I am a little late on the uptake on this one but 'Grown under the Sun' is a campaign to convince people in the West to buy African produce i.e. imported vegetables and flowers.
I just heard about it today on the radio and it's a little pet topic of mine I'm afraid... the whole food miles thing makes me mad. I can imagine shoppers in England not buying African flowers or mange tout beans in Tesco or Marks & Spencer because they think that it is not politically correct to do so. Check out the Grown under the Sun website and you might change your mind: http://grownunderthesun.com/
The 'Grown under the Sun' campaign is designed to highlight the fact that vegetables and flowers grown in Africa have far less carbon emissions than those grown in greenhouses in places like Holland. The Food Miles argument where the shortest distance between farm to fork is flawed and hopefully this campaign will go some way redressing the misconception.
Quoted From the Business Daily/July 2009:
The Africa Research Institute has accused Europe of hypocrisy,
'African crops are grown under the sun, cultivated by hand and often transported in the holds of passenger aircraft carrying European holidaymakers to and from Africa's beaches and game parks,' the institute said in a recent report.
'Growing horticultural crops out of season in Europe is heavily mechanised and consumes huge amounts of energy in artificially heated 'hot houses''
Please buy stuff from Africa when you see it. It is a big help. (and don't come back to me with arguments about minimum wage, sweat shops and working conditions... look at the 'Grown under the Sun' website first).
The diary of a British expat living in Kenya. News, views, debate and a healthy dose of trivia.
I'd like to pretend that I choose my vegetables by origin but I tend to buy what's on the shelf that day and my green-beans can be from Jordan, Egypt, Spain or Kenya depending on the winter growing season. Neither side of the eco-argument has a monopoly on truth and Africa has no more claim on my cash than the Middle East or Southern Europe. As has been all too evident over recent years, it doesn't take much for those veggie-toting thus eco-benign tourist planes to be almost empty when violence and terrorist attacks send everyone to safer destinations where you can drink the water and there are roads. Provide a good quality product efficiently and reliably at a competitive price and retail businesses, and thus their customers, will buy it. It's that simple.
ReplyDeleteI would support buying the Flowers but not the food. Why? A percentage of AFrican people (at least in Kenya) are starving with no food to eat. How can the west buy food from people who literally need it?? Why can't this organization re-focus on providing food to the local people at affordable costs. And once the country stabilizes and everyone gets to have proper meals then they can export their products. Other countries may grow their food in green houses but at least their citizens are not starving. Just my two cents.:)
ReplyDeleteAnon 2
ReplyDeleteUsing your argument, you could say why buy flowers when the land, effort and water used to grow them could be used to grow food?
In most cases, food is available but the poor have no money to buy it. This farms that export food to Europe are vital life lines for local families.
If you look at the video AEW posted, most of the employees are women who in most cases would not have jobs in rural kenya.
Eric
ReplyDeletegreat argument! Iconcur, if it creates jobs then by all means I am for it.