food distribution — Ethnic Supplies

Will Africa be the source of world food in years to come?

March 30, 2010 By idahorner View Comments

Yeah right! I can hear some say and you will probably be right after all we have all seen the headlines of starving children in Africa. Please bear with me whilst I explain.

The world is changing in ways we never imagined nor expected, folk in the developed world are living longer they are more single households, we use more energy and our eating habits have changed etc.

A consequence of this is that we are having to further for some of these resources including food and it would appear that Africa is seen as rich pickings for what The Guardian journalist called the AFRICA LAND GRAB

This reminds me of the O’level history lessons “The scramble and partition of Africa”, that saw Africa dived up and shared up amongst European nations only this time round there is more at stake as far as I can see any way.

If we agree generally, based on the what we see on television that some African countries can’t afford to feed themselves is it right that African politicians should be selling off land to the developed world for their food production? What is our role in all this? What about that of our politicians

And what continues to perplex me is the fact that none of this food actually ends up on the African market and some of those African countries that are short of food like Kenya have to rely on food Aid from the developed nations. Does this make sense at all?

An interesting story that will be worth keeping an eye on is developing on the coast of Ghana. This sees Tullow Oil “fighting2 it out with local fishermen who believe that Tullow Oil is ruining their livelihoods. But not everyone agrees with the fishermen’s point of view and in the words of one local man man “the fish only benefits the fishermen whilst the oil will bring revenue for the rest of the country” (source BBC Radio 4)

Who is right or wrong depends on your point of view!

But with European waters depleted of fish and those in the industry heading out to African waters for fish, how will this pan out?

Have you got a view on any of this? Looking forward to hearing it

Filed Under: Ethics, Good Practice, Uncategorized, food distribution Tagged With: Africa, BBc, Food Aid, food distribution, Senegal, tullow oil

Are you kidding me?

January 7, 2010 By idahorner View Comments

Happy New year to you all. We are very excited about the prospects the new year is due to bring and I will be telling you about those in later blog.

Back to the title to today’s blog, before I hit the road to East Africa last month I watched a BBC Horizon programme called How many people can live on Planet earth

What really caught my eye about this programme was the issue of food security, something that affects the communities within which I work and one that I often write abotu here

Of concern to me was the fact that folk in the west and Arab countries too are buying up chunks of the developing world to grow food for their own populaitons. This food is exported out of the developing countries to the developed regions leaving the developing countries to rely on FOOD AID! How ridiculous is that, I ask?

Am I missing the point here folk? I was surprised to learn too that a country like Uganda one of the poorest is the second largest contributor to the FOOD AID programme in the world next to Canada! Are you kidding me? Why isn’t someone feeding the street kids on the streets on Kampala? None of this makes any sense to me folk as several people in Uganda told me how expensive food has actually become in Uganda. But that said I also learned that the food growers in Uganda have tapped into the rather lucrative food market of the southern Sudan!

Well with the world population set to grow, the debate around food security will continue!

Happy new year!

Filed Under: International Policy, food distribution Tagged With: Attenborough, BBC2 Horizon, food security, Uganda

Should Europe be taking fish from Senegal’s waters?

August 27, 2009 By ethnicsupplies View Comments

BBC 2 is currently running a series of documentaries that are looking at the FUTURE OF FOOD fronted by former Fair Trade patron George Alagiah both here in the UK and the rest of the world generally.

The first episode looked at the issue food security and water in particular and showed the lengths to which a Punjab based wheat farmer goes too to access water to irrigate the wheat that is headed to the west and the level of debt this has left him with whilst elsewhere in Punjab some have committed suicide as they could not cope with the level of debt they were in nor could they see a way out.

This week’s episode has left me (us) with some dilemmas. With European waters over fished and dwindling supplies, we are heading further a field to look for fish and one of the countries at the receiving end of our quest for fish is Senegal a relatively poor African country. Fish is a vital part of the diet of the coast villages in Senegal but with the arrival of European fishing boats, the locals don’t stand a chance and one fisherman said "he simply wishes they would go away". The consequences of the Europeans fishing Senegalese waters has meant that fish in Senegal has become so expensive that most local people can’t afford it!

The story moves on to a farm in Kenya that grows green beans for UK supermarkets. I was having dinner whilst watching this part and on my plate was grilled Salmon, mangetout, grilled courgettes and tomatoes and I must admit to struggling to finish it.

The Kenyan story is very sad indeed. A country that grows and exports a lot of food to the UK but has to rely on UN FOOD AID to feed its people! Perfectly good beans being rejected because they have a bit of soil on them or are the wrong shape!

The programme touched on the issue of Bio fuel. Yes we need to protect the environment and one way is to check our fuel consumption and the sources of fuel. But is it fair to take away farming land form rural people that use it for growing food and turn it into a field for bio fuel crops that neither people nor animals can eat?

What about feeding cattle on cereals/grains in order to fatten them whilst some people can’t access this cereal for food? I sincerely don’t know what the answers to these questions are, but all I know is that we need to address these issues one way or another.

As George said we have some tough choices to make especially here in Europe. Our food choice is currently threatening the food and water security of some of the poorest people in the world. It would appear too that we face unknown future in as far as our own food security is concerned unless we rethink how we farm and eat.

Is the way forward to "GROW" our own? Is the ethical thing to do to farm our own fish instead ot taking fish from those that need it the most? What about our shopping habits? Are supermarkets simply giving in to our demands of super perfect Kenyan green beans?

Have you got a view on any of the issues raised here? Please share it! I would urge to to watch George’s programmes on BBC 2 or iplayer

Filed Under: Ethics, Good Practice, food distribution Tagged With: FOOD, Food Aid, GEORGE ALAGIAH, GREEN BEANS, Kenya, SAINSBURY, SECURITY, SUPERMARKETS, THE FUTURE OF FOOD