Soil irrigated with poison and our children

A child reaches for an apple peeled by their mother at breakfast. The scent of the apple they bite into is sweet, its color vibrant. But there is something neither the child nor the mother is aware of: the pesticide residue remaining on the skin of that apple, the traces of lead or arsenic inside it… Like an invisible threat, it quietly seeps into that small body.

No matter how much we wash it, no matter how much we soak it in water with baking soda or vinegar… Pesticides and heavy metals used uncontrollably in agriculture are no longer just in the fields; they are on our tables. The reality that surrounds all of Turkey, which Bianet strikingly calls a "toxic metal corridor," is now in all of our homes, on our plates, and in our children's blood.

Lead, cadmium, arsenic… While it is difficult even to pronounce the names of these substances, they are stunting our children's development; leading to intellectual disabilities, learning difficulties, and nervous system disorders. Tiny bodies are carrying burdens greater than themselves.

But why?

Because for the sake of more production, cheaper food, and greater profit, the voice of the soil is being silenced. Because whether something that "looks good" is "truly healthy" is not being questioned. And in this system, those who suffer the most are again the most vulnerable: children and the poor laborers working in agriculture. Those mothers, those women… while holding pesticide-laden seedlings without even gloves on their hands, they barely find the breath to look after their own children.

Today is May 1st. Labor and Solidarity Day.

But it is not just the day of workers, but of all the invisible laborers who carry the burden of this system. It is the day of the mother breathing poison in the field, the child who cannot protect the soil, and the family being silently poisoned at the dinner table.

Because clean food is not just a consumer right, but also a right to life. And this right will be won by defending a life where the soil is not polluted, labor is not exploited, and children are not poisoned. Perhaps the greatest solidarity lies in imagining together that day when a child can bite into an apple without fear.