By Greta Romualdi, 14 years old – Siena (italy)
We need to stop global warming now, said once a man. Actually, at least four billion people said it. We are humans who have the ability of thinking and reflecting on mistakes we do. However as the years have passed we have become more and more intelligent and more ignorant at the same time. We are oxymoron, everything we do is an oxymoron, our life is an oxymoron. If a person says something, everybody says it. We are greedy, we always want to reach the top, but there is no top anymore. We always want to be like someone who inspires us, therefore if that person does or says something, we do it. This is the base of fake news. But what is actually fake news, and why does it exist? No one has the answer. Everyone chooses an answer to the definition of fake news, everybody adapts to what for them fits best. This is what fake news means: the creation of fake information.
Nowadays, fake news regarding agriculture and food has become progressively more popular. Some people say that palm oil is not actually harmful, others say it is devastating our world… so to who should we actually agree? The mistake we do now is that we believe. We believe in everything people tell us. We were taught to believe. And now, we teach to believe. Big companies such as Vape give us an excuse for using fertilisers “we need DDT, because the population is growing so fast and plants so slowly, it is not harmful.” WRONG! We are humans who have a wonderful gift: the possibility of thinking and having ideas and opinions. We should stop believing in everything and everyone. We can be capable of understanding that these companies are fooling us to gain money. We have to be careful and help each other.
DDT: “a synthetic organic compound used as an insecticide.” This is the most common definition, of a normal encyclopaedia on internet. The word: “synthetic” implies the danger and the damage this fertiliser causes to our wonderful home. The problem we face now is our population, and how fast it is growing. Many people think DDT is not bad because it actually helps us to not die of starvation. If it saves our lives, it ruins other ones. Bees are the most affected insect by DDT. If the whole species of bees were to extinct we would die, every single one of us would suffer a slow and painful death. In order for plants to reproduce they need pollen which is brought by bees. When we spray fertilisers we are restricting this process from happening, therefore leading us to death. I personally think it is really important to use the plural in these occasions. This is because “we” are a group of people and we work together; therefore, if one of us does something wrong we are wrong. We are all the cause of the destruction of the Earth. No matter if you are the best person in the world, you definitely have done something which has contributed to the elimination of the Earth.
Fake News has now played a massive role in our daily routines. Even if we don’t realise, we are reading and sharing fake information constantly. 82% of Italians are not able to recognize a fake news, shows the Infosfera Survey of 2018 (by the University of Suor Orsola Benincasa, Naples, Italy). This is a major problem because there are some people who believe in what they read and they can be emotionally and physically involved in something “fake”. Furthermore, the problem is still to come. Agriculture has been massively impacted by fake news because many people benefit of the ignorance of others. The environment and agriculture has to deal with the effects of fake news. The problem is that some people believe in what they read or watch and therefore might use it in the agriculture. The damage being caused is not only to us, humans but also to the ecosystems. It is not just a matter of killing bees; we also suffer of the causes of what people include in what we eat.
Once again what can we do in front of things that seem bigger than us? We should consider true and useful information in order to better utilize the limited resources we have on our planet and produce more food. There is a very antique remedy which can save us from the cruelty of fertilisers such as DDT. This can also save us from the dangers of fake news regarding agriculture. Not many people are aware of a unique method originally born in Bangkok, Thailand, inspired by the natural process of fermentation. A lady named Sornwan Sirisuntharin, better known as Pa Cheng started to use what is called Fervida. She comes from a very poor family that did not even have the money to give her an education. Unfortunately, when she was older she got really sick and she was about to die. Her family tried really hardly to cure her, she saw every type of doctor, but there was no cure for her illness. The family of Pa Cheng used to create fruit ferments for agricultural use. So an idea sparked in her mind, “if these ferments are so good for agriculture they might cure me”. As the days passed, the lady started assuming little doses of these ferments. She started to get better and better, until she completely eradicated her illness. Fervida is a concentration of good bacteria and microorganisms. She started using them more and more for agriculture and what she noticed was a great growth in the plants. Fervida can be prepared with any type of fruit or vegetable added with sugar which helps the fermentation. It has been proved that Fervida produces extremely powerful antioxidant compounds useful for our health and agriculture and can be a revolutionary type of fertilizer which is eco-friendly in every sense. This is why it is really important for people to start learning more about this incredible method of agriculture. This can help the destruction of fake news on DDT, since it is a new way of growing things.
A sixteen-year-old girl named Greta Thunberg once said “Our house is on fire…” And it really is. This is why we, the new generation and all the generations to come have to do something. In every article I write I say “you can make a change” I would like to be able to say that this time it is true. But it is not. The only thing I can say is that “We can make a change”. We are a social animal that tends to stay in packs like wolves do. However, things have changed and people got more and more greedy and selfish. This is the right time for us to go back to our origins and make things change. We need to stop fake news. We can stop fake news.