<
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/agroecology-is-the-solution-to-world-hunger/>
"Although it is the sharp edge of the battle to end hunger, you could be
forgiven for thinking you were watching a reality TV cooking show. Under the
low peak of Bwabwa Mountain in Malawi, in a village on a tributary of the
Rukuru River, about 100 people gather around pots and stoves. Children crowd
around a large mortar, snickering at their fathers’, uncles’ and neighbors’
ham-fisted attempts to pound soybeans into soy milk. At another station, a
village elder is being schooled by a man half his age in the virtues of sweet
potato doughnuts. At yet another, a woman teaches a neighbor how he might turn
sorghum into a nutritious porridge. Supervising it all, with the skill of a
chef, the energy of a children’s entertainer and the resolve of a sergeant, is
community organizer Anita Chitaya. After helping one group with a millet sponge
loaf, she moves to share a tip about how mashed soy and red beans can be turned
into patties by the eager young hands of children who would typically never
volunteer to eat beans.
There is an air of playful competition. Indeed, it is a competition. At the end
of the afternoon the food is shared, and there are prizes for both the
best-tasting food (the doughnuts win hands down) and the food most likely to be
added to folks’ everyday diets (the porridge triumphs because although everyone
likes deep-fried food, doughnuts are a pain to cook, and the oil is very
expensive).
This is a Recipe Day in Bwabwa, a village of around 800 people in northern
Malawi. These festivals are sociological experiments to reduce domestic
inequality and are part of a multifaceted approach to ending hunger called
agroecology. Academics describe it as a science, a practice and a social
movement. Agroecology applies ecology and social science to the creation and
management of sustainable food systems and involves 10 or more interconnected
principles, ranging from the maintenance of soil health and biodiversity to the
increase of gender and intergenerational equity. More than eight million farmer
groups around the world are experimenting with it and finding that compared
with conventional agriculture, agroecology is able to sequester more carbon in
the soil, use water more frugally, reduce dependence on external inputs by
recycling nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, and promote, rather than
ravage, biodiversity in the soil and on farms. And on every continent, research
shows that farmers who adopt agroecology have greater food security, higher
incomes, better health and lower levels of indebtedness."
Via Muse, who wrote "For my last class this term at La Trobe University I
started my students talking about what sort of employment we could expect more
of in the future. On my list is included robotics and agroecology mixed with
rewilding."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
