nitrate both feeds nitrate reducing, opportunistic microbes which cause Autism (as I have discovered and which is discussed at length in my book) and also converts into both reactive nitrogen species which cause nitrosative damage and excess nitric oxide which suppresses mitochondrial respiration and directly promotes obesity, fatigue, insomnia, hair loss, erectile dysfunction, and other health problems.

While the agricultural industry is of extreme importance to our economy and ability to live and function as a society, the practices and products which are used or produced in the industry are not at all concerned with the health and wellbeing of those farmers, ranchers, and food producers which do this important work, because it is not economically or politically important for corporations and politicians to make it a priority. Unfortunately it is farmers and producers who must be concerned for their own health and learn farming and food production practices which protect their own health, not just that of their crops and livestock. As the livelihoods of many organic food producers demonstrate, this is not only entirely possible but also often results in a higher return on labor for the higher profits which organic and regenerative farming can bring in. The reason we do not learn and adopt these kinds of improvements is because we are just used to doing things the way we always have done them. It takes work to learn new skills and practices, but in the long run it will not only protect the health of yourselves and your families but also that of your communities, waterways, crops, and livestock too, making the entirety of your occupations easier and more productive.

While the advent of chemical industrial agriculture has been extremely productive for the food industry, it is also burdening our economy and population with severe consequences which must be addressed, and the health problems associated with producing and consuming industrially grown food can never be changed until the problem at its core is also addressed. My book, Fuck Portion Control, explores in greater detail also how to fix the metabolic problems caused by exposure to these kinds of chemicals and foods and how to eat and live in a way which protects and promotes health and wellness.