“The food that we eat to live, may now be the very thing that is slowly killing us.”
There was a time, not so long ago, when the vibrant green color of kontombere (cocoyam leaves), ayoyo (jute leaves) or the earthy red of a ripe tomato was a symbol of pure, unadulterated nourishment.
Our people spoke of farms as sanctuaries, places where the soil, rich and dark, yielded good food, the very essence of a healthy life. We were taught to wash our vegetables, not out of fear, but as a simple ritual of respect for the land that fuels our existence. The crisp snap of a carrot, pulled straight from the earth, was a taste of nature’s honest bounty, a promise of vitality.
But a shadow has fallen over these once-sacred patches of earth. A greed, relentless and insatiable, has seeped into the very ground beneath our feet. The gentle clinking of a trowel against a stone has been replaced by the roar of excavators, turning our sources of water opaque and our green forest bare, just to tear the earth’s flesh for a fleeting glimmer of gold.
This reckless pursuit, this illegal mining (galamsey), has poisoned the very womb from which our food is born. The water that once moistened the roots of our crops, a life-giving stream, now carries heavy and deadly metallic toxins. The soil— a source of life, now holds a toxic secret and the vegetables we once held as a symbol of health, now carry a hidden toxic burden.
Vibrant vegetable colors that once promised a feast for the body, now mask a silent poison. The crunch of a fresh cucumber, once a simple joy, now holds a note of sorrow. We eat, and with every bite, a piece of our trust in the earth and the food that sustains us is slowly fading away.
Our farms, once a sanctuary, have become a place of silent mourning, and the food that is our comfort, our life, now serves as a bitter reminder of the harm we have caused ourselves and the land.
We are not only poisoning our plates, we are also gradually losing our ancestral land. The Author is a food Journalist and a sustainable lifestyle advocate.
