tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/food-needs-5032/articlesFood needs – The Conversation2023-11-24T03:50:49Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2159992023-11-24T03:50:49Z2023-11-24T03:50:49ZTaste depends on nature and nurture. Here are 7 ways you can learn to enjoy foods you don’t like<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561220/original/file-20231123-29-vhjtc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=52%2C17%2C3813%2C2538&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You’re out for dinner with a bunch of friends, one of whom orders pizza with anchovies and olives to share, but you hate olives and anchovies! Do you pipe up with your preferred choice – Hawaiian – or stay quiet?</p>
<p>This scene plays out every day around the world. Some people ferociously defend their personal tastes. But many would rather expand their palate, and not have to rock the boat the next time someone in their friend group orders pizza. </p>
<p>Is it possible to train your tastebuds to enjoy foods you previously didn’t, like training a muscle at the gym? </p>
<h2>What determines ‘taste’?</h2>
<p>Taste is a complex system we evolved to help us navigate the environment. It helps us select foods with nutritional value and reject anything potentially harmful. </p>
<p>Foods are made up of different compounds, including nutrients (such as proteins, sugars and fats) and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P_0HGRWgXw">aromas</a> that are detected by sensors in the mouth and nose. These sensors create the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZn2PMUWO-Y">flavour of food</a>. While taste is what the tastebuds on your tongue pick up, flavour is the combination of how something smells and tastes. Together with texture, appearance and sound, these senses collectively influence your food preferences.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MZn2PMUWO-Y?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Flavour is the overall impression you get when eating.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Many factors influence food preferences, including age, genetics and environment. We each live in our own sensory world and no two people will have the same <a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-why-do-some-people-find-some-foods-yummy-but-others-find-the-same-foods-yucky-77671">experience while eating</a>.</p>
<p>Food preferences also change with age. Research has found young children have a <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24452237/">natural preference</a> for sweet and salty tastes and a dislike of bitter tastes. As they grow older their ability to like bitter foods grows. </p>
<p>Emerging evidence shows bacteria in saliva can also produce enzymes that influence the taste of foods. For instance, saliva has been shown to cause the release of sulphur aromas in cauliflower. The <a href="https://www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/2021/acs-presspac-september-22-2021/childrens-dislike-of-cauliflower-broccoli-could-be-written-in-their-microbiome.html">more sulphur that is produced</a>, the less likely a kid is to enjoy the taste of cauliflower.</p>
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Read more:
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<h2>Nature versus nurture</h2>
<p>Both genetics and the environment play a crucial role in determining food preferences. Twin studies estimate genetics have a moderate influence on food preferences (between 32% and 54%, depending on the food type) in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000291652305027X?via%3Dihub">children</a>, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27385609/">adolescents</a> and <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/twin-research-and-human-genetics/article/dietary-patterns-and-heritability-of-food-choice-in-a-uk-female-twin-cohort/8507AAF01330C599BAC62BCC0EF4CF06">adults</a>.</p>
<p>However, since our cultural environment and the foods we’re exposed to also shape our preferences, these <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24452237/">preferences are learned</a> to a large degree. </p>
<p>A lot of this learning takes place during childhood, at home and other places we eat. This isn’t textbook learning. <a href="https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/10.1079/9780851990323.0093">It’s learning</a> by experiencing (eating), which typically leads to increased liking of the food – or by watching what others do (modelling), which can lead to both positive or negative associations.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000291652305027X?via%3Dihub">Research</a> has shown how environmental influences on food preferences change between childhood and adulthood. For children, the main factor is the home environment, which makes sense as kids are more likely to be influenced by foods prepared and eaten at home. Environmental factors influencing adults and adolescents are more varied.</p>
<h2>The process of ‘acquiring’ taste</h2>
<p>Coffee and beer are good examples of bitter foods people “acquire” a taste for as they grow up. The ability to overcome the dislike of these is largely due to: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>the social context in which they’re consumed. For example, in many countries they may be associated with passage into adulthood.</p></li>
<li><p>the physiological effects of the compounds they contain – caffeine in coffee and alcohol in beer. Many people find these effects desirable.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>But what about acquiring a taste for foods that don’t provide such desirable feelings, but which are good for you, such as kale or fatty fish? Is it possible to gain an acceptance for these?</p>
<p>Here are some strategies that can help you learn to enjoy foods you currently don’t:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>eat, and keep eating. Only a small portion is needed to build a liking for a specific taste over time. It may take 10–15 attempts or more before you can say you “like” the food. </p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950329302001106">mask bitterness</a> by eating it with other foods or ingredients that contain salt or sugar. For instance, you can pair bitter rocket with a sweet salad dressing.</p></li>
<li><p>eat it repeatedly in a positive context. That could mean eating it after playing your favourite sport or with people you like. Alternatively, you could eat it with foods you already enjoy; if it’s a specific vegetable, try pairing it with your favourite protein.</p></li>
<li><p>eat it when you’re hungry. In a hungry state you’ll be more willing to accept a taste you might not appreciate on a full stomach. </p></li>
<li><p>remind yourself why you want to enjoy this food. You may be changing your diet for health reasons, or because you’ve moved countries and are struggling with the local cuisine. Your reason will help motivate you. </p></li>
<li><p>start young (if possible). It’s easier for children to learn to like new foods as their tastes are less established. </p></li>
<li><p>remember: the more foods you like, the easier it’ll become to learn to like others.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>A balanced and varied diet is essential for good health. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666315003438?ref=pdf_download&fr=RR-2&rr=82a5fd5069821f63">Picky eating</a> can become a problem if it leads to vitamin and mineral deficiencies – especially if you’re avoiding entire food groups, such as vegetables. At the same time, eating too many tasty but energy-dense foods can increase your risk of chronic disease, including obesity. </p>
<p>Understanding how your food preferences have formed, and how they can evolve, is a first step to getting on the path of healthier eating.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Astrid Poelman has worked on research funded by a variety of industry bodies, Australian government agencies and private companies. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicholas Archer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As kids, we’re naturally more likely to enjoy sweet and salty tastes and reject bitterness. But that changes as we grow older.Nicholas Archer, Research Scientist, Sensory, Flavour and Consumer Sciences, CSIROAstrid Poelman, Principal Researcher, Public Health & Wellbeing Group, CSIROLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1861522022-12-08T13:36:14Z2022-12-08T13:36:14ZWhy farmers in northern Ghana go to bed hungry<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481114/original/file-20220825-20-gdaiwt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Farmers in Northern Ghana are among the poorest in the country</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ghana is one of the few countries often praised for achieving impressive reductions in hunger. The 2022 Global Hunger Index <a href="https://www.globalhungerindex.org/pdf/en/2022.pdf">report</a> reveals Ghana’s hunger score has declined by more than 50 percent since the year 2000. At the <a href="https://www.cmf.ch/">Crans Montana Forum</a> held in November 2022, where critical issues of global food security are discussed, some of the panellists, including representatives from Ghana, credited the country’s flagship School Feeding Programme and Planting for Food and Jobs initiative for the compelling impacts on hunger reduction. These initiatives were recommended as ideal for replication in other West African states. But what these commenders failed to emphasise is the uneven geography of hunger beyond the national statistics. </p>
<p>According to the World Food Programme’s 2020 comprehensive food security and <a href="https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000140756/download/?_ga=2.31027007.1041823298.1666102006-275484726.1666102006">vulnerability analysis</a>, an estimated 11.7% of Ghanaians are food insecure. Further analysis shows some regions boast fewer malnourished and hungry populations, while others have more than the national average. The northern part of Ghana has the highest prevalence of food insecurity, at 23-49%, compared to 4-10% in the southernmost regions. This regional disparity and staggeringly skewed evidence of hunger in the northern part of Ghana raises profound questions; and thus represent an important part of my doctoral research, which broadly focuses on climate risks and food insecurity in northern Ghana. </p>
<p>In conducting my <a href="https://euc.yorku.ca/research-spotlight/climate-risks-and-household-responses-to-food-insecurity-in-northern-ghana/">research</a>, I interacted with communities in the Kassena Nankana area of the Upper East region of Ghana, mainly through household surveys, complemented with interviews and focus group discussions to give a deeper insight into the results. </p>
<p>The insights from research participants revealed the distinctive variations in households’ food access and food availability throughout the year. These variations are intensified by poor access to storage, transportation, and market infrastructure critical for ensuring rural households’ better food availability, access, and affordability beyond the harvesting season.</p>
<h2>Extended hungry season and reliance on market</h2>
<p>An aspect of my study focused on understanding households’ food availability and access throughout the year. The survey participants were asked to reflect on their household’s food availability in a typical year and rate the level of food sufficiency for each month. The rating scale was based on a score of 0-3, with 0 representing rare or not available, 1 for available, and 2 for highly available based on households’ perceived food needs. </p>
<p>The reported responses revealed variations in food availability and access throughout the year. Food is highly available in most households during the four-month harvesting season from August/September to November/December. Beyond this period, the quantity of households’ food stock starts to deplete and subsequently becomes rare or unavailable between the months of May and August – the period often referred to as the hungry season. These findings resonate with reports of reduced food availability and extended months of hunger in rural farming communities across northern Ghana and other deprived areas of Africa and the world.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495560/original/file-20221116-20-2b56nm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495560/original/file-20221116-20-2b56nm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495560/original/file-20221116-20-2b56nm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495560/original/file-20221116-20-2b56nm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495560/original/file-20221116-20-2b56nm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495560/original/file-20221116-20-2b56nm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495560/original/file-20221116-20-2b56nm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Monthly food availability in households’ food stores.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Balikisu Osman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I also found that growing food is not the only way smallholder farmers obtain food to feed their families; they also buy from the market. The smallholder farmers’ reliance on market purchases increases progressively after the four-month harvesting season. Most households purchase food from the market during the hungry season, especially in June and July.</p>
<p>The increasing importance of market purchases in the months after immediate post-harvest is attributable to several factors, including the lack of proper storage to keep food crops longer after harvesting.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495562/original/file-20221116-21-8ej0hx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495562/original/file-20221116-21-8ej0hx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495562/original/file-20221116-21-8ej0hx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495562/original/file-20221116-21-8ej0hx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495562/original/file-20221116-21-8ej0hx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495562/original/file-20221116-21-8ej0hx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495562/original/file-20221116-21-8ej0hx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495562/original/file-20221116-21-8ej0hx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Household food sources throughout the year.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The problem of storage and markets</h2>
<p>My research also showed that limited access to proper storage facilities and markets contributes to smallholder farmers’ inability to feed their families throughout the year. Most farmers (76.6%) store their crops in reserved spaces in their bedrooms or homes. Some (47.2%) reported storing crops in mud-constructed barns/silos. These storage options enable farmers to keep crops for a few months after harvest, allowing marketing flexibility and food availability during out-of-season periods. However, the stores are mostly built of mud and plant materials, usually dilapidated and unable to maintain air tightness to eliminate insect pest attacks at storage. </p>
<p>Although there are two grain-storage warehouses in the study district, the total capacity is only 1120MT and, therefore, cannot serve all the farmers. Besides, the two warehouses are located in the Navrongo area, far out of reach for most farmers to store their crops. Earlier research in the study area has shown that storage challenges result in about 35% losses in grain crops, equivalent to weeks’ worth of consumption. The lack of proper storage also compels farmers to hasten crop sales after harvest, contributing to the diminishing food availability and households’ vulnerability to food insecurity in the hungry seasons.</p>
<p>Even more interesting, the research found that the problem of hunger is further exacerbated by poor transportation and access to the market. There is one central market in Navrongo, the district capital, and seven satellite markets serving various scattered communities. Compared to the main market, the satellite markets act as a converging point for a small number of buyers and sellers offering a few bowls of grains. </p>
<p>Although most households must rely on the market to buy food in the hungry season, they do not have direct access to vehicular transportation to travel to the Navrongo market. As a result, households are constrained to buy food crops from the satellite markets where prices are higher as very few farmers have food crops to sell in the lean season.</p>
<p>During the interviews, some households explained that the Navrongo market offers opportunities to buy and sell crops at more reasonable prices than the niche markets. However, the travel distance, poor roads, and high cost of transportation prevent them from going to the central market. The research found that almost half of the households (45.8%) must travel more than 20 km to get to the main market. Besides the relatively long distances, good transport services are also unavailable, and households must rely on the exorbitant charges from tricycle operators.</p>
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p>Food production enable smallholders to cultivate food. But this alone doesn’t guarantee year-round food security for families. There are variations in food availability throughout the year, and market purchase is a significant food source for subsistence farmers. </p>
<p>It is important to note that the lack of proper storage facilities and functional markets intensifies the difficulties of smallholder households in maintaining food security throughout the year. </p>
<p>There is the need to transform rural food systems into productive and profitable activities for farming households who play a double role as producers and consumers of food. The need for increased investment in food storage and processing facilities, market access, rural transportation, and buffer stock at regional and district levels is of particular importance. This would protect smallholder households against variations in food availability and access.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186152/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Balikisu Osman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Climate change is affecting the availability of food to the families of farmers in Ghana.Balikisu Osman, PhD Candidate in Environmental Studies, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/640172016-08-21T17:53:40Z2016-08-21T17:53:40ZInvesting in science can help put food on Africa’s plates<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134280/original/image-20160816-13017-1h28fn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Climate change and the current El Niño have left Africans more vulnerable than ever to hunger.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Food shortages, hunger, starvation and long-term food security are not new issues in Africa, nor elsewhere in the developing world. Food security means that all people, at all times, have both physical and economic access to enough food for an active, healthy life.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats">most recent figures</a> suggest that food security is far from a reality in Africa. <a href="http://www.fao.org/hunger/en/">23% of</a> the continent’s population – some 233 million people, most of them young – face dire hunger every day. This number also represents <a href="https://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats">more than a quarter</a> of the global figure for people who live with hunger bordering on starvation.</p>
<p>The geographical distribution of the crisis in sub-Saharan Africa is uneven. Countries whose environmental conditions are least suitable for agriculture are severely at risk. So are those that have been subjected to prolonged periods of warfare or internal social conflict and poor governance. In more recent years, the broad impacts of <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-africas-drought-responses-teach-us-about-climate-change-hotspots-61600">global climate change</a> and the prolonged effect of the current <a href="https://theconversation.com/el-nino-threatens-southern-africa-with-yet-another-drought-50491">El Niño phenomenon</a> have intensified the problem.</p>
<p>Ethiopia, South Sudan, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Angola and Mozambique are all at risk. South Africa will, in 2016, <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/business/news/farmers-may-cull-36-more-cattle-1961871">possibly cull</a> some 800 000 head of cattle and <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-poor-face-rising-food-prices-as-drought-intensifies-52950">import</a> at least 300 000 tonnes of maize. As a result, this “old” topic has become increasingly important in current research and development.</p>
<p>It’s clear that economic growth is necessary to make progress in reducing poverty and hunger. But scientists have <a href="http://theconversation.com/sub-saharan-africa-has-a-long-way-to-go-before-it-cracks-food-insecurity-56100">pointed out</a> that economic growth alone won’t end hunger. Good policies and programmes are needed too. Scientists and researchers have a role to play in these initiatives. After all, substantial and reliable <a href="http://www.up.ac.za/institute-for-food-nutrition-and-well-being">scientific knowledge</a> is needed to implement any successful programmes.</p>
<h2>Africa’s particular challenges</h2>
<p>This understanding of science’s value in food security debates prompted South Africa’s National Science and Technology Forum to <a href="http://www.nstf.org.za/discussion-forum/pulses-and-food-security-discussion-forum-2-3-june-2016/">host</a> a “Discussion Forum on Pulses and Food Security” in June 2016. </p>
<p>The meeting’s <a href="https://www.saiie.co.za/cms/content/675-media-release:-collaboration-and-alignment-%E2%80%93-way-forward-for-sa-food-security">preliminary findings</a> make a critical point: food is a necessity, but it’s also a product. </p>
<p>In other words, it must generate a profit for the points in the food chain – farmers/growers, transporters, processors, storers and sellers. It’s the profit at these points in the chain that keeps the chain working and moving.</p>
<p>Farmers may decide not to put low value crops into the chain because this lowers profits. That leads to waste at the point of source. This situation may also mean that if supply and demand aren’t in kilter or prices are too high, people won’t buy particular food products. So there’s waste again, or what appears to be a surplus. There’s more food than can be purchased or can be afforded. Overcoming this requires market adjustments all along the supply chain.</p>
<p>This is not a uniquely African challenge. It’s a global problem. The world <a href="http://www.fao.org/food-loss-and-food-waste/en/?fb_locale=nb_NO">produces more food</a> than paying consumers really need, resulting in substantial waste. Meanwhile hunger and starvation remain endemic, primarily in the world’s developing regions.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4635e.pdf">Research</a> undertaken by the Food and Agricultural Organisation and private sector companies in the agricultural sector shows that there are five critical challenges to food security in sub-Saharan Africa. These are:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Critical inputs – farmers at all scales of production need high-yielding seeds, effective fertiliser and sufficient water to produce a successful crop. This doesn’t always happen, and there are also problems with coordination between farmers and markets.</p></li>
<li><p>Access to financing – for smallholders especially credit is often inaccessible or unaffordable. This also leaves farmers much more vulnerable to market volatility and unpredictable weather.</p></li>
<li><p>Property rights – in many parts of Africa, farmers are unable to own their land and pledge it as collateral. This limits their incentive to reinvest in their businesses.</p></li>
<li><p>Infrastructure for market access – farmers generally can earn higher prices outside of harvest season. Yet few African smallholders have access to proper storage to take advantage of price fluctuations. Many also live in isolated, rural areas where a lack of paved roads, reliable energy, warehouses and cold storage put food security at risk and increase post-harvest loss. </p></li>
<li><p>Off-farm income – this is critically important to agricultural development. The first migrants from farms to cities often send money back to their relatives. Those remittances can fund better farm inputs – seed, fertiliser and machinery, for example. In addition, farmers and farm outputs benefit if urban workers have incomes sufficient to purchase food at prices that encourage farmers to produce more. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>How can these challenges be managed?</p>
<h2>Science is the key</h2>
<p>The National Science and Technology Forum meeting produced <a href="https://www.saiie.co.za/cms/content/675-media-release:-collaboration-and-alignment-%E2%80%93-way-forward-for-sa-food-security">four recommendations</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The need for better communication among producers, distributors and consumers in the food supply chain so that expectations are aligned;</p></li>
<li><p>The need for collaboration – not only across the food supply chain but between government and the private sector and between governmental departments;</p></li>
<li><p>The recognition of indigenous knowledge systems around food security; and, critically,</p></li>
<li><p>The urgent need for investment in research and development – in other words, in relevant science and technology and then in implementing the outcome of scientific and developmental work.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>There are several examples of why this fourth point is so relevant. Science is already doing great work when it comes to food supplies. For instance, the <a href="http://www.up.ac.za/en/food-security-policy-innovation-lab/homepage/preview/744?module=frontpage&slug=homepages&id=2326496&_zp_sid=sl8gd75ouphuo3skjqiuqfhjndj42mkl">Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy</a> consortium is working with governments, researchers and private sector stakeholders. It’s active in about 19 “Feed the Future” focus countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, trying to increase agricultural productivity, improve dietary diversity and build greater resilience to challenges – like climate change – that affect livelihoods. </p>
<h2>Politics mustn’t subsume science</h2>
<p>The fourth recommendation is particularly significant. It would seem that the food supply chain is subject not only to competitors, but also to inaccurate and possibly opportunistic political assessments. </p>
<p>In South Africa, for example, there was an outcry after the country’s Minister for Social Development <a href="http://businesstech.co.za/news/wealth/126321/minister-says-south-africans-can-survive-on-r753-a-month/">suggested</a> that R753 (around US$56) a month was enough to feed a low-income family of five people. </p>
<p>But best estimates, which take account of the impact of drought and the effects of El Niño on food prices, suggest that the <a href="http://businesstech.co.za/news/finance/127473/how-much-it-really-costs-to-feed-a-family-of-five-in-south-africa-its-not-r753/">minimum figure</a> for the most basic basket of food for a family of five is closer to R1147 a month. That’s 52% more than the minister’s figure.</p>
<p>This sort of politicking is all the more reason for more rigorous science, better insights – and fewer opportunities for guess work at the expense of low-income, hungry families.</p>
<p><em>Author’s note: This article is based on <a href="http://sajs.co.za/more-scientific-thinking-needed-feed-society-nstf-tackles-hunger/john-butler-adam">an editorial</a> that appeared in the July/August 2016 edition of the South African Journal of Science.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64017/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Butler-Adam does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Economic growth alone won’t end hunger. Good policies and programmes are needed, too. Scientists and researchers have a role to play in these initiatives.John Butler-Adam, Editor-in-Chief of the South African Journal of Science and Consultant, Vice Principal for Research and Graduate Education, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/620132016-07-06T14:49:54Z2016-07-06T14:49:54ZHow prizes can encourage African farmers to embrace innovation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129554/original/image-20160706-12743-19qcicm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some farmers are suspicious of technological innovation. But technology can really help them.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Hutchings/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Africa must transform agriculture to meet its food security needs and contribute to economic transformation. But change in this sector is usually slow. It is often bedevilled by popular opposition to the use of new technologies.</p>
<p>In my new book, “<a href="http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/26289/innovation_and_its_enemies.html">Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies</a>”, I argue that the idea of agricultural transformation often creates perceptions about the potential loss of income and cultural identity among Africa’s farming communities.</p>
<p>These perceptions could lead to people opposing new technologies and ultimately undermine farming communities’ abilities to improve their well-being through agricultural innovation. In Kenya some farmers have, over the past decade, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1525197/Machines-to-replace-Kenyas-tea-pickers.html">opposed</a> the introduction of mechanical tea harvesters because of the potential impact on jobs.</p>
<p>Such perceptions aren’t new. Agricultural mechanisation, for instance, has been marked by long periods of opposition, largely by advocates of farm animals and human labour worldwide. American farmers objected to the introduction of tractors. They argued that horses could reproduce themselves while tractors depreciated. Anxiety about the loss of incumbent farming systems lay at the heart of this controversy.</p>
<p>Agricultural transformation requires both courage and sensitivity to social effects. This is why Africa needs a variety of incentives – particularly prizes for excellence – that promote <a href="http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/26289/innovation_and_its_enemies.html">agricultural innovation</a> in ways that benefit farming communities. Research has <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674030435&content=reviews">proved</a> how much prestigious prizes can boost cultural innovation. Why shouldn’t the same be true for agricultural innovation?</p>
<h2>The prestige of prizes</h2>
<p>One of the initiatives that’s trying to change people’s attitudes to agricultural innovation is the <a href="http://www.africafoodprize.org/">Africa Food Prize</a>. It styles itself as “the preeminent award recognising an outstanding individual or institution that is leading the effort to change the reality of farming in Africa”.</p>
<p>The prize, founded by the <a href="http://agra.org/">Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa</a> and the <a href="http://yara.com/">Yara Corporation</a>, is worth much more than its monetary value of US$100,000. It “celebrates Africans who are taking control of Africa’s agriculture agenda.” It highlights “bold initiatives and technical innovations that can be replicated across the continent to create a new era of food security and economic opportunity for all Africans”.</p>
<p>More importantly, it aims to change African agriculture “from a struggle to survive to a business that thrives”. This involves pursuing agricultural excellence that isn’t usually associated with traditional farming systems whose emblem is an African woman oppressed by the inefficiency of the hand hoe.</p>
<p>Prizes aren’t without their detractors, of course. Their role in promoting excellence is one of the most hotly debated areas of social innovation in Africa. Each year, for instance, there is much discussion about the award or non-award of the <a href="http://qz.com/714618/why-we-havent-given-africas-most-prestigious-leadership-award-for-two-years/">Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership</a>.</p>
<p>In his pioneering book, “<a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674030435&content=reviews">The Economy of Prestige</a>”, James English points out that prizes have been critical in promoting advances in literature and the arts. He argues that they’ve helped to create the “cultural capital” that’s needed to propel creativity and excellence in these areas. English shows how cultural innovation benefits from improvements in the prize sponsorship, nomination and judging procedures; presentation and acceptance; and publicity and even controversy. These lessons can all be applied to the world of agricultural innovation.</p>
<p>Today a number of prizes globally seek to foster innovation. A study by consulting giant <a href="http://mckinseyonsociety.com/capturing-the-promise-of-philanthropic-prizes/">McKinsey</a> found that such prizes are most effective when there is:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a clear objective (for example, one that is measurable and achievable within a reasonable time frame), the availability of a relatively large population of potential problem solvers, and a willingness on the part of participants to bear some of the costs and risks. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>More prizes needed</h2>
<p>Hopefully, the Africa Food Prize will foster the creation of similar and complementary prizes. This is important. There’s a tendency for society to shun excellence prizes if they appear to serve only a small group of people. In social settings where patronage and entitlement are the default criteria for awards, resentment toward these prizes is particularly strong.</p>
<p>So what might new prizes in the field of agricultural innovation look like? They could have very specific objectives – rewarding young agricultural entrepreneurs, especially those who succeed across the full <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/06/why-our-stereotypes-of-african-farming-are-all-wrong/">agricultural value chain</a>. They could focus on newer agricultural fields like data processing. They could reward those who are innovative in production, processing and packaging, retailing, recycling and environmental management.</p>
<p>They could also provide more than a monetary reward. One of the factors that keeps young people from going into agribusiness is a lack of mentors. New prizes could incorporate mentoring functions, as is the case with the <a href="http://www.raeng.org.uk/grants-and-prizes/international-research-and-collaborations/africa-prize">Africa Prize for Engineering and Innovation</a> that’s managed by the <a href="http://www.raeng.org.uk/">UK Royal Academy of Engineering</a>.</p>
<p>The diversity of agricultural activities calls for more prizes. As “The Economy of Prestige” suggests, society can rapidly accumulate cultural capital if there are as many prizes as they are winners. The Africa Food Prize should be the first seed in a broader effort to cultivate a culture of agricultural excellence on the continent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62013/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Calestous Juma serves on the juries of the Africa Food Prize and the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.</span></em></p>It’s been proved that prizes can boost cultural innovation. The same is certainly true for innovation in agriculture – which Africa desperately needs.Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development, Harvard Kennedy SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/543322016-05-15T19:46:58Z2016-05-15T19:46:58ZMacho kitchens, sludge eating techies and ‘miracle’ diets: how did food get so tricky?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122431/original/image-20160513-27205-1q5g9pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Food is being deconstructed, politicised, scrutinised and replaced altogether.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Our new series “Tastes of a nation” looks at our food crazy culture: from the politics of “Dude Food” to the moralising that now accompanies our eating choices.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Why is food such a big deal these days? Both inside and outside academia, it has become a veritable cultural and political obsession. Pop culture was there first: since at least the late 1970s, a vibrant array of media devoted to home cooking and fine dining has existed. </p>
<p>(The first chef’s hat to celebrate outstanding Australian restaurants was awarded in 1977; the 1980s witnessed the explosion of American half-hour cooking shows like <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0282298/">The Frugal Gourmet</a> (1983-1995)). </p>
<p>One could certainly make a case for wide food obsessions in earlier decades, too. Still, our appetites seem more insatiable than ever: magazines, blogs, television shows, apps, social media, and a dazzling array of global festivals reveal how food has become a platform for selling a panoply of aspirational lifestyles.</p>
<p>Academics, by contrast, have come relatively late to the party. Anthropologists – always sensitively attuned to lifestyles, so to speak – led the pack in taking food as a compelling topic of study (the French structuralist <a href="http://www.britannica.com/biography/Claude-Levi-Strauss">Claude Lévi-Strauss</a> may jump to your mind). </p>
<p>But only a handful of historians considered food a genuine subject of research until the mid-1970s, and even then their research frequently met with puzzlement. Other fields similarly hesitated to recognise food as a valid area of study. </p>
<p>Was it because food and cooking – like fashion – struck conservative male scholars as women’s stuff? Or was it because food studies seemed low on the list of important subjects for feminist scholars? If so, both sides have changed perspectives in recent decades.</p>
<p>Even the most old-fashioned scholars now recognise the deep research of enterprising social historians and feminist academics, who have shown food was always embedded in complex networks of labour and consumption for both men and women. The late Sidney Mintz’s 1985 book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/167457.Sweetness_and_Power">Sweetness and Power</a> – an historical anthropology of sugar – remains fundamental as a project that extended food studies into the realm of urgently topical scholarship.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122430/original/image-20160513-27188-1s9j4ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122430/original/image-20160513-27188-1s9j4ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122430/original/image-20160513-27188-1s9j4ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122430/original/image-20160513-27188-1s9j4ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122430/original/image-20160513-27188-1s9j4ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122430/original/image-20160513-27188-1s9j4ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122430/original/image-20160513-27188-1s9j4ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122430/original/image-20160513-27188-1s9j4ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stéphanie Kilgast/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Women are cooks, men are chefs</h2>
<p>Many of food culture’s stories of power, it turns out, are embedded in long histories in which women’s cooking has been classed as domestic and men’s cooking as professional. </p>
<p>Even for celebrity chefs, home cooking still generally conjures a world of women (Maggie, Delia, Julia), but restaurant cooking makes us think of dudes (Heston, Yotam, René). </p>
<p>This phenomenon haunts us even today: the uproar that followed the publication of <a href="http://www.eater.com/2013/11/7/6334005/time-editor-howard-chua-eoan-explains-why-no-female-chefs-are-gods-of">Time Magazine’s 2013 issue devoted to “The Gods of Food”</a> (100 chefs, all men) is just one index of an ongoing conversation about the way that food preparation articulates relations of power in families and businesses alike.</p>
<p>We also might wonder whether the celebration of the hard-driving macho culture of the kitchen (represented by military-style command structures coupled with tattooed counterculturalism, and flamboyant technologically-driven techniques) can help further to explain the popularisation of food culture in the last fifteen years.</p>
<p>Men’s ongoing embrace of the kitchen has made it a new leisure space and imaginative realm for them. Anthony Bourdain, Gordon Ramsay, and the <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/10/24/white-vegan-couple-cooks-controversy-thug-kitchen-cookbook">controversial Thug Kitchen duo</a> imagine cooking as a profane, often hard-living sport.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ktaeJ1Yeh4g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>But it’s a complex evolution: international phenoms like Jamie Oliver appear to straddle simple divides between home and professional kitchen, pointing to ethical concerns about eating (one of Oliver’s main platforms) over gendered ones.</p>
<h2>The contested science of food</h2>
<p>Scholarship is catching up now. An explosion of new research in dozens of fields has at last begun to grapple with the ways that food is fundamental to studies of capitalism, race, migration, nationalism, history, environment, demography, ethics, technology, leisure, justice, health, and art, just to name a few.</p>
<p>Food studies have permitted the flourishing of an interdisciplinary conversation that brings together unlikely interlocutors in the interest of finding important intersections between fields.</p>
<p>One of the most vexed of these intersections is the question of food science: both the science of food, and nutritional science. </p>
<p>“Molecular gastronomy” is a phrase we often use generically to talk about high-tech cuisine, but scholars originally coined it to point to a startling lack of knowledge: what actually happens (in terms of chemistry and physics) when we cook?</p>
<p>Only in the past thirty years have specialists begun to investigate those questions, and we can see some of the popularised fruits of that research in the new book by J. Kenji López-Alt, <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24861842-the-food-lab">The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science</a> (2015), an enormous compendium of explanations and techniques based upon kitchen-laboratory research. </p>
<p>While the “science of cooking” might strike some as a strategy to appeal to men, new research suggests that young Australian women are embracing science education and careers vigorously. That shift suggests a generational change that could itself bring new perspectives into ‘food science.’</p>
<p>Advances in knowledge of food preparation, however, do not equate to knowledge of nutrition. One of the great research challenges of the last generation has been to find appropriate ways to study food in terms of public health. </p>
<p>Critics claim that fundamentally flawed research presuppositions about populations – especially in terms of class – have diverted much nutritional science into dubious territory. (See Julie Guthman’s 2011 book, <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10998528-weighing-in">Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism</a>.) </p>
<p>Calorie-counting, nutritional graphs, fat-carbohydrate-protein ratios have all become contentious topics. Foods that the last generation ate virtuously we now denigrate as carcinogenic or toxic (meat, sugar), and former no-nos now receive scientific endorsement (certain kinds of fat). But not if you’re on the paleo regime. The somersaults are dizzying.</p>
<p>Stimulated by these arguments over ideal diets, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have gone so far as to scrap the very notion food. A food replacement named <a href="https://www.soylent.com/">Soylent</a>, a nutritionally-sufficient pancake-batter sludge, replaces food for young techies too busy to eat. </p>
<p>In this climate, one of the jobs of academic research into food is to unpack the core assumptions that drive production, consumption, and valuation of what we eat. We’ll be exploring some of these assumptions over the course of our new series, Tastes of a Nation. </p>
<p>If our research can propose better avenues, more compelling pasts and futures, or smarter ideas than the current working models, then we will have earned our just deserts … and, if the nutritionists permit us, possible even desserts.</p>
<p><br></p>
<hr>
<p><em>Look out for the next instalment in Tastes of a Nation: Can we call ourselves Australian if we don’t eat native food?</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54332/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Gagne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When did food become such a big deal to academics, politicians and pop culture alike? From paleo evangelicals to taxes on sugar, everyone’s got an opinion about what’s on your fork.John Gagne, Lecturer in History, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/421842015-06-19T02:20:06Z2015-06-19T02:20:06ZPlanning ahead to reduce feast and famine after natural disasters<p>Since <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-13/flooding-destructive-winds-as-cyclone-pam-bears-down-on-vanuatu/6316590">Cyclone Pam tore through Vanuatu</a> almost 100 days ago, food has been scarce for many rural people in Vanuatu. </p>
<p>Those in the worst-affected areas have been living on food gleaned from damaged gardens and coconuts, as well as imported rice and other foods distributed by the Vanuatu National Disaster Management Office. Many non-government organisations, including Oxfam, Save the Children, Uniting World and others, have also been involved in cyclone recovery.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85145/original/image-20150616-5810-1a3t2ea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85145/original/image-20150616-5810-1a3t2ea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85145/original/image-20150616-5810-1a3t2ea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85145/original/image-20150616-5810-1a3t2ea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85145/original/image-20150616-5810-1a3t2ea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85145/original/image-20150616-5810-1a3t2ea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85145/original/image-20150616-5810-1a3t2ea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85145/original/image-20150616-5810-1a3t2ea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Port Vila’s fresh food market, where yams were still selling for twice their usual price earlier this month.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Constable</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By early June, faster-maturing food crops, particularly green leafy vegetables, were being sold in larger quantities again in the Port Vila fresh food market. </p>
<p>However, the slower-growing staple food crops – including yam, taro, banana and sweet potato – were still in limited supply, with prices higher than before Cyclone Pam.</p>
<p>Fortunately, rural people across Vanuatu have greater security of food supply than they did in the past.</p>
<p>Here we examine the issues of food security in Vanuatu since Cyclone Pam, as well as patterns of food shortages that have emerged from other recent Pacific emergencies. By learning from these past emergencies, the region’s most vulnerable communities could be better positioned for the future with both pre- and post-disaster planning.</p>
<h2>Recurring food gluts and shortages</h2>
<p>A number of phases for food supply can typically be distinguished following a major natural disturbance, such as a cyclone or a flood. This pattern has <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-13/cyclone-pam-thousands-still-without-food-water-one-month-vanuatu/6389450">largely been observed</a> in post-Cyclone Pam Vanuatu. </p>
<p>At first, there is a glut of food when crops are damaged, but the tuberous roots or fruit are still edible. This phase can last for several weeks. Then relief may be provided, for some people at least, by government or non-government agencies.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85178/original/image-20150616-5854-rmffyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85178/original/image-20150616-5854-rmffyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85178/original/image-20150616-5854-rmffyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85178/original/image-20150616-5854-rmffyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85178/original/image-20150616-5854-rmffyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85178/original/image-20150616-5854-rmffyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85178/original/image-20150616-5854-rmffyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85178/original/image-20150616-5854-rmffyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Banana trees blown over on Ipota, Vanuatu, after Cyclone Pam.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/69583224@N05/16835624926/in/photolist-rDGYKh-qHvcRx-rnQEEH-rnJh3j-rnJjVf-r2Q9yK-rGb9pV-rG39WS-rEivSF-qH121d-qHerMv-rDTDKh-rBHhu7-rnqy4U-qHemUz-rDULPq-rDVUBg-sdHnwb-sg3GnJ-r2CqJ5-rWkky3-rG4qpL-rG38Ff-r2QaVn-rEiuzF-rGbbGF-r2CpRo-rWkkzA-rYykQ2-rWkmnC-rGbbkZ-r2Q9Bv-r2QaKn-rYCDDe-r2Coqh-r2Cqcd-rYCD9r-r2Cp65-r2Q9HT-rYv7Sf-r2CoVf-rG39Z7-rWkjNq-rG4q1Q-rGb9Kp-rG39eu-rGbaCM-rG39vG-rEivQ6-rGb8Sn">Flicker/EC/ECHO</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In many developing countries, food relief is typically patchy, the timing is not always appropriate and the supply does not last as long as the food shortage. Commonly, a critical gap occurs between the end of relief supplies and the start of harvests from new plantings following the disaster.</p>
<p>Finally, subsistence food production is resumed. This starts with fast-maturing green vegetables, maize (also known as corn) and sweet potato, and then slower-maturing crops, such as taro, yam and banana.</p>
<p>Following an extreme natural event that disrupts food supply, it is common for government officers or outsiders to assess the food supply situation. </p>
<p>Over the decades, we have observed that the impact of more spectacular events, such as landslides, local floods, mild drought or frosts, tends to be overestimated in those assessments. </p>
<p>In contrast, the impact of other, less visible events is ignored or underestimated. In particular, these events include inadequate planting rates that result in food shortages, or excessively high rainfall that leads to good top growth in some root crops but reduced tuber yield.</p>
<h2>Improving food security in rural Vanuatu</h2>
<p>The locations most vulnerable to <a href="http://www.meteo.gov.vu/TropicalCyclone/tabid/169/Default.aspx">cyclones in Vanuatu</a> are low-lying islands near the path of a cyclone, particularly those that are remote or distant from urban centres, with small populations and poor communications. Islands such as Emau, Tongoa, Tongariki, Mataso and Aniwa appear to have suffered disproportionately from Cyclone Pam.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84978/original/image-20150615-1962-8zvqow.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84978/original/image-20150615-1962-8zvqow.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84978/original/image-20150615-1962-8zvqow.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1109&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84978/original/image-20150615-1962-8zvqow.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1109&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84978/original/image-20150615-1962-8zvqow.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1109&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84978/original/image-20150615-1962-8zvqow.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1393&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84978/original/image-20150615-1962-8zvqow.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84978/original/image-20150615-1962-8zvqow.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1393&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The islands of Vanuatu.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vanuatu_Regions_map.png">Wikimedia Commons/Burmesedays, Eric Gaba, ru Wikipedia user Переход Артур</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Three out of four people in rural Vanuatu live in rural settlements, a situation similar to that of other countries in the Southwest Pacific. Villagers grow most of their own food, with 70-85% of energy foods coming from their subsistence food gardens. The most important energy foods for rural Vanuatu are taro, banana, yam, cassava and “Fiji” (Xanthosoma) taro.</p>
<p>In the past when garden food was scarce, for whatever reason, people ate coconuts, “wild yam”, breadfruit (stored in pits in the northern islands), fish and various edible green leaves. In many communities, dependence on some of these traditional coping mechanisms appears to have been reduced or lost altogether in recent decades. For example, fewer people now store breadfruit after harvest and not so many people manage “wild” yams. </p>
<p>Despite this, rural people across much of the Pacific have greater food security than they did in the past. This improved security comes firstly from crops introduced by Europeans and other Pacific Island people over the past 200 years, including cassava, “Fiji” taro, sweet potato, maize, African yam, pumpkin and a number of types of green vegetable. Some of the newly adopted food crops are more tolerant of extreme conditions, particularly cassava, while others mature within a few months when planted after a disaster, particularly maize and sweet potato.</p>
<p>The other major factor in increased food security is the availability of cash, which can be used to purchase imported food, particularly rice, or locally grown foods when subsistence food supplies are scarce.</p>
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<h2>Learning from past disasters to help in future</h2>
<p>A number of lessons can be gleaned from subsistence food shortages elsewhere in the Asia Pacific area. </p>
<p>Food intended for rural villagers may not be moved far beyond the capital city or provincial capital; even when it does get moved to rural areas, distribution is commonly very uneven and does not always reach those in greatest need. </p>
<p>Planting material is often distributed with the best of intentions, but is sometimes not appropriate to local conditions, such as crops with low nutritional value like cucumber or cabbage. The most appropriate planting material to distribute following a disruption to rural food supplies is that of fast-growing crops of high nutritional value, particularly maize and sweet potato.</p>
<p>In 1997, <a href="http://aciar.gov.au/files/node/306/0002pr99chapter2.pdf">Papua New Guinea experienced</a> a major El Nino-related drought with accompanying frosts, the most severe of these events in 130 years of recorded history. This resulted in over 40% of rural villagers being short of subsistence food and a significant increase in the death rate in a number of locations. </p>
<p>The common element in those locations was that people had very limited access to cash income to purchase alternative foods; there was no road access; and people had limited capacity to influence authorities to provide aid, because of isolation and lack of formal education.</p>
<p>It is not possible to predict the impact of any natural catastrophe with complete confidence. Nevertheless there are some recurring patterns. The most vulnerable communities live in remote locations, with poor road, river or sea access to urban centres; and the populations at these locations are typically small, with few educated members in positions of power. </p>
<p>Rising sea levels and more extreme climatic events associated with climate change, including more frequent drought, excessive rainfall events and stronger cyclones, are very likely to <a href="http://www.ifad.org/events/apr09/impact/islands.pdf">challenge food supply in our region</a> in coming decades. These threats can be reduced by improving the capacity of authorities to identify the most vulnerable communities, improving communications, ensuring appropriate and timely responses, and maintaining or building on traditional coping strategies.</p>
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<p><em>This article was co-written with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pub/michael-constable/61/58/ab?trk=pub-pbmap">Mike Constable</a>, a long-time aid and development worker who has recently been in Vanuatu as part of <a href="http://www.unitingworld.org.au/">Uniting World</a>’s relief effort. He has previously worked for AusAID.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42184/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mike Bourke receives funding from Australian government organisations to conduct research and development work in Pacific Island countries. This article was co-written with Mike Constable, a long-time aid and development worker who has recently been in Vanuatu as part of Uniting World's relief effort. Mike Constable has previously worked for AusAID.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Ballard received funding from UNESCO to assist in the assessment and repair of damage from Cyclone Pam to the Chief Roi Mata's Domain World Heritage site in Efate, Vanuatu.</span></em></p>Food has been scarce for many rural people in Vanuatu since Cyclone Pam – but overall, they now have greater security of food supply than they did in the past.Richard Michael Bourke, Visiting Fellow, Australian National UniversityChris Ballard, Associate Professor in Pacific History, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.