Health, Social and Cultural Inequalities essays

Health, Social and Cultural Inequalities essays Capitalism in the global south is not only an inconvenience on traditional life; it is a deadly creation that leaves the wealth in the hands of very few elite corporations. It not only affects the fabric of typical life familiar to the people living within the global south, it also affects the health of many peasants, indigenous people, small farmers, and whole communities due to the types of chemicals, pesticides, and stressful work that capitalism from industrial agriculture imposes on them. It also exacerbates the inequalities prevalent within the social hierarchies of the global south. Many cultural norms and traditions are sacrificed for the sake of efficient methods of performing work to create the high yields desired by corporate elites. This lifestyle is unsuitable to the native individuals who are forced to change their way of life to make a living for themselves as required by the corporations that have placed them in this vulnerable situation. Large corporations like Monsanto, Syngenta and Cargill monopolize the agriculture business in the global south. Certain countries such as India, which has less political power, gets taken advantage of in this hegemonic business and the farmers are burdened with the task of utilizing a large supply of pesticides that they were forced to buy in order to maintain the upkeep and proliferation of their farms. The pesticide business is so lucrative that a typical meal in India will contain 40 times more pesticides than the typical North American meal. Since pesticides are designed to kill life, namely the insects that feed on pesticide laden foods, the pesticides also pose harm to humans who work very closely with them. In fact, in a study conducted on over 2000 couples in India of similar socio-economic statuses, who had husbands that were dispersing pesticides on their farms, tested as having lower reproductive potential. Additionally, the chemicals in the pesticides wreaked so m...