FOOD FOR WEAPONS
Usually food is associated with peace not war. But it seems like some foods have the potential to be turned into weapons—and not just the age-old poison slipped into someone ’s drink or dinner. Now food can be turned into modern-day bombs and grenades.
I discovered this possibility after reading a news article 7 that describes the Indian military using the “world ’s hottest chili” grown in northeast Indian in the fight against terrorism. They are doing so by using a very small chili pepper, about an inch long, called the “bhut jolokia” or “ghost chili” to make hand grenades that release this pepper as a tear gas, thereby preventing suspected terrorists from taking any action.
The chili itself has already been recognized by the Guinness World Records as the spiciest chili in the world, and it has previously been used to spice up food as well as to increase energy when it ’s very hot in the summer. The chili has also been used to cure stomach problems, presumably by killing whatever bacteria or viruses might be causing them.
So just how spicy is this pepper? Well, it seems spiciness is measured by Scoville Units—cayenne pepper registers at about 50,000 units, jalapeño peppers score only 8,000 units, and Tabasco sauce a measly 2,500 to 5,000 units. But the bhut jolokia scores at over 1 million Scoville units, which is really, really, really, really hot!!! And you might add a few more “really’s” for even more emphasis.
Thus, after it was tested in Indian defense laboratories, this pepper seemed to make the perfect weapon. Just its strong smell alone is enough to cause terrorists to start choking, which could not only cause them to leave their hide-outs, but could cause the terrorists to misfi re or put down their weapons. Plus there might be some civilian uses, such as for protective weapons. For example, the chili might be used in aerosol sprays for the police to stop mobs and for women to protect themselves against attackers.
This might be just the beginning of the uses for the bhut jolokia as a weapon. For example, the military might use it to create chili bombs released from aircraft against not only terrorists but hostile populations, without killing people or destroying their cities. It might be a great product for hunters to take along when they are hunting big game in case anything starts charging them. Explorers and adventurers might bring a canister with them for protection, too. And instead of guns, citizens might have chili in their house to protect against intruders, or perhaps home protection systems might incorporate such sprays. Then, instead of an alarm going off when the intruder enters the house, he or she gets sprayed in the face and a scanner system might help to target the spray to wherever the intruder is, as well as record the image of the intruder for prosecution later. In fact, Second Amendment laws in the United States might have to be rewritten to cover having a chili pepper spray in one’s home for protection, since chili peppers might still be considered a food when they aren ’t in an aerosol.
Still other possibilities might be for police to use chili pepper sprays instead of tasers, census workers taking their chili canisters with them if they encounter resistance, and tax collectors using them when visiting reluctant payees.
Marketers might think of still more possibilities; as the use for this product grows, more and more farmers may turn to raising chili crops— perhaps indoors in very warm environments, much like the tropical climate in northeast India. In turn, the growers will have their own protection readily at hand in their chili crop, which might contribute to making this a safer product to grow than marijuana, which is often subject to government raids and attacks from criminal gangs, since it is such a profi table crop.
Later, as the use of chili-pepper weapons spreads, a natural development might be the creation of antidotes to stop the effects of the chili, so terrorists, organized criminals, and others might be able to counter the spray or quickly relieve the effects. Still, not everyone who is sprayed might be so well prepared, such as the lone burglar confronted by the angry homeowner. So chili-pepper weapons might still prove effective much of the time.
However, the downside of using these chilies as weapons is that as they prove more and more effective, terrorists and hostile governments might use them, too. For example, instead of another kind of bomb being strapped to a terrorist, they might start setting off chili bombs in markets and streets. Or rogue governments could use these bombs to control their people or fi ght their enemies.
In short, maybe the humble chili might turn into our next super weapon, with as much power to help or harm as nuclear power. At least after you recover from a chili blast, it might still taste good.
Extracts taken from "The Very Next New Thing ~ Commentaries On The Latest Developments That Will Be Changing Your Life" by Gini Graham Scott (2011)
Extracts taken from "The Very Next New Thing ~ Commentaries On The Latest Developments That Will Be Changing Your Life" by Gini Graham Scott (2011)
Some news stories related to this topic:
Miami Herald: Officers in pepper spray incident placed on leave
Interesting article, Mr Adrian. Biological weapons such as chillies may be environmentally friendly to the nature of aggression, commonly done by belligerent firearms that might harm the surroundings. However, despite the pros of chilli as a weapon, it is worth to contemplate the effectiveness of using such material to form a battery to hostile cohorts in war or any other massive attacks to bolster the chance of winnings, compared to more traditional barrages; firearms. The convenience of the distribution of fruit to be weaponised is also to question if it were to be in effect, can a child bear a chilly-based weapon to protect themselves?. If a fruit is to be weaponised, then what will the law says if it turns out to be a deadly one?. I am sure there will be questions considering the social effects of the implementation of biological weapons made available massively and to get it easily, considering it is still a fruit-based weapon to behold for security purposes, even if it is made to the extent of being a dangerous tool.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I would like to mention that this article has exaggerated the prospect of the usage of chili peppers in weapons. Chilies, and other agents, have been used countless times before; none of which serves as an effective means of lethal weaponry. Chilies are used today as defensive weapons, conventionally known as pepper spray. The non-lethal properties and abundance of capsaicin, the chemical compound found in chilies that give them their spiciness, it makes them ideal for short-ranged, defensive weaponry. However, capsicum is a naturally occurring chemical compound and can be easily countered and neutralized; this means that despite the fact that pepper spray is an ideal deterrent, it is not effective in terms of being an offensive weapon. There are more harmful, easily obtained, chemicals out there that could be more useful as weaponry; such as chlorine which can be extracted from salt, and is used in World War One. Another thing the comment in this post mentioned is that this is a form of biological warfare; this is also a misconception as biological warfare is the use of biological agents, such as bacteria and viruses, as weapons of mass destruction. In conclusion, despite chili peppers’ hazardous potential to be used as a painfully effective weapon of defense, it is unlikely that we would need to worry about any terrorist “chili bombs” going off any time soon.
ReplyDeleteThe hypothetical statement about the possibility to use chili bombs or ammunitions as substitute to lethal weapon such as explosives is quite interesting, especially considering the change it will cause to warfare and legal environment. Weapons loaded with chili powder may not possess the ability to kill instantly, but a certain neutralization upon impact is assured, and that is if the intended targets still react to a hostile, non-lethal stimulus. The course of warfare will also change as the objective of combat will have been diverted to a non-lethal engagement and attrition warfare by reducing and ultimately taking away the combat capability of hostile forces.
ReplyDeleteThough it may seem to be a solution to unnecessary casualties caused by lethal weaponry, the unprecedented use of chili-based weaponry in military engagements cannot be a sole weapons system for the combatants. The use of firearms and lethal weaponry will still have to complement the use of chili-based weaponry as to the fact that former still possess the deterrent that the latter does not. The countermeasures against chili-based weaponry will have been developed in a quick fashion in response to the threat, and these countermeasures are limited only to restoring the combat capability or speeding up the recovery while on the other hand, there exists only a few countermeasures against death caused by firearms. If countries still aim to create a deterrence to their adversaries, chili-based weaponry can only be a small complement to firearms in terms of inflicting actual damage, both physical and psychological.
Humankind are famous with their way to think out of the box. All of the inventions all arround the world are started from the curiousity of someone mind and those who either accidentally or intentionally do some experiments. Therefore, i am not going to be shocked if there is someone out there using chili as a weapon. The main reasoning to use chillies as a weapon is the painful sensation and feeling if it in contact with our senses especially nose and eyes. When i was in highschool, i was accidentaly touched my eyes with my exact same hand that i used to eat Ayam Geprek which had about 8 chillies bare handedly, it was a mistake. A mistake that i will remember for my entire life, i felt pain rushing to my eyes and in reflect i swiped my eyes with my other hand which also contained with a lot of chillies. My friend quickly gave me mineral water to wash my eyes clean, and to be honest, the sensation when that water washed away my pain is very good. So, at the end of the day; i believe that chillies will be the most effective self defense weapon in the future.
ReplyDeleteUsing food as a weapon might be very handy, cheap, and since its considered as biological weapon, it must be renewable and eco-friendly, but I don’t know why, I’m not quite liking the idea. If the scientists or a country really want to make the food weapon, for example from chili, they should really consider the risk that will occurs because of that action. I believe that a weapon from chili is going to be very easy to make, since the chili itself already contained the natural compound which could harm people. The chili itself is not a rare commodities, everyone could buy chillies with affordable price and without a strict regulation. Imagine, what if this kind of weapon is not being used in the battlefield by the armies, but instead, it is being used by a group of terrorist to harm mass of people. It can be really dangerous if they did something to the chili to make it stronger.
ReplyDeleteFor example making a chili bomb and then blew it on a crowded public place. It can blind a lot of people instantly and causes burn in the people’s skin. Also, it is going to be so hard for the government to establish a law or regulation to control the food distribution. I mean, it’s almost impossible for the government to restrict the selling of some commodity that can be made food weapon because it’s just an ordinary food for others, but at the same time, it’s also can become a lethal weapon. People can harm other people intentionally with food and then quibble some nonsense reason such as “Sorry, I accidentally spill my hot, spicy, flaming ramen broth to your face, and now your face is burned half like the phantom of the opera” to get away from the problem. I think it’s a bit risky to a government to develop food weapon because the existence of the food weapon itself can encouraged people misused it.
DeleteAt first, I thought that this was a joke. This kind of ideas was thought of when the scientist taking a bath, shower thought, who knows that a chili can be a weapon. Oh wait, we already using a food as weapon, I remember that when I was a child I used to throw coconut or maybe an apple to someone that I considered as an annoying person. I’m sorry for being skeptical but its just hard to imagine that. Maybe we can change the term war into a food fight. And since we use this technology there no such thing as world war, we change it into food fight volume 1 and so on.
ReplyDeleteBack to the main topic, using chili as a weapon is a cruel thing to do because you are torturing your enemy and that’s forbidden by the law of human rights. They can suffer for days and actually causing a permanent disability. Which is a normal thing to happen in a war. The pros are, its easy to use and made and also cheap. But you have to consider that chili is an ingredient that we use in our daily basis so the chances that it can be traded in a black market is quite high. But nonetheless, I hope that maybe we can avoid having another war and living in peace.
Before reading this article I am not aware of this biological weaponized food, at first, I thought that this article supposedly talks about intentional food poisoning. The use of the ghost chili pepper for a weapon is really interesting to me and I’d say that there are possibilities to use biological grown plant as a substitute to a chemical weapon. This biological food might arguably be easier to produce which is efficient, yet it is also a bad thing as more and more people are able to produce these weapons without anyone realizing their intention of growing the plant. As more and more people become aware of the existence of this weapon I believe that there will be someone who might genetically modify these peppers to be more a more efficient weapon. Maybe they will turn the plant to be easier to grow in many types of soil, make the chili even spicier, making it a weapon that doesn’t have any side effect, etc.
ReplyDeleteThis is rather interesting, it seems like a joke when you read this article, but this could actually work. Having your weapons loaded with chili might work as a distraction for your opponent. The spiciness of chilies can make our eyes burn, the use of weaponized chili is able to especially hurt opponents’ eyes. Imagine if chilies are used as smoke bombs, the extracted chilies that are in the form of gas will work as an effective distraction and a sting to the eye at once. Other than using it as weapons used for distractions, there isn’t much you can do with a chili, it certainly can’t be used as weapons for instant kill. If this new innovation of weapon ideas are to be actually implemented for the use of wars and government’s security, it would be very funny in my opinion. For instance, when you’re watching television and got to see this kind of news, you would think that the world has just gone more advanced by having weaponized food, but also laugh out because it is uncommon.
ReplyDeleteAs I read further and further into the article, the more I thought as to why the article was even given the title “Thoughts About the Future: Weaponized Food”. To be honest, throughout history, humanity has never been swayed by anyone’s opinions when it comes to developing deadly weapons, let alone biological ones. In 1650, Polish troops would fire saliva from rabid dogs towards their enemies, or how it was a traditional tactic for soldiers to dump dead bodies into wells to poison the water supply for their enemies to later on drink and eventually die from an unescapable death due to poisoning. The achievement of successfully discovering a different use of bhut jolokia would probably be the last of its kind as it brings no guarantee for the future that there will come other similar biological weapons revolving around the food that we eat. And besides, I doubt the whole weaponised food premise would ever prove its usefulness in the weapons industry for long; at least not more than as a scare tactic used in Hollywood movies to discourage countries all around the world from ever venturing into the subject, since their subjects have already become too knowledgeable for their governments to fool.
ReplyDeleteHere are the links from which I got the information regarding the biological weapons:
Deletehttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1326439/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well_poisoning
Maybe for some the terms of weaponized food would be a ridiculous idea from some science fiction movie. Yet, I suppose it is pretty much real, as people around the world are experimenting to engineer more and more extreme food for the sake of fun and fame, why wouldn’t we do the exact thing for military purposes. Maybe we can not really make actual cuisine into a weapon or just poisoned food for anyone to eat; the conditioned that come to my mind is that we utilize the compounds which are present within our eatable produce. When we think of weaponizing household material I suppose we have been doing it for the past centuries. There are records showing that they use chilli peppers to fend of elephants or the fact that cyanide is first found in the eatable roots of cassava. And as we advance trough the realm of genetic engineering, the future seems more grim.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of making “bhut jolokia” as a weapon of destruction is a very dangerous idea. Although it’s safe to use and it’s also eco-friendly, I think it will also bring many negative outcomes. Because of the advancement of technology and the internet, people now have access to many different things (in particular, making bombs). Moreover, because the core item of making this type of bomb is chili, it opens the opportunity for people to abuse it. Because chili is easy to grow and it’s very easy to get chili in the market, many terrorist groups can use this opportunity to terrorize society. Another issue whether it’s right to use chili bombs. Because chili essence can cause a tremendous burning feeling, using chili bomb actually is like torturing the person. Thus, it ties in with the issue of human rights and ethics, which will lead to debates. Although using chili bomb proved to be a great alternative of normal explosive bombs and “safer,” I think we should also consider the negative effect of chili bombs to the society.
DeleteRegarding the torture effect that bhut jolokia may have on its victims, I would like to point out that there have been many weapons throughout history that also do the same, if not worse, and yet they are still used during combat in today’s societies. Some of them include napalm, and HESH (High-Explosive Squash Head) shells used in armoured vehicles. Although I wouldn’t necessarily see them as weapons, weapons in today’s societies would become redundant if it weren’t for their ammunitions. Both of these ammunitions make sure that the victims would suffer before they leave the world which they are fighting for. However, like it or not, weapons such as these will always find their way into combat whenever circumstances call for the use of desperate means to achieve victory, such as how sticky bombs were used during World War 2 despite the danger that the bombs would bring to the soldiers using them.
DeleteTurning food into a weapon is an interesting idea but I really do not know how to feel about that. It is true that chili is a spicy food and if someone turn it into a weapon and it hits an opponent’s eye, they might go blind which can be critical. However, turning foods into weapons do not sound right. I was told not to play with food since I was young, let alone making a weapon out of it. Regarding the theory where chili pepper spray can replace taser, I do not think that it is a good idea. I am pretty sure that the eye must be targeted when using chili pepper spray and it is hart to do that, using taser will still be better. What I agree the most in this article is about the chili bomb that can be dropped from an aircraft. This can be useful and can be used like a flashbang.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, this article is interesting. Like usual, my first impression of this article is wrong. At first, I thought that it was going to discuss food poisoning on a military level, but instead of that I was greeted with the idea of using literal food in fighting against terrorist. In this article we were introduced with “Bhut Jolokia” or the “ghost chili”. considered the hottest chili due to it having a high level of scovile unit, the ghost chili caught the eye of the Indian military in their fight against terrorism. Personally, I found this idea really effective. To win a war or fight against terrorism , a country needs to have a high amount of budget, and high level of morale. with the use of chili as part of their weapons arsenal, they are definitely going the right way due to them spending less money on usual weaponry. Other than that, the use of the ghost chili strikes right through enemy’s morale, and the reason behind that is the use of such chili may ruin the one thing that is considered comforting to them which is food.
ReplyDeleteWeaponized food is not a new thing in the modern warfare, weaponized food has been used years ago even before Christ was born. People who did this are usually assassins or mercenary hired to kill someone silently so that it would look like an accident. Weaponized food are a brilliant weapon back then silent, effective, cheap it has all the components that it needs to be the ultimate weapon. But as time goes these weapons have been easily countered since now there are a lot of CCTVs and stuffs it’s getting harder for them to use food to kill people. But now I just read an article that suggest us to use food again as a weapon. I think this is not a new thing and maybe just a remastered version of the weapon if they really get to use chili as the weapon, but I think if call this a new idea it is wrong and probably it wouldn’t be used anyway because I think bullets are far more effective.
ReplyDeleteFood has always been our life saver; they can booster our mood, killing the starving monster inside us, and even food can always make our day better. Unfortunately, the sophistication era of technology turns food into a horrible, killing, and deadly weapon. If we think about food turns out as weapon it can seems really impossible and does not even making any sense. However, the era of technology seems making everything is possible isn’t? In the future, food can no longer be our life saver, yet instead, becoming our life killer. Even though the idea of food-weapon has disadvantage, this idea still consider very innovative. The food-weapon can certainly helps the job of the government and the police in order to get rid of those terrorists. It may be very harm, but it can definitely reduce the number of terrorists and able to take over the action towards them in a second.
ReplyDeleteI’m not really a fan of the idea. For me, food is a way for us humans to peek at each other cultures, to have a glimpse of what makes us different. For example, the cuisine in Macau differ from those in Hong Kong, due to the heavy influence of the Portuguese influence in the area. They are both categorized as Chinese cuisine, but you can tell the straight differences in their taste due to their different background. From this, we can understand that food probably represents culture more than anything. We may not speak the same language, but we can come to an understanding about delicious foods. Turning something that is peaceful in nature to a weapon is not the greatest idea in my book. But there are some benefits, such as the absence of hazardous chemical property which may damage it’s surroundings. We just have to wait and see the development. I mean, maybe they’ll develop food that lets you fly next? I would love to have that.
ReplyDeleteIt was weird for me to think that food could ever be used as a weapon other than cafeteria food fighting, but I understand what the article means. We already have things like pepper spray, so to hear chilis being used as a weapon is nothing new actually. And I don’t think it’s a bad suggestion to use chilis as a weapon, because their capsaicin was formed as a weapon to fight off bacteria and fungi. It is more eco-friendly than any other chemicals used in weapon making and would be cheaper to make, but it would still lose in a battle where people use heavy weapons like machine guns and grenades. And like the article said, it could be used in the wrong way, where bad terrorists and criminals would use them on innocent people. Maybe the government could restrict certain chilis to be sold, where really spicy chilis like the ghost chili can not be sold and bought in the stores. It's a funny and interesting thing to think about the future of food as weapon.
ReplyDeleteReading the article, it made me remember the first time I tasted ghost pepper sauce on my tacos. It was so spicy I even cried after eating it. I cannot even imagine how lethal it is if it’s used as a bomb or weapon to suppress riot or something. The use of food as a weapon might cost less than using usual materials as weapon. It is also more environment friendly since it is bio degradable. The effect is also not as harmful as those usual weapon that is used in war, since you can recover from it. However, we need to think again about the essential use of it. Millions of people, even kids, are suffering from hunger because there is not enough food available for them. Rather than using food as a weapon, why don’t we use food and distribute them to people who are in needs. The use of weapon is based on conflict between people and even country. We need to start spreading peace rather than just go into war.
ReplyDeleteWe have reached the point where we use the stuff to survive with as a weapon to kill others. But it is actually quite funny to be honest. This reminds me of a scene from a movie called central intelligence. This movie is about two high school friends, starred by Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, go on the run after one of them joins the CIA in order to save the world from a terrorist who has an intention to sell satellite codes. In one of the scene’s they were chase by CIA in an office and they had to get away. They were attacked and one of the weapons that was used for self defence was a banana. One thing that i never imagine being a weapon was used as a weapon and is very deadly. So it doesn’t have to be in the future, even in the present we can use food as weapons.
ReplyDeleteI do not know why, but I feel sceptical about this idea to make a weapon out of a chili. I think weapon developers or researchers should focused more on conventional weapons. I must admit that, making a weapon out of a chili is very creative, and very out of the box thinking. I also think that making a weapon out of a chili must be more enviromentaly friendly and cheap, compared to producing normal conventional weapon. I also think that, this idea is pretty dangerous, because if this concept is given to the wrong person, they can mass-produced this weapon and cause terror and destruction by using this weapon. But, I agree with the idea of making a self defense weapon out of a chili, just like a pepper spray. In my opinion, researcher and weapon developer should stick to the more conventional weapons, because making a weapon out of chili is a pretty silly idea for me.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that popped on my mind when I heard the terms weaponized food is X Men, since there weaponized food is used to neutralize mutants and control the birth of a mutant so that there will be no new mutants in the society. It is spread through the worldwide food chain and implanted in the plant seeds. While some of man-made weapon is used for good purpose, some of them are often misused and can sometimes lead to a very dangerous condition. In this case chillies, which we often see in a food. Some types of chillies are very very hot and therefore, can harm you. Chillies itself has been used countless times as a simple and practical self defense weapon, or as many of us already knew, the pepper spray. It is a very effective and simple weapon against burglary or even rape, as it will left assaultants temporarily blinded.
ReplyDeleteWhile the use of chillies or peppers for self defense may seem harmless and useful, the development of weaponized food from chillies can be a little concerning. Some chillies like the “Bhut Jolokia” and the Carolina Reaper can cause a very serious effect on human’s health. It is even recommended to hold Carolina Reaper with gloves, since it can cause skin burn and blindness. This sort of food are the kind of food that can be turned into a weaponized food, since most people would think that it is just an ordinary chilli whilst in fact, it isn’t. the fact that this pepper is still sold regularly in some supermarket is very horrifying. I mean, people could just go to the supermarket and buy these kind of food to torture someone that they hate. That is why I strongly support the government to ban these foods and prohibit the cultivation of this chillies.
ReplyDelete