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
