My first thoughts about Africa as a sustainability subject were this, “There’s so much going on here that I have no idea what to report on first!” Well that in turn made me hungry, because stress on this reporter causes eating like a pit without end. That though is where to start. How can a country begin to sustain itself when it cannot even feed itself? Well, they can’t. I’ve decided to start this conversation with the simple suggestions of a scientist, Professor Calestous Juma of the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard (Wachai, GMO Africa Blog).
Prof. Juma promotes the use of biotechnology on the growth of food and farm enrichment in Africa. This is generally an idea argued by many ‘green organizations’ because the idea of promoting bio-engineered food, farming, and community is seen as for profit purposes and with the addition of potentially harmful chemicals. That is partially true. I’d personally rather see a nation getting on its feet by way of slightly diminished food, rather than half the nation starving, eliminating that part of the population, and then giving the more expensive enriched crop to the remaining few. That sounds terrible, but hear me out! I feel that Africa needs to sustain basic needs first. It is not ideal. I ask while learning about the agricultural processes in Africa, “Is it better to begin with more toxic food to sustain the general well-being of the population, and then reform growing processes into organic practices?” I’m not sure to be perfectly honest. The result could be catastrophic. 25 percent of the world population that struggles to feed itself resides in sub-Saharan Africa (Wachai, GMO Africa Blog). The majority of small-scale farming is performed by hand. The problem with the argument about organic food vs. bio-engineered food is probably not the necessary topic of discussion in terms of learning how to sustain one of the poorest parts of Africa.
“I’m not saying that it’s going to be a magic bullet, but I think it’s one of the solutions that we should use.”
-Ruth Oniang’o (GMO Africa Blog)
Ruth Oniang’o is a member of the Kenyan Parliament, and Professor of Food Science and Nutrition at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (Wachai, GMO Africa Blog). Her interview, which can be seen on the GMO Africa Blog, suggests that the information needs to first be given to the citizens of the poor regions throughout the continent. How can a nation decide which method of food production is best if they haven’t been exposed to all the possibilities? The truth is they can’t. Oniang’o believes that the entire area is uninformed, and without the necessary technology that allows any nation to develop. Science and the mechanics of modern farming are absent in this part of the continent. Still the overall opinion of Oniang’o and professionals like herself is that the argument of how to grow food responsibly is never on the table, it’s how do we get food period?
I’m repeating right now an idea that was touched on in Jerry Allen’s Aesthetics of Sustainability Course on Wed. August 27, 2008. “A good example of design unused is a windmill designed and erected by an Italian designer in a small region of Africa. It was designed, constructed, and then broke after the inventor left. There was no one to fix it, and more importantly, no one to teach anyone to fix it.” –Allen, MCAD.
The tools are here. There are examples where great inventors have seen solutions to critical problems such as this, but they weren’t implemented correctly. That should be the goal, the key to first sustaining life in Africa. Teach the nation how, not in general terms. Obviously this nation has come along living the way they’ve seen fit in the past. It’s about teaching a nation how to deal with modern devastation that has crept up at an unnatural rate. Disease, population explosion, and many other unnatural states have disrupted life’s place for natural, healthy, and organic ways of farming as a solution. It therefore seems that unfortunately it will take another engineered lifestyle change to begin the path to ‘greener pastures’.
So the question is then, “How can we as outside analysts, bring our skills and resources to the table as a way of providing, and teaching the habits and supplies that will turn around a nation too large to carry it’s weight in problems?” This advertiser has experienced some starting points that may be excellent ways for people of all nations to effortlessly, or with little effort, supply food to one of the world’s largest struggling nations, freerice.com.
Freerice.com is a sister website to poverty.com. Both of these sites work with large companies, that’s right corporations have their place in ‘good’ these days! Each large company donates so much money per participation in the creative marketing plans of organizations like The UN World Food Program. Freerice.com is the marketing plan of the UN World Food Program in this case. It is a game and promotional site that has been developed to encourage people to expand their vocabularies, learn about world hunger, and when they have finished participating in the site’s game, each big company donates 20 grains of rice for each correct answer. It literally informs, and takes away the depressing angle of food devastation, which encourages people to keep on participating. I myself played for an hour before realizing that I could learn some great facts, and feed part of a nation. I also learned some great, big, beautiful words that day! It’s a little silly, and to some people angering and sad. I think the people that get angry about something this silly finally being a solution to feeding others may need to realize that humans have a difficult time going on encouraged, when focused on despair 24-fricken-7. Regardless, I propose ‘fun for farming’. Who’s to say that the same technique couldn’t be used in a way that taught people sustainable skills rather than just language. What if this game also donated time to teaching Africa how to sustain life in their environment. Finally what if a game donated all this, and then also donated seeds instead of rice to give a head start.
The entire point of expanding beyond freerice.com is that it didn’t diversify the generosity of the game to have as much impact as it could have. Now that we know the power, we can make the necessary changes to make a permanent difference.
James Wachai, GMO Africa Blog. July 6, 2008. GMO Africa
Publisher of GMO Africa Blog. August 31, 2008 http://www.gmoafrica.org/2008/07/harvard-researcher-roots-for-agricultural-
biotechnology.html
James Wachai, GMO Africa Blog. July 3, 2007. GMO Africa
Publisher of GMO Africa Blog. August 31,2008
http://www.gmoafrica.org/2007/07/oniango-sees-urgent-need-for-
food-biotechnology-in-africa.html
