[coderedart]

why you gotta generalize a whole country like that? ever think of how an indian teenager might feel when they read your comment? Anyway, Adulteration is just simply ignorance and self-centered greed. People will indirectly harm anyone if it means making profits.

We have already seen this during Covid. That people will not follow safety practices like wearing masks and even rioting to remove the lockdown. Was it because the rioters lived in a heterogeneous low trust society? or did they want other races/castes to suffer?. It is just ignorance and not caring about other people if it means they themselves can lead a more convenient life.

I can also point to the current situation in Delhi https://indianexpress.com/article/india/delhi-aqi-today-seve... where they had to shutdown schools due to the severe air quality. Farmers in neighboring states burn stubble (remaining crop after harvesting) to prepare for the next crop immediately. This burning moves on to delhi and causes really really bad weather every year. burning stubble is a cheap and quick way to clear the farmland, and alternatives are expensive or unfeasible (lack of access to machinery). This is greed or poverty forcing them to do these things.

And OTOH, we have the judiciary which banned fireworks for almost 5 years now in Delhi, including the time of diwali (a festival known for fireworks) as right to quality air is now recognized as a fundamental right under right to life (and dignity). Now, we have people whining that this is stepping on the right to freedom of religion of Hindus, as the court is taking away fun crackers from Hindu children in the name of "western climate change". This is ignorance. They will literally let their own family breath the polluted air on next morning of diwali, because propaganda/politics has led them to believe that this is a coordinated attack on their religion. The people who suffer are older citizens or patients with respiratory problems.

[reducesuffering]

Should facts about a country be ignored because they paint it in a less positive light and some citizens might not feel great about that?

Only 16.7%, decreasing, of people in India think “most people in my country can be trusted.” However in Norway it’s 73.7%, increasing. Should we never talk about GDP per capita discrepancies? First step in addressing these issues is acknowledging there may be a problem.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/self-reported-trust-attit...

[darth_avocado]

No but presenting something as a result of “low trust society” is just lazy. We have plenty of examples of what’s being accused of here in the US. Monsanto poisons the country with Roundup, Big Pharma poisons the country with addictive drugs, Fracking poisons drinking water for millions, etc. But somehow that’s never a result of a “low trust society” because it’s not in a developing country.

[horrible-hilde]

I think its about government regulation on food more than anything else.

[marcosdumay]

Do you really believe the GP's comment follows from that statistic you pointed out?

[mlinhares]

People often forget that developed countries have already done all that before becoming what they are today (the US itself has a very long history of poisoning its population for profit, both the private sector and the government): https://www.npr.org/2019/01/20/685821214/before-black-lung-t...

[horrible-hilde]

The food industry was the wild west back then. I remember reading about a study in the early 1900s where one company’s canned peas was found to have no actual peas in it. And Britain still has a bread minister (its now ceremonial) whose job ot was to ensure no additives in wheat like chaulk or plaster.

Without regulations you would have to depend on your local relationships or branding to make sure your food is clean. Globalization makes it easier to ignore the needs of others due to distance.