The month of March 2023, has come and is about gone, but not without ushering in the much-awaited rains. While we are thankful of the rains, we cannot help but notice the manifestation of weather extremes (climate change manenos!)…many parts of Kenya(and the Horn of Africa) have experienced an unprecedented drought…suddenly those regions are experiencing floods!

In this month’s blog article, we contextualize and visualize an Africa where there is a bountiful expression of food sovereignty…growing a wide range of local and diverse foods while converting those indigenous and traditional foods into a celebration of tasteful African cuisines …a celebration of African culinary skills and food cultures….just like our grandmothers did!

There is no better way of personally expressing my optimism about an unfolding Africa, where there is food sovereignty, than participating as a co-author, in the writing and editing of this ‘one of a kind book’ aptly titled ‘My Food is African’, a pan-African publication spearheaded by the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa(AFSA). You can download a free copy here: https://afsafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/bfg-my_food_is_african_-_lores.pdf

Recent events that have culminated in this publication include participation, as the Chair of the Scientific Committee and Abstracts Committee of the landmark 1^st International Conference on Agroecology that took place at the Safari Park Hotel, in Nairobi, Kenya in 2019 followed, four years later, by the just concluded 1^st Eastern Africa Agroecology Conference: Links here: https://ea-agroecologyconference.org/agroecology-conference/ and here: https://ea-agroecologyconference.org/

• Why promote and encourage food systems transformation to embrace and adopt the growing and consumption of ‘My Food is African’ approach?

• The answer is simple; if you analyse the 17 Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) you will start to appreciate that by transforming food systems into agroecological and regenerative food(and nutrition) systems, one can address, the current ‘quadruple crises’ that the world is faced with, namely; Climate crisis, Soil degeneration/poisoning and biodiversity loss; deepening poverty and economic instability and the rising disease burden of non-communicable diseases(NCDs).

• Do we have evidence that agroecological and regenerative food production and consumption systems, which do not use synthetic pesticides and related synthetic fertilizers, are good for the health of the soil, plants, animals and human health?

• Yes we do….in previous blog articles we have provided this evidence which we have finally distilled in this book . ‘My Food is African’

• For those who are more scientifically inclined here is a recent article that demonstrates the clear link between soil microbiota diversity(and health) and human gut microbiota: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31450753/#

Now that we have demonstraated ample scientific evidence that a re-connection to the SOIL and removal of pesticides(and synthetic fertilizers) from our food system, as outlined in the book ‘My Food is African’, can address the ‘quadruple crises’ how do we advocate and Call to Action, food and dietary transformations to address these four global crises, to achieve positive outcomes for People, Planet and Profits?

• Current approaches to promote and encourage the shift to agroecological food systems don’t seem to be as impactful as intended. What could be the reasons for this stagnation or slow pace of adoption of agroecological food systems?
• We, at Organic Consumers Alliance(OCA) https://organicconsumersalliance.org/who-we-are/leadership-management-profiles.html in partnership with the Noncommunicable Diseases Alliance of Kenya(NCDAK) https://ncdak.org/ncdak-structure/ and Passion for Hope International(PHI) https://www.passionofhope.org/ have determined to leverage the ‘Calls to Action’ from the two agroecology Conferences and the AFSA publication ‘My Food is African’ to create a series of events and activities centered on the theme of ‘celebrating African foods and culture’. The goal is to innovatively promote behavioral change adoption of African cuisines and related food production targetted at multiple audiences, from community level to national and regional levels.

• A key strategy is  promotion of African Food Festivals, aimed at using  ‘food and fun’ events targeting various local communities, primary and secondary schools, including people living with NCDS, to ‘innovatively celebrate and market African food and cuisines…
• ‘My Food is African’ is therefore a strategic tool to address all the four ‘quadruple crises’, including promoting Healthy Diets to improve health outocmes in general but specifically to reduce NCDs, hence the reason why we are partnering with the Noncommunicable Diseases Alliance of Kenya(NCDAK) and over time other NCDAs, across Africa...with the shared vision of an NCD Free Africa.
• To kick start these participatory multi-sectoral and multidisciplinary events will leverage the ‘Chakula Bora Speaker Series’, pioneered by Passion for Hope International (PHI). https://www.passionofhope.org/

• As next steps, are you ready and willing to join us in this homegrown afro-centric celebration of African Food and Cuisines?

Find pictures, from the recent Agroecology Conference, celebrating ‘People, Planet and Profits’… (Click on the thumbnails below to view larger photo)