Miguel Ángel Galina Hidalgo1*, Rosa Isabel Higuera Piedrahita1 and Jorge Luis Olmos2
1Facultad de Estudios Superiores Cuautitlán. Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México. Cuautitlán, Estado de México, México
2 Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Querétaro
Review Article
*
Corresponding author:
Miguel Ángel Galina Hidalgo, Facultad de Estudios Superiores Cuautitlán. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Cuautitlán, Estado de México, México
Received : 09 Dec 2020
Accepted : 14 Dec 2020
Published: 19 Dec 2020
Copyright© 2020 Miguel Ángel Galina Hidalgo OPEN ACCESS
Abstract
The Covid-19 pandemic forces us to look at animal production systems and their impact on human health. In this regard, why is Mexico one of the
most affected countries, USA; 15, 618,488 and 293,899; India 9,761,377 and141,712; Brazil 6,682.652 and 178,295: Russia 2,541,196 and 44,718; France
2,309,621 and 56,352; Italy 1,770,149 and 61,739; UK 1,766,819 and 82,566; Spain 1,715,700 and 46,646; Argentina 1,649, 919 and 40,009; and Colombia
1,384,610 cases and deaths are the ten most affected countries. México with 1,193,255 and 110,874 cases and deaths is number 12th in the list but 4th in
deaths due to COVID.19. This paper’s objective is to carry out a bibliographical search on Mexico’s state of health, its junk food consumption, and the
impact these factors have had on the infection rate of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The high intake of processed foods increases the presence of agrochemicals
in crops, allowing soil degradation and water pollution. They also deplore human health, increasing susceptibility to diseases that damage the immune
system. Is compulsory to call for new, sustainable, and environmentally respectful livestock and agricultural systems, that will also result in a healthier
diet.
Keywords: SARS-CoV-2, Opportunity, Animal Production, Agriculture
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Introduction
What are the sectors that, in terms of reinvestment, should be prioritized after the COVID-19 pandemic? We start from a historical premise: to know where we are going, we must know where we came from. Education must serve the people, but today it mainly serves the Financial Capital Executives. Education is no stranger to economic, social nor political interests. Today, we face an unprecedented global crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Soon, the reopening will begin, and the priorities must firstly be health and secondly, education. Reviewing the future after COVID-19, some key concepts appear environmental education; education in agriculture; education in politics and no less important, education in economics [1]. Is fundamental to know a little history on each of these important areas, to be able to lead them into new directions after the pandemic [2]. What are the priority sectors in terms of reinvestment? There are three main areas in need of reinvestment after the pandemic. First, the health sector, its reconstruction is of first importance. Secondly, education is necessary to make a historical remembrance of educational development in the world and specifically in Mexico. Thirdly, research, always asking the question, for whom and for what? Under these premises, there must be research conducted on climate change and on certain types of agriculture and livestock farming [3]. These subjects should be prioritized since 70% of the chronic-degenerative diseases that have caused deaths by COVID-19 were consequences of a junk food-heavy carbohydrates dietwhich is also the cause for the obesity and overweight present in 75% of the Mexican population. This precarious state of health in the Mexicanpopulation, is the main reason for the unfortunate number of deaths by COVID-19, placing the country on the4th position in world deaths, despite the great efforts to fight it (graph 4). Data from the National HealthSurvey 2019 and worldometer, 2020, with 110,874 deaths, United States is first with 293,739; followed by Brazil, 178,184; India 141,668 and then Mexico [4,5,6].
New Priorities in Agriculture and Food for Health Education in agriculture after COVID-19 should be presented from a new overview. The concept of profit transformed agriculture, and it was a result of the green revolution and of some key concepts that were born from university students for several generations. We were trained in the use ofimproved seeds, irrigation, fertilizers, and herbicides that polluted rivers and seas. For livestock production, especially for ruminants, we learnedto use maize and soybeans, replacing other sources of food that, after centuries of evolution, used vegetable cell walls, which man could not digest such as cellulose and hemicellulose. Afterwards, these concentrated foodscould also be used by humans. This new form of feeding transformed the animals into methane –one of the most polluting gases for the ozone layer, production machines; while the increase on their growth and milk production rates, was not improved overall, neither for the environment nor for the consumer. Parallel to this quantitative increase, accompanied by a decrease in the quality of the products, the population began to consume “junk food”, rich in starches and sugars that produced an epidemiological change. For example, in the 1930s, diabetes in Mexico did not amount to 1% of the population, today it exceeds 16% and this has caused overweight or obesity in 70% of the population; cardiovascular conditions and other chronic- degenerative diseases, which explain the high mortality rates from COVID-19 [7,8].
Recent studies show that in the United States 32% of the population is overweight and 40% is obese, due to the excessive consumption of junk foods: the population eat more sugar, more fat and more meat. Since 1993, with the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA), the import of corn syrup was allowed into Mexico, increasing its presence in many junk foods by 1200% and entirely modifying the epidemiological map. Our country holds the number one position worldwide in the consumption of soft drinks. The companies selling them advertise that exercise fights obesity and that that the consumption of their products does not alter obesity or overweight. With the new TECMEC, which was signed in 2020, this will surely not change much, Mexico will continue to receive basically “junk” manufactured food and we will, in reciprocity,send them more fruits, legumes, tomatoes and avocados [9].
The following two graphs show epidemiological maps in 1930 and in 2019, showing a significant change in the existing diseases which resulted mainly from a change in eating habits (figure 1 and figure 2).
Figure 1. Causes of death recorded in Hospitals in Mexico in 1930
Source: National Epidemiological Survey 2019
Figure 2. Causes of death in Hospitals in México 2020
As you can observe, cancer, diabetes, heart and cardiovascular diseases were not significant in the 1930s. Mexicans died from parasitic diseases, due to poverty and unhealthy environments, and surely due to other diseases or violence [10].
Last year, this tremendous change was demonstrated with the epidemiology of deaths among Mexicans. Diseases causally related to food consumption increased dramatically. Just as an example, diabetes increased from 0.5% to 16% in 2020, 3% higher than on the graph made with data from2019 [11,12].
It would be crucial to take advantage of the fact that the pandemic has had a global effect, to come up with new objectives in education, health, agriculture, and the food production sector. We must use this crisis to modify production systems. It is of paramount importance for the survival of humanity, to stop polluting everyone’s house, the world, and to stop consuming foods rich in starches and sugars. Corn syrup today is full of carbohydrates (in the form of fructose) and is present in every food as preservative. This is a medical crime. The proliferation of food engineers which, in addition to the population’s ignorance, resulted in an exponential increase in Mexico of type 2 diabetes. Objectives must be changed in medicine, in food engineering, in veterinary medicine and in zootechnics.When we return to the universities, our task must be to inform of the dangers entailed in maintaining the current food production and consumption systems [13,14].
Surely worldwide we are aware of the importance of the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic but, to illustrate its severity, we developed three graphs with data from December 8TH, 2020 (Figure 3). We could not develop more graphics due to the deadline for the present paper, but it is certain that the pandemic is not over and although the vaccine is close, the cases continue to increase [4].
We selected the ten most affected countries and a few others to contrast their management of the disease. Just in the United States there 15.6 million recorded positive cases; 6.6 million in Brazil and increasing. Now, India d Europe and South America seems to be the highest point of spread; India 9.7; Russia 2.5; France 2.3; Italy 1.4; UK, 1.7; Spain 1.7; Argentina, 1.4; Colombia 1.3; Germany 1.2 and Mexico 1.1 million positive COVID-19 survey [4,15].
In figure 4, we included deaths causally related to SARS-CoV-2. This graph illustrates which countries have the highest death counts [16].
Figure 3. COVID-19 Positive cases in the first 25 countries, December 9th
2020
It certainly is difficult to compare the effect of the pandemic in such different demographics. Perhaps the indicator of deaths by one million inhabitants shows more clearly the impact of the virus on each society (Figure5,6).
Countries such as Peru and Belgium have comparatively less population, but the importance of SARS-CoV-2 is due to its worldwide presence [17,4].
Agricultural Education in Mexico
In Mexico and other countries, historically, yield per hectare has been given a higher priority. This was a result of the green revolution, which started with the return of the first agricultural science fellows, educated in richcountries such as the United States, England, and France. In Mexico, some special agricultural schools such as «Chapingo University » and others, taught the use of new irrigation and fertilization techniques; the use of herbicides; introduced the utilization of improved seeds and agrochemicals to increase crop production, particularly export crops such as tomato, avocado, and strawberries [18,19]. At the same time, the first generations of Zootechnics and Agronomists were trained, and this promoted the idea of genetic improvement, basing it on the import of pure, European livestock or Zebus, which spread hybrid offspring. The first generation of purebred with native genetic material gave good results, superior in production to its parents, but it needed greater resources. Therefore, modifications in their food were made and the use of concentrated feed introduced. The question comes up regarding the second generation, the F2, was that the end of the “improvement”? [20]. Every year there is always money for genetic improvement programs, breeding animals became a lucrative business and stallions were bred under ideal conditions, with massive use of concentrates [21].These systems polluted our rivers, seas, lagoons, and streams; they erodedour land; and wiped out our forests. It has been dramatically proven today, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that massively produced food is an adjuvant for the virus death rate. Most COVID-19 deaths are of patients who also have cancer, arteriosclerosis, type 2 diabetes, respiratory failure caused by cigarettes, hypertension, immunosuppression conditions: in
short, chronic-degenerative diseases. 70% of these are consequences from junk food consumption that, in turn, comes from increased production. A universal law inagriculture is “the more that occurs per hectare or per animal, the less the quality of the food” [22]. Coronavirus deaths are mainly of elderly men and women. The nearly 200,000 deaths in the United Statesis explained by the data: 70% of their population is obese or overweight and they also present other diseases. This is also the case for Mexico [23].
The new agricultural education, as universities reopen after lockdown, must consider the molecules that make up the product. For example, the color in nature is given by carotenoids and flavonoids, which are present on plant walls to defend its tissues from ultraviolet rays. These moleculesalso have high-level antioxidants which are also present in herb and seed tissues. Each of these molecules colored plants, milk, or honey differently. In general, the darker the plant or product, the higher the content of
carotenoids or flavonoids. Therefore, the quality of any product is the result of its chemical composition. Today, more than ever, education must emphasize on these substances since they are the most important facto in the prevention of multiple chronic-degenerative diseases [24]. The nutritional properties of molecules that make up the chemical constitution of food, must be taught to our technicians as the determining factors for a new definition of quality. Consumers buy a product because they like
it, is no coincidence that those who ask for an evaluation simply answer whether it is good or not good. Food is fragrance, smell, and taste. It is our Madeleine, a subject that excites us. For some years now, food has become very important as a primary source for health and disease prevention. This has become dramatically emphasized with the comorbidities of COVID-19. Is astonishing when we consider that the antioxidant molecules that prevent diseases are also responsible for the taste pleasure [25].
Humans savor what is good for their health, is only a matter of reassessing the products that have that flavor which, in parallel, are also the ones that prevent chronic-degenerative diseases. From the 95% of these diseases presented immunosuppressive mechanisms, which cause the fatal pneumonia of COVID-19 [25]. In summary, in almost all raw materials, odor is mainly due to monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes, this is a well-studiedtopic. The taste is caused by polyphenols (and partly bycarotenoids) but, on this subject there is little consensus. It reminds us of Novalis’ aphorismwhere a soldier was surprised when the entire battalion marched in the
opposite direction to him [24].
Let us take advantage of this lockdown to rethink agricultural and livestock education not only as profitable activities, but as cornerstones of disease prevention. The first to benefit from this new perspective would be national economies, halting the strains on their agricultural production by instead growing crops naturally and without chemical intervention. Peasants would also benefit from this since the economical gap between areas with access to the agrochemicals and those without it, would narrow down and with it, also their risk of disappearing due to the decline on the prices they can set for their products [26,27].
And, above all, consumers will benefit because they are not all the same. There are those who do not care about food, they eat everything without asking why, but there are those who think of food as a cultural issue, a moment for reflecting and indulging. Nowadays, food costs so little that paying a little extra is not at all a burden on the family budget. Food is culture, travel, memories [28].
Only with an agricultural and livestock education that respects the environment, that takes small producers into account, that knows how to produce high-quality, tasty, healthy food; only then will we pay a fair price because farmers and ranchers are doing their part, they are respecting the soil, the environment and everyone’s health [29].
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that there are not conflict of interest.
Author Contributions
Dr. Galina devised the manuscript and collaborated with its preparation and editing. Dr. Higuera collaborated with the editing of the manuscript.
Acknowledgments
Authors express their acknowledgment for the Facultad de Estudios Superiores Cuautitlán-Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
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