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T h e U N E P M a g a z i n e F o r Y o u t h V o l 1 N o 3TU

U

ZA

food issues and problems

fair trade

seven food wonders

food biodiversity

Fo d & the envir nmentO

F o r y o u n g p e o p l e , b y y o u n g p e o p l e , a b o u t y o u n g p e o p l e

What’s on your plate?

foods from around the world

O

star interview: Haile Gebreselassie

3 Enough for Everyone

5 Secure Food – It’s Really Wild

7 Chocolate with a Conscience

8 Ask Tunza!

9 On the Rocks: Haiti

10 A Matter of Taste

11 Sea-ing Red!

12 Food Facts

14 Star Interview:Haile Gebreselassie

15 One Small Project: Ethiopia

16 Sali Zäme!

17 Food for Thought

18 Fishing for our Futures

20 Let Me Tell You a Story

21 Food Quiz

22 Seven Food Wonders of the World

TU ZA

9 13

1714

22

The contents of this magazine do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of UNEP or the editors, nor are they anofficial record. The designations employed and the presentation do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever onthe part of UNEP concerning the legal status of any country, territory or city or its authority, or concerning the delimitationof its frontiers or boundaries.

The non-copyrighted contents of this magazine may be reprinted without charge provided that TUNZA and the author orphotographer concerned are credited as the source and the editors are notified in writing and sent a voucher copy.

TUNZA welcomes articles, reviews, illustrations and photos for publication but cannot guarantee that they will be published.Unsolicited manuscripts, photographs and artwork will not be returned.

Subscriptions: If you wish to receive TUNZA on a regular basis and are not currently on the mailing list, please contactManyahleshal Kebede, Circulation Manager, TUNZA, for subscription details, giving your name and address and yourpreferred language (English, French or Spanish).

Change of address: please send your address label together with your new address to: Manyahleshal Kebede, CirculationManager, TUNZA, UNEP, PO Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya.

This magazine is printed using vegetable-based inks on paper made from 100 per cent recycled waste material. It isbleached without any damage to the environment.

TUNZA was previously published as TEEN PLANET.

Director of Publication Eric FaltCoordinatorWondwosen Asnake EditorGeoffrey LeanGuest EditorHayley StewartNairobi Coordinator Naomi PoultonSpecial ContributorNick Nuttall Circulation ManagerManyahleshal KebedeYouth ContributorsDeia Schlosberg, USA Mabel Toribio, PeruChristopher Henderson, UKFaïd Souhaïli, Mayotte, FranceCaroline Lobo, IndiaAlexia Coronini, GermanyAranya Rusli, Indonesia Nicholas Hinz, USANicole Meyer, SwitzerlandLennie MacPherson, CanadaKavitha Iyer, IndiaKenneth Ochoa Vargas, ColombiaAmaidhi Devaraj, IndiaJagan Devaraj, IndiaOther ContributorsLisa Hadeed, WWFKevin McGrother, Young Co-operativesRosey Simmonds and David Woollcombe,

Peace Child InternationalAlan Kirby, Seckman Senior High SchoolJaya RowDesignDeia SchlosbergWeb Editor Graham BardenProductionBanson

Head, UNEP’s Children and Youth/Sportand Environment UnitTheodore Oben

Printed in the United Kingdom

Front coverDeia Schlosberg

TU

U

ZAis available at www.ourplanet.com

TUNZA, the UNEP Magazine for Youth

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)PO Box 30552, Nairobi, KenyaTel (254 20) 621 234 Fax (254 20) 623 927 Telex 22068 UNEP KEE-mail cpiinfo@unep.orgwww.unep.org

ISSN 1727-8929

U

We want to hear from you – your views, your news and your ideas. E-mail us at:tunza@ourplanet.com

The world produces enough for every one of its people to be well andhealthily fed. So how come that 800 million people, more than one inevery eight on the planet, do not get enough food to lead normal, healthyand active lives? How come that every year 11 million children underfive die from hunger or diseases related to it? And can protecting the

environment help?

On average people in the richest countries consume 30-40 percent more calories than they need, while those in the poorest nations get10 per cent less. But the averages conceal big differences. The well-off indeveloping countries eat at rich-nation standards, while much of thepopulation tries to subsist off three quarters of their requirements.

In the end it comes down to poverty not production. Poor people simplycan’t afford to buy the food they need – and, while they cannot do so, itwill not be grown for them.

So to end hunger we have to end poverty, often called the greatestenvironmental evil of all. It can be done. The world’s nations haveadopted Millennium Development Goals that would halve destitution by 2015. We need to make sure they meet them – and then go on toeliminate the other half.

At the same time we need to address the environmental damage that isdestroying the very basis of the world’s food production and economicwell-being – and driving the poor into even greater destitution. Billions of tonnes of the world’s precious topsoils are blown or washed away eachyear as the land is overused. Water supplies are drying up, and beingpolluted, around the world. And wild species, whose genes are needed to safeguard and increase harvests, are being driven to extinction.

Meanwhile there are heated debates about the relative merits ofgenetically modified foods and organic agriculture, of using pesticides and other agricultural chemicals or avoiding them, of eating meat orbeing vegetarian.

In the end it will be our generation that will see the food crisis playedout. In our lifetimes the world will either fulfil its capacity to feedeveryone properly, or will descend into ever deepening hunger andconflict.

3enough foreveryone

ed

it

oria

l

ART BY DEIA SCHLOSBERG/PCI

ttoooo mmuucchh

nnootteennoouugghh

overnourishment causes:

obesity stroke heart disease some cancersdiabetes mellitusgallstonesdental cariesgout

undernourishment causes:

anaemiaosteoporosis

goitrexeropthalmia (vitamin A deficiency)

beri-beri (vitamin B deficiency)

scurvy (vitamin C deficiency)

rickets (vitamin D deficiency)

We need to reevaluate the way we lookat food if 800 million people don’t getenough, while so many of us get toomuch – both resulting in potentially fatalhealth problems.

lleesssseerr eevviill?IL

LUST

RATI

ON

: DEI

A S

CHLO

SBER

G/P

CI

5SECURE FOOD– it’s really wild

Causa (serves 6)

INGREDIENTS:1 kg potatoesjuice of 5 lemons60 ml oil1 tablespoon ground aji amarillo fresco/fresh yellow aji (chilli)1 teaspoon salt1/2 teaspoon pepperpaprika to taste360 g tinned tuna, drainedmayonnaise (to taste)120 g sweetcorn2 tomatoes, sliced2 avocados, chopped2 hard-boiled eggsblack olivesparsley

Potatoes make up a major part of the daily diet in Peru, where the

staple first originated. The Peruvians have more than 1,000 varieties, and many ways of

eating them, from ground potato flour to dried potato chunks, and of course just plain

mashed, as in this popular dish:

METHOD:Boil the potatoes with a pinchof salt. Peel and mash untilsmooth. Mix in the lemonjuice, oil, chilli, salt, pepperand paprika. Spread potatomixture on the base of a flatserving dish and press downflat. Mix the tuna fish,mayonnaise, sweetcorn,tomatoes and avocado andspread over the potato.Cover with another thick layerof potato. Refrigerate for anhour, and garnish withparsley, chopped olives andhard-boiled eggs.

PHOTO: GRIMALDO RENGIFO/UNEP/TOPHAM

We believe there are between 8 and 50 million specieson Earth. We guess we have only named around 4 percent of them. We also believe we are killing off oneplant and 50 animal species every day as we destroytheir habitats: that is between a thousand and a milliontimes the natural extinction rate.

We do not have exact figures. But we clearly do notknow what we are doing, only that we are killing offmany of the world’s plants and animals before we evenknow what they are.

As we do this, we alter the world’s ecosystems and losespecies with incalculable potential benefits tohumankind. That is worrying enough. Worse, we alsoimperil our food supplies. For the diversity of the Earth’splants and animals is a priceless resource for agriculture.

THE JUNGLEFOWL IS BRED IN ASIA TO MAINTAIN GENETICDIVERSITY AMONG CULTIVATED CHICKENS.

Farmers improve our main cropsby interbreeding them with theirwild relatives, gaining genes thatnaturally resist diseases, insectpests and environmental stresses,and make them more productive.Farmers in Asia breed thejunglefowl, ancestor of thedomestic chicken, with theirown poultry. The markhor, awild mountain goat, mates withfarm goats, keeping them healthy,robust and resilient. Thebearded pig in Southeast Asiacould be used for its tolerance toheat and tropical disease.

But these wild relatives are lost asnatural habitats are wiped out tomake way for large-scalecultivation of foreign commercialcrops. And the crops themselvesoften consist of only one variety –and so are particularly vulnerableto mass outbreaks of pests anddiseases. An epidemic can wipeout a genetically uniform cropacross a whole continent, throwingmillions into food insecurity andeven famine.

In the 1840s, just such afamine occurred in Ireland,killing a million people, whenblight affected the one variety ofpotato they grew as the mainstayof their diet.

Similarly, in the 1960s and 1970s,the grassy stunt virus killed 3million tonnes of the Asian ricecrop, enough to have fed 9 millionpeople for a year. Plant breederssearched the world for a wild,resistant rice to try to stop furtherdevastation. They eventuallydiscovered two mutated seeds of avariety in Uttar Pradesh, India: itwas the only one, among hundredstested, to be immune to the virus.The vital gene was bred into theIR36 rice cultivar, and is still

6

found today in every high-yielding rice grown in Asia.

What can we do? We can protectdiversity by growing a widervariety of crops in the countrieswhere they originate. The yeheb-nut bush from Somalia, eel grass

from Mexico and amaranth fromthe Andes could all provide

nutritious food. Some – like thewinged bean from Papua NewGuinea, which is 40 per centprotein – could improve diets byreplacing less nutritious crops.

Some new crops grow in land andconditions unsuitable for otheragriculture – and in theconditions that our changingenvironment may soon bring.Only 8 per cent of the Earth’ssurface – about 11 million squarekilometres – is suited to modernagriculture: far more than this liesunused. But there are plants thatcan cope with wetter, saltier,colder or drier conditions than ourcurrent crops, producing food onas yet uncultivated land. Newhybrid forms of sorghum andmillet, for example, can grow inareas previously considered toohot and dry. And salt-resistantcrops, such as the Galapagostomato, can grow in salinizedland, made too salty by poorirrigation.

Over the last 50 years the world’spopulation has increased by about3 billion people. Yet, by usingscience to boost agriculture, wehave managed to increase foodproduction to feed most of them.

Biodiversity can help us meet theurgent present need to feed all theworld’s people. But unless it ispreserved it will be much harderto provide food for any of us inthe future.

THE MARKHOR KEEPS THE DOMESTICGOATS IN ASIA FROM GETTING TOONARROW A FAMILY TREE.

ONE STRAND OF RICE, FOUND IN INDIA, SAVED THEENTIRE ASIAN CROP FROM BEING WIPED OUT BY AVIRUS.

THE YEHEB-NUT BUSH OF SOMALIA IS AN IMPORTANTFOOD SOURCE FOR NOMADIC SOMALIS AND HASPOTENTIAL FOR CULTIVATION AS A SOURCE OFINCOME. HOWEVER, IT IS ALSO AN ENDANGEREDSPECIES.

ART BY DEIA SCHLOSBERG/PCI

My school friends and I run two‘Young Co-operatives’ as businesses to tryto raise awareness of fair trade. Theyoperate from our school, English MartyrsSchool, in Hartlepool in northeast England,and are called The Chocolateers and CocoBanana.

I am a member of The Chocolateers.Five of us sell fairly traded food and drink– tea, coffee, bananas, chocolate, biscuits,snack bars – at a tuckshop outside ourschool chapel during every Mondaymorning break. At the same time we learnhow to run a business.

We also learn where the products comefrom, who produces them, and how andwhy they are traded. We decide ourselveswhich products to buy, where to buy themfrom, how much to sell them for, andwhere to sell them.

Our most popular products are a range of Divine chocolate bars. These are made fromcocoa that comes from the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative in Ghana.

The favourite product at the tuckshop is a small milk chocolate Divine bar and we havenow persuaded the school to stock these bars in the dining hall vending machines. Thismeans pupils and teachers can buy them anytime, and we sell about 50 bars each weekfrom the machines.

In the Christmas season we decided totry some different products, and sold Divinechocolate advent calendars and chocolatedecorations for Christmas trees. Coco Bananasell their products – which include bananas,coffee, tea and hot chocolate – to teachersand at local churches.

Through our business we try to raiseawareness of fair trade. We have spoken onlocal radio, and been interviewed by anational newspaper. We have met our townmayor and Member of Parliament. Recentlywe helped to run school assemblies tellingpeople about fair trade and asking them tobuy the products that we sell every week.

For me, fair trade makes a difference. Ifwe carry on giving growers so little, one daythey will not have enough money to feedthemselves and are very likely to die. Fair

trade will change this.Giving a fair price fortheir produce gives them a better life.

For me fair trade is really important because there is easilyenough food in the world to feed everyone. But why does thewestern world keep it all to itself?

Our business is run as a cooperative because we think there is more to running a business than making a profit. We want to raise awareness of fair trade and help people to see that growersand makers are being ripped off every day.

Our cooperative meetings are held every two weeks and wetalk about what we need to buy for the tuckshop, and any eventsthat we could go to to sell our produce. Decisions in our group aremade with each person having one vote. Any disagreements are putto the vote: no one person is the boss.

Fair trade is the way forward. If we all started to buy fair trade products, perhaps one day big companies would be forcedto change and give a fair price to the growers.

People say that every argument has two sides, like two sides of a coin. What is the other side of this coin? Why is fairtrade wrong?

CHOCOLATE WITH A CONSCIENCE Christopher Henderson, 14

7

What is fair trade?Millions of farmers and workers in poor

countries cannot get enough money to live onfrom the food and goods they grow and make.But these are then sold for high prices in richnations. Middlemen and companies grab all themoney, while the people who produced themare left destitute.

Fair trade aims to put this right. Itencourages people to buy foods whoseproducers have been given afair price. More than 130kinds of tea, coffee, fruit,chocolate, juice, sugar andhoney have been awarded theFAIRTRADE mark and are onsale in 17 countries. Shoppersare buying them more andmore. In the United Kingdomsales are increasing by 40 percent a year.

ABOVE PHOTOS: YOUNG CO-OPERATIVES

PHO

TO: T

HE

DA

Y CH

OCO

LATE

CO

MPA

NY

PHO

TO: T

HE

DA

Y CH

OCO

LATE

CO

MPA

NY

ASK TUNZA! Wondy Asnake ANSWERS YOURQ U E S T I O N S

Q:What is the

singlebiggest

obstacle tofeeding the

humanpopulation ofthe world?

Faïd Souhaïli,Mayotte, France

Q:Why are so

many peoplebecomingtoo fat?

Alexia Coronini, Germany

A:There is a general assumption that people become too fat because they eat a lotof food. This is often wrong. People may or may not have access to plenty of food, butthe problem of getting fat is related to an unhealthy diet. It can happen if people arenot made aware of the impact of what they eat on their health and well-being. Thehuman body loves a lot of fatty and sugary foods, which are concentrated sources ofcalories. These are dangerous products if consumed to excess. It is one thing to enjoywhat we eat – but we need to limit its impact on our health.

Another factor is physical inactivity. There is a tendency not to do any physicalexercise that would help the human body to be healthy, but to eat, sit and bephysically inactive. People should make a habit of taking a few minutes to walk, jog or run.

Q:Is sugar

really the‘white

poison’some

nutritionistssay it is?

Caroline Lobo, India

A:Sugar is both the white crystalline substance that we know as sugar and use tosweeten our tea, coffee, cakes and biscuits, and a basic element in starchy food.

It is deliciously sweet, addictive and it is difficult to avoid the temptation to havemore of it. People develop a strong taste and craving for it from a very young age.

If the amount of sugar we consume is over the limit, it can have seriousconsequences for our health and well-being. The damage sugar causes to the humanbody includes dental deterioration such as tooth cavities, bleeding gums, loss of teeth,failure of bone structure, chronic fatigue, anxiety, irritability, hyperactivity, depression,hypertension, heart disease and diabetes.

I am not trying to scare you off sugar altogether; the fact is that our bodies need it insome form to function properly. But too much of anything is dangerous to health. Beresponsible for your health.

Q:Do we nowknow the

best way toeat for a

healthy life?Aranya Rusli,

Indonesia

A:A healthy life can only come when we take responsibility for our own body,mind, soul and the environment. The best way to eat for a healthy life is by balancingthe different types of food in our diet to make us healthy and full of energy.

We have to cut back on sweet, oily and fatty food, as well as on unhealthy habitssuch as smoking and drinking alcohol.

It is important to increase the intake of fruits and vegetables in our diet. They providevitamins and minerals, as well as fibre and energy, offer a number of health benefits andcould help prevent such scourges as heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers andobesity.

Do you havequestions onenvironment anddevelopment issuesthat you would likethe experts at UNEPto answer? Pleasesend them tocpiinfo@unep.org,and we will try toanswer them in futureissues.

worl

d f

ood

8

A: It would be difficult to single out one obstacle as the main cause, but what wecan clearly recognize is our inability to fulfil the demand for food. It is a predicament totalk about severe food shortages when food is available in abundance and when theEarth is capable of feeding many more people than are now alive.

Issues such as poverty, the impact of climate change, civil conflict, economic crises,unequal distribution of wealth and trade barriers all pose a big challenge to farmers andthe agricultural sector.

But we should also recognize that there are places where people have madedramatic turnarounds to tackle food shortages. We have to follow such examples tomeet the needs of the poor. Those who spend millions of dollars to persuadegovernments and agro-industry to control food prices should be compassionatetowards the poor.

on the rocksHaiti is the poorest

country in the westernhemisphere, with four out of fiveof its people living in abjectpoverty. One reason is that itsforests have been cut down, andnot replanted, and so its soil haseroded away. Forests used to coverover nine tenths of Haiti: now only1-2 per cent remains denselyforested.

About 85 per cent of thecountry is mountainous

and the soil hard to hold in placeonce the trees are gone. The heavydaily rains of the five-month-longwet season form brown muddytorrents that carry massiveamounts of topsoil out to sea.Many slopes have been losing over 3 centimetres oftopsoil a year for decades, leaving near-barrenbedrock or poor soil behind. The people find it hardto grow crops.

The erosion also wreaks havoc downstream.Sediment fills streams, rivers and lakes,

decimating fish stocks, and clogging irrigationsystems in the productive coastal plains. It poursinto the ocean, damaging marine life and the Haitianfishing industry. And the water runs much faster offthe bare slopes into the sediment-filled rivers andstreams causing ever-worsening floods.

There is some hope. Projects with solar-powered ovens reduce the need to cut trees

for fuel. Some reforestation projects are under way.Crops better suited for poorer soils are beingintroduced. People are being taught to understandhow deforestation leads to environmental andeconomic hardships. But all these will need to takehold and spread like wild fire if major changes are to take place.

Nicholas Hinz

9

PHOTOS: TOP: NASA; MIDDLE: NICHOLAS HINZ; BOTTOM: NICHOLAS HINZ

DEFORESTATION IN HAITI (ABOVE, LEFT PART OF PICTURE,CONTRASTED WITH ITS NEIGHBOUR THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC)LEADS TO SERIOUSSOIL EROSION(RIGHT, SHOWINGTHE ORIGINAL SOILLINE). AS A RESULTTHERE IS NOTOPSOIL FOR THEPEOPLE TO GROWCROPS TO FEEDTHEMSELVES(BELOW).

10

We could eat more than 50,000 of the Earth’s plants. Butso far we have concentrated on the ones that we can growmost easily, eat the most of, and get most calories andprotein from. We have narrowed our main crops down tojust a very few, and grow and export them all over theglobe. So rice, maize and wheat have come to make up thebasis of 60 per cent of the world’s diet.

Yet many people do still grow and eat local foods, and weall have curious food cultures and customs that wouldsurprise those on the other side of the world.

The main part of most diets is a starchy staple, such as thegrains: rice, wheat, maize, millet, sorghum; or roots andtubers like potatoes, cassava and yams.

Rice alone feeds almost half the world, from India easttowards Japan where the term ‘to eat rice’ means ‘to havea meal’.

Wheat is made into pasta, noodles and breakfastcereals, and ground into flour to make breads,crackers, biscuits and tortillas.

Roots and tubers like cassava feed over a billionpeople in the developing world.

Yet the biggest crop of all is maize, the main staplein South and Central America and the southernparts of North America, and eaten all over the southand west of Africa.

Most diets are then supplemented with animalproducts like meat, milk, eggs, cheese and fish,though in very different ways. In communities inAfrica where animal products are expensive,small amounts are used to flavour other foods.In western Europe, dairy produce is consideredpart of a balanced diet – but the traditionaldiet in China, Japan and Southeast Asia

never included any fermented animal milkproducts like yoghurt, milk or butter.

Instead their peoples developedfermented foods made mainly from soy

beans – soy sauce and soy bean paste– and rely on them for a vegetable-

based source of protein.

What is considered normalvaries greatly around the

world. Sometimes we eatthings because we

believe they aregood for

us: the British eat oranges when they get a cold while theJapanese believe miso soup can help with ailments rangingfrom bad digestion to cancer and heart disease. Decidingwhether to sit at a table or on mats on the floor, to eat withfingers, chopsticks or knives and forks, to finish your mealor to leave it half eaten, can mean the difference betweencourtesy and insult in different countries.

Availability has prompted many cultures to eat local:mice in India, seals on the Canadian coast, kangaroo inAustralia and guinea pigs in Peru. And people have alsofound substitutes to make up for a lack of food: womenin central Africa and the southern United States eat clayto supply the extra nutrients they need when pregnantand breast-feeding.

Tastes and preferences in some countries may seembaffling – or even nauseating – in others. But thensomething unusual can be quite delicious. How wouldyou like to try some of these?

• Head cheese from Sweden: made from a whole cow’shead, soaked and boiled in water, and cooled and slicedinto a sort of pâté.

• Vegemite and Marmite: very salty thick dark brownpastes, made from yeast extract, the waste product aftermaking beer, and spread on toast in Australia, theUnited Kingdom and the United States.

• Chinese 1,000-year-old eggs: duck eggs coated andburied underground for more like 100 days, endingup bluish-green, smooth and creamy, and stronglyflavoured like cheese.

• English soup made from stinging nettles, wildplants covered with tiny, nearly invisible hairsthat produce an intense, stinging pain whentouched, but are harmless once cooked.

• Courgette flowers – delicate yellow flowersstuffed, coated in batter and deep fried, foundin Greece and Italy.

• Crunchy fried ants in a paper cone, atreat for cinema-goers in Colombia.

• Pickled chicken feet in thesouthern United States.

• The day’s winning bull in alocal Spanish restaurant.

Bon appétit!

a matter of taste

PHOTOS ABOVE RIGHT: MAIZE: DUAN XING-YUN/UNEP/TOPHAM

RICE: UNEP/TOPHAMWHEAT: UNEP/TOPHAM

POTATOES: MR HOKU/UNEP/TOPHAMBACKGROUND: SIM SHY JIE/UNEP/TOPHAM

11

Cor

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Cen

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Am

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Mid

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Per

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everwondered?

PHOTO: KHAN KUYUCU/UNEP/TOPHAMPHOTO: KHAN KUYUCU/UNEP/TOPHAM

Sometimes growing our food makes the seas turn red – or

pink, violet, orange, yellow, green or brown. These

episodes are called ‘red tides’, as this is the commonest

colour. They happen when marine populations of algae

explode: each may replicate itself a million times in just two

to three weeks, until they cover the surface of the sea. They

often devastate tourism. Some of the algae are toxic and can

poison people when they eat shellfish.

Red tides can happen naturally, but increasingly they are

stimulated by pollution by fertilizers used on farmlands

and washed down to the sea. This is one aspect of

eutrophication, when nutrients from fertilizers and sewage

cause excessive growth of water plants. It can turn parts of

the sea into waste areas. A dead zone appears off the coast

of Louisiana each year thanks to pollution from the

Mississippi, and fisheries in the Black Sea have been badly

hit. The fertilizer can make seaweed grow so much that it

smothers coral reefs. And the life of rivers and streams can

also be damaged.

Cutting the pollution pays. A study in the Balkans showed

that the cost of reducing pollution by half was more than

recovered through improving beaches alone.

S e a - i n g R e d !

12

Source: FAO

how much food isavailable per person in selected countries

(1991-2001)

Country

Food

ava

ilab

le fo

rhu

man

con

sum

ptio

n (k

cal/d

ay p

er p

erso

n)

No.

of p

eop

leun

der

nour

ishe

d(m

illio

ns)

Und

erno

uris

hed

(% to

tal p

opul

atio

n)

MalaysiaRomaniaSaudi ArabiaRussiaNigeriaChinaIndiaNicaraguaTajikistanCongo, Dem. Rep.

2,9203,3402,8402,9402,7702,9702,4902,2501,7201,570

0.50.20.66.29.1

135.3213.71.54.338.3

Source: FAO

limited agricultural land

foodavailability

MAINLY PRODUCTIVE CROP, PASTUREAND FOREST LAND

MAINLY SUITABLE FOR CROPS IFIMPROVED

MOSTLY SUITABLE FOR FOREST

MAINLY SUITABLE FOR FOREST TREECROPS OR PERMANENT PASTURES

MOSTLY SUITABLE FOR GRAZING,MARGINAL FOR CEREALS

PREDOMINANTLY UNPRODUCTIVE LAND

Source: FAO and IIASA

INDIA

SUB-SAHARAN AFRI

CA

ASIA & THE PA

CIFIC*

CHINA

LATIN

AMERICA & CARIB

BEAN

NEAR EAST &

NORTH AFRI

CA

COUNTRIES IN

TRANSITIO

N

INDUSTRIALIZ

ED NATIONS

*excludes China and India

MILL

ION

S O

F PEO

PLE

1,4001,2001,000

800600400200

0

total population% undernourished

21%

33%

17%

11%

10%10% 8%

1%

the world’s undernourished people(1999-2001)

Despite the millions of tonnes of food we produceevery year, some people still do not receiveenough to maintain good health and support lightactivity, which is what we mean when we saysomeone is undernourished.

What is stopping us all

from having enough

food? Partly there isn’t a

lot of land to grow it on.

More than three quarters

of the world’s land

surface cannot be used

for growing crops

without being irrigated,

drained or otherwise

improved, including with

fertilizers.

Much of the land in developing countries isnot suited to rain-fed agriculture, but of thepotentially productive land only about onethird is cultivated.

world potential land use capabilities

Source: FAO

The Food PrOblem: The Facts

Poor soils

Too dry

Too cold

Too steep

Suitable for crops

8%

40%

13%

27%

12%

<2.5<2.5

3481121297175

POPULATION

TOTAL CROPLANDHARVESTED

CROPLANDHARVESTED PER PERSON

organic material

G R E AT13

t h e so i lSoil is composed of rock and mineral particles; decaying

plants and animals; living plants and animals; and water and

air. Plant roots work their way between the soil particles,

binding and aerating the soil.

subsoil

solid rock

weatheredparent rock

topsoilcontaining humus

Soil forms slowly, taking from 50 to more than 1,000 years tobuild up a thin layer. The process of destruction as a result ofmisuse or erosion is much quicker. Once completely destroyed, soil isfor all practical purposes lost for ever.

Fish catchesfrom the oceansare levelling offas stocks areincreasinglyoverexploited –according toFAO, more than 70 per centof the world’sfisheries aredepleted ornearly depleted.Aquacultureseems a wayforward, butthere areassociatedenvironmentalrisks.

Source: FAOSource: Larsen, Earth Policy InstituteData source: USDA, UN

100908070605040302010

0

19501955

19601965

19701975

19801985

19901995

2000

MIL

LIO

N T

ON

NES

YEAR

OCEAN CATCHESAQUACULTURE

TOTAL FISH OBTAINED

130120110

Only 8 per cent of the Earth’s soils are suitable for agriculture, meaning they

are not too cold, too dry, too steep, or of too poor a quality for agriculture.

Through over-farming and the use of too much fertilizer, we have degraded

much of the soil we do have, and through deforestation and land clearing we

have caused still more to simply blow away.

How much are we growing?

We can estimate the amount of food we areproducing in the world by how much grain weare growing, as these grains make up morethan half of the world’s diet. Whilst thepopulation is constantly rising, making itnecessary to find ways to produce more food,the land that is able to produce grains is notlikely to increase much, and may even fall,over the next 50 years. Low grain prices, landdegradation and urban sprawl are allcontributing factors. Meanwhile, population isexpanding. So grainland per person, alreadyhalved between 1950 and the end of the lastcentury, is likely to fall sharply again by 2050.And most of the three billion people expectedto be added to the world population in the next50 years will be born in areas where landresources are already scarce.

GRAINS

WORLD GRAIN HARVESTED AREA AND

GRAIN HARVESTED AREA PER PERSON(1950-2002, with projection to 2050)

index 1950 = 100w o r l d f i s h c a t c h a n d a q u a c u l t u r e p r o d u c t i o n

( 1 9 5 0 - 2 0 0 2 )

19502000

19901980

19701960

20502040

20302020

2010

All illustrations/graphics: Deia Schlosberg/PCI

400

350

300

250

200

150

100

50

0

14

COOPERATIONLONG-DISTANCE

RUNNEROF

THE

THE

11

33

HA

ILEG

EB

RE

SE

LAS

SIE

22

away, and we had to make our waythrough forests, gorges, muddy roadsand a river. It was because of thisjourney that I began to run.’ Hismother, ‘a wonderful woman’ whopressed all her nine children to get aneducation, died of cancer when hewas seven. His father was less keenon them going to school, wantingthem to work with him in the fields –and opposed Haile’s ambition to be arunner.‘I always told my father that I wantedto become a runner, but he wantedme to be a farmer,’ he says. ‘Hebelieved I was wasting my time. Itwas only when I became world10,000-metre champion in 1993 thathe was finally convinced.’For the next eight years HaileGebreselassie remained unbeaten atthat distance, making and breakingno fewer than 15 world records, andwinning Olympic Gold at both theAtlanta and the Sydney Olympics. Hehas also set world records at 5,000metres and 1,500 metres. He stillholds the 10,000-metre record andhas been world champion four timesat that distance.Now, as one of the world’s greatestever athletes, he could have his pickof luxurious living anywhere hewished. ‘I can live a very comfortablelife anywhere in the world,’ he says.‘But I chose to stay home because Ican make a difference here.’ In thesame way he has invested all hisearnings in Ethiopia. ‘It is very difficultliving with so many poor people,’ hehas explained. ‘I was always thinking:what can I do? How can I contributesomething to these people?’‘I decided from the beginningthat instead of putting mymoney in Europe I shouldinvest it here. All the money Ihave, I spend in this country. Whynot? This is where I was born. This iswhere I shall die. I am proud of thiscountry. I am proud of these people.’So he started a business, whichnow employs 250 people. ‘Thatmakes me so happy. The mostimportant thing is to create jobsfor these people.’ He also

Haile Gebreselassie –universally hailed asthe greatest ever long-distance runner – wasborn and brought up,as one of a family of11, in a single-roomedmud hut in the fertileprovince of Arsi incentral Ethiopia.Like many millions offamilies throughout thedeveloping world, theyhad no basic servicesat home. ‘There wasno electricity orrunning water,’ herecalls. ‘So we had togo to the nearest river,which was around 3kilometres away. Wewould leave early in themorning so we couldreach the water whenit was at its cleanest.This was ouropportunity to washclothes, drink andgather water for home.The trip would oftentake three hours.’Then he got ready toset off barefoot forschool, which startedat 8 o’clock. ‘Schoolwas over 10 kilometres

campaigns on raising awareness ofthe scourge of HIV/AIDS whichpeople ‘very close’ to him havecontracted. And he wrestles with theissues of poverty and hunger in hiscountry. ‘Both poverty and HIV/AIDSare the priority,’ he says. ‘Theoutside world knows Ethiopia assimply being a very poor country,’ headds. ‘But all these problems are notGod-given. They can only be solvedby our own efforts.’‘All the developed nations of the

world that we so much admire todayhave, at one time or another, gonethrough the same trying times thatour country is going through now.We have seen some changes in ourcountry during the last few years, butwe still have a long way to go.’

Q. How did youstart?

A. I grew up in thecountryside. My Dad was afarmer. I started running as aschoolboy when I ran 10kilometres to school andanother 10 back each day. Allthe same I was often late forclass and got told off by myteacher. I entered my first raceaged 14.

Q.Whatdo you

eat?

A. Ilike

myfood. It’s

important toeat well as an

athlete. I eat amixture of

Ethiopian andwestern

food. For

Environmentaldamage is atthe root ofEthiopia’snotoriousfamines. Itshighlands wereonce rich andfertile. But,since 1900,more than 90per cent oftheir forests

have been cut down and, as a result, abillion tonnes of their topsoil areeroded every year. So harvests fail,droughts are more devastating, andhunger strikes more often. Fifteenmonths ago, Fayo Hadji became thesymbol of a devastating famine thenthreatening his country, Ethiopia. Buthis plight helped avert catastrophe, bycatching the attention of governments,and stimulated an internationalcampaign started by high-schoolstudents.

Back in November 2002, a BBC journalistfound Fayo, then eight, sitting on a rusty can in the village of Dir Fakar, 200 kilometres south of Addis Ababa,drawing shapes in the dust with a smallstone. The boy told him that his parents’cattle had died and their crops had failedin a drought. He had nothing to eat, andhad lost all hope.

‘I know I am going to die, and so aremy brothers and sisters, because we are all so hungry,’ he said in a matter-of-fact tone.‘I would prefer to die rather than keepwaiting for food. I prefer to die.’ Fayo

was just one in many millions. The EthiopianGovernment calculated that 15 million peoplefaced starvation. With tears in his eyes, the PrimeMinister, Meles Zenawi, warned of a disaster ‘tooghastly to contemplate’.

But Fayo's words sparked concern aroundthe world and the biggest relief operation evermounted was launched. Half a world away, they struck home with the 12th grade German-language students at the Seckman Senior HighSchool in St Louis, Missouri, in the heart of theUnited States’ grain belt. Fayo's predicamentinspired them to hold a candlelight vigil toraise money and awareness, because they were alarmed at the lack of media coverage of the famine.

The students contacted the United NationsWorld Food Programme (WFP), which helpedthem to get publicity. Inspired by their initiative– and the response of other schools andindividuals – WFP started the Africa Hunger Alert to mobilize such grassroots concern. It was launched on the day of the Seckmanschool vigil. Alan Kirby, the German teacher atthe school, says: ‘Our small project had becomean international campaign to help millions ofvictims of the vast hunger problems in Africa.’

In all, the international community pouredsome 2 million tonnes of food aid into Ethiopiaand the worst of the famine was avoided.

A year later the journalist returned to Dir Fakarand found Fayo and his family alive and well. ‘Inever thought I would see you again,’ said theboy. ‘Thank God the world was so kind and sentus food. That is the reason that my family and Iare alive.’

Fayo had had to drop out of school duringthe famine, but had since resumed his studies.Looking up at the sky, he said: ‘After finishingschool, when I am older I would like to be apilot and fly big planes.’

15

44example, I eat injera, but alsopasta, and lots of fruit, likemangoes and bananas. Oh, andlots of coffee – that’s anEthiopian tradition.

Q. How importantis a good diet forathletes, and therest of us?

A. Food gives us energy, soit’s important to have a gooddiet. But it’s important to workhard first. Then enjoy goodfood afterwards.

Q. What can bedone about foodshortages inEthiopia, andAfrica in general?

A. We need lots of help fromother countries to improve thesituation here and we must tryto make things better forourselves. Things are slowlygetting better, but a lot of poorpeople are still suffering. Ithink about them a great deal,about ways in which I can helpthem and about how ourcountry can overcome theseproblems.

Q. What are yourplans for thefuture?

A. I am still trying to winbig races. The Olympics is mynext big goal, and I want tocarry on running for manyyears. Then I will continue withmy business in Ethiopia and tryto help more people here.

I N J E R A When you sit down to eat in Ethiopia, the table is laid with what looks like a pale white-greycloth – it is not a ‘tablecloth’ at all, but the injera. This sour flat bread is made from teff, agrain rich in iron and high in protein that grows abundantly in the hot, dry climate of Ethiopia.Heaps of food and stew are placed on the cloth, and no silverware is necessary, for you justrip off a piece of injera and use it to scoop everything up. Then you can eat the rest of thetablecloth, soup stains and all. As for a napkin – you can use the injera to wipe your mouth,and then eat it.

One Smal l Project

Mix the ground teff with thewater and let stand in a bowlcovered with a dish towel, atroom temperature, until itbubbles and has fermented.This may take as long as threedays. Add salt to taste. Lightlyoil a skillet (20 to 24 cm) andheat moderately. Pour inenough batter to cover thebottom of the skillet andspread around immediately byturning and rotating the skilletin the air. Cook briefly, untilholes form in the injera and theedges lift from the pan.Remove and allow to cool.Makes 10 to 12 PHOTOS: EMPICS

PHOTO: JENNY MATTHEWS

180 ml teff, ground fine 530 ml watersaltsunflower or other vegetable oil

16

My dear colleagues, inhabitants of this wonderful place in space!

How is it going? Ready to change the world? Sparkling with energy?

Or do you feel as if you can do nothing? Powerless?

Here’s a tip for when your motivation is on vacation and doesn’twant to come back. Go outside for a walk, breathe the fresh air andadmire the wonder of life. And if that still doesn’t help, think aboutthis indigenous saying: ‘Lots of little people in lots of little placeswho do lots of little things are going to change the face of the Earth.’

These are the little things that I’m involved in with different organizations.

Seed. This student organization aims tobring together stakeholders from science –like professors and students – and stakehold-ers from society and the economy to findsustainable solutions to practical problems.The projects are interdisciplinary, involvingstudents from different disciplines, so as toguarantee innovative ideas.

Studio!Sus. This is a student guide tosustainable development that we, in the stu-dent organization for sustainability, publishevery half year. Each issue has a main topic,most recently consumption, and it includesinteresting articles from scientists and repre-sentatives from non-governmental organiza-tions (NGOs), business and society. It intro-duces local NGOs, lists sustainability-relatedlectures and gives tips on how to make stu-dent life more sustainable.

Zurich to Tokyo in 19 days. Fastdoes not necessarily mean better. We (part ofthe world student community for sustainabledevelopment) wanted to demonstrate thatalternative ways of travelling and vacation canbe much more fun and provide many moreexperiences than flying far away and takingpart in unsustainable mass tourism. So wetravelled from Zurich to Tokyo for threeweeks by train and ferry, filming our unfor-gettable experiences. These included discov-ering the Siberian landscape, talking toMongolians using our hands and feet, enjoy-ing the slowness of the journey and the timeto reflect, trying foreign food, and finallyarriving thousands of miles away in a very dif-ferent culture which had now come so close.

Good luck with your projects, lots of success and remember: Never, ever give up!

See you sometime somewhere.

Nicole

Myclimate (www.myclimate.org).This organization tries to tackle emissions ofcarbon dioxide, one of the major problems inindustrialized countries. We focus on flightemissions, as air traffic is increasing rapidly.Plane passengers are invited to buy an extraticket ($5 per hour of flight), and the moneyis used to compensate for the emissions pro-duced by replacing generators powered byfossil fuels with renewable energy sourcessuch as solar panels and biogas plants.Projects worth several hundred thousand dol-lars are under way in Costa Rica, Eritrea,India and South Africa.

Children for Children. I organizedand coordinated a fundraising activity in myhome town for child victims in Iraq, workingtogether with local youth organizations likethe scouts, to help sensitize children andyouth to what is happening in the world.

I am also involved in many more activities such as the national andlocal youth parliaments, the global youth service day, and events thatwe organize before referenda (an important part of Swiss democra-cy). Networking and publicity are also very important, so as to reachout and spread the word of sustainability.

Nicole Meyer, a student of environmental science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, is a Tunza Advisor for Europe.

Sali zäme!

PHOTOS: NICOLE MEYER

17

Is vegetarianism imposed in Indian scriptures?Never. The Bhagavad Gita doesn’t impose a lifestyle on

people. It only analyses. It describes three basic qualities

– sattva, rajas and tamas – that make the human being.

The proportion of these three manifests in every aspect of

your personality, in the manner in which you speak, the

language you use, whether you are cultured, whether you

are aggressive. Sattva means purity – it denotes serenity,

the highest grade. Rajas means passion – such a personal-

ity is always in turmoil, led by passion, desire. Tamas is

inertia – persons predominantly of this type have no

motivation.

Where does vegetarianism come in?Depending on your inner nature, you will automatically

gravitate to certain types of food. A highly sattvika indi-

vidual, the scriptures say, will eat sattvika food – vegetari-

an, healthy, not too spicy or greasy.

What are the advantages of vegetarianism?Besides being healthy, light and mild, it helps you devel-

op intellectually. All physicians, lecturers and similar, pre-

fer to maintain a light diet specially when they need to

focus on work. Incidentally, many of those people who

are intellectual – scientists, authors – have veered towards

vegetarianism without knowing what the Gita says about

sattvika food. One of the greatest examples is George

Bernard Shaw, who was born into a meat-eating family

and converted to vegetarianism.

food for thought

Is it nutritionally adequate?Yes, in fact it provides better nutrition than any other way

of eating. Even doctors the world over are beginning to

prescribe vegetarian diets. Indian food is not only the

only diet that is culturally vegetarian but it is rich in vari-

ety and taste as well as nutrition. People are beginning to

realize the ill-effects of high-protein, meat-based diets

and are opting for vegetarianism.

What would a would-be convert to vegetarianismrequire?To think. The choice is open only to humans. Only you

and I can think about what kind of food we want to eat.

No cow or tiger can make a choice. As humans we must

think about what we want to achieve. If one awakens to

the fact that there is a great deal of potential that is dor-

mant within and one is on the path of self-improvement

then a vegetarian diet is conducive for managing the

vagaries of one’s truant mind. All herbivores can be con-

trolled. No carnivore can really be controlled.

But most commonly, those who convert to vegetarianism

do so because they don’t want to be cruel to animals.

And that is a very powerful motivation. It’s not just the

fact that the animal is slaughtered. Its whole life is a tor-

turous existence. As you become more sensitive, you

want to inflict as little pain as possible on another living

being.

PHOTO: UNEP/TOPHAM

PHOTO: PAUL HARRIS/UNEP/TOPHAM

Hundreds of millions of people around the world are vegetarians. Their numbers are increasing even in traditionalmeat-eating countries: there are more than 5.6 million vegetarians in the United States, more than 3 million in theUnited Kingdom. The largest number live in India. Mumbai-based scholar and teacher, JAYA ROW, spoke about it toKAVITHA IYER.

BACKGROUND: DEIA SCHOLOSBERG/PCI

18

We are all fishers in Atlantic Canada,

fishers and farmers. Fishing and

agriculture were integral to the lives of

the early settlers. Nature was respected and a little

feared, but not exploited. The land and sea were simply

for subsistence.

The two industries continue to play the largest roles

in our economy but, sadly, they are now run by the few:

large companies that put immediate profit above all else.

Everything finds its way to the water and thus

mistreatment of land and poor agricultural practices

have seriously harmed the fisheries.

Silt from roads, farmland and forest

operations obscures stream and river

bottoms. Forests are thoughtlessly

clear cut. Runoff from careless land

harvesting has contaminated our

waterways with chemicals and

bacteria. In the sea, oil and gas

exploration, construction and

chemical spills – often undetected –

from large ocean liners are killing

life.

Fish stocks are decreasing and, in

some areas, have completely

disappeared. They once seemed

limitless. But competition has led to

overfishing of many areas. For

generations up to the early 1980s,

small, independent fishing

operations were fruitful and

sustainable. Then large-scale

trawling moved into the area and

fish populations greatly declined.

fishingforour futures

The world’s catch multiplied fivefold from 1950 to 1990, but since then it has been fallingas stocks decline. That is because we have been catching more fish than the seas can afford.Most of the world’s fisheries are overexploited – partly as a result of billions of dollars insubsidies paid by governments to national fishing fleets.

The Atlantic Ocean off Canada is one of the worst-hit places. Once the cod were soplentiful on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland that you could scoop them out of the seawith a bucket. By 1992 stocks were so depleted that this cod fishery had to be closed.

LENNIE MACPHERSON, who lives on Prince Edward Island, Canada, explains how it all wentso very wrong.

19

SEAWEED SALAD (serves 4)

Japan has many varieties of seaweed and has relied onthese sea vegetables as part of a healthy diet for literallythousands of years. Rich in vitamins and minerals, seaweedhas been found to have many health-promoting and healingproperties. And it isn’t only eaten wrapped around sushi,the rolls of rice, vegetables and fish that can be found allaround the world, but is used in salads, soups and stews,and forms a daily part of the Japanese diet.

125 g dried wakame1 cucumber150 g can mandarins3 tablespoons rice vinegar1 tablespoon sugarsaltwhite sesame seeds

Soften the dried wakame in a shallow bowl of coldwater, then drain it. Slice the cucumber, add a little salt tosoften it, leave for a few minutes and then rinse. Mix thewakame, cucumber and mandarins together. Mix thevinegar, sugar and one third of a teaspoon of saltseparately and pour over the salad. Garnish with thesesame seeds.

These large trawlers not only harvest far too many

fish, but their nets drag everything in their path,

including food and habitat for future stocks. Fishers who

used to make a living with hook and line had to get

involved in the trawling, or leave fishing altogether.

They were increasingly marginalized. Few could remain.

Some companies contend that the problem in the fishery

is that too many people are after too few fish. In fact,

careless technology has been the bane of the industry.

Most of our population is deceivingly urban, but

countless precious fishing villages still pepper the

Atlantic Canadian landscape. Here, you are never far

from the water, physically and in spirit.

The majority of my generation is only now reflecting

upon the beauty and common sense of a once idyllic

community. Recent initiatives are aiming to clean the

water that weaves through our land and strokes our

shores. Increasing support for environmentally sound

agriculture and fishing practices is welcome and

imperative. We’re not just hoping to save an industry,

we’re working to preserve a culture and its natural

cradle.

IMAGES:A. MANUEL E GARCIA/UNEP/TOPHAM

B. PENNY EDWARDS/UNEP/TOPHAMC. DARREN DEFNER/UNEP/TOPHAM

BACKGROUND. UNEP/TOPHAM

CA

B

One day Pepita, a Bogotá rail (a shy little water bird), and Luisita,a little black and white spotted cow, met in the pasture near theirschool. Pepita was a little sad, because she had been flying all morningand she had seen things that were not good. She told Luisita: ‘Youknow, I am very sad, because this morning I went out to fly and nearmy home, a wetland, I saw people throwing garbage into the street.After that, I saw some men cutting down trees. And a little time afterthat, I saw a lot of smoke running out into the air from a very hugebuilding, like a factory, and dirty water being thrown into the riverclose by. I think that this is not good, Luisita, because people are dam-aging the place where they live, where we live.’

Luisita, with her eyes closed, answered: ‘Pepita, Pepita, Pepita,don’t be sad, not everybody does these awful things. If you could seethe people who come to milk me, they are not like that. They throwtheir garbage in the correct place. The other day I heard that theysplit up the garbage and put it in different places. For example, theysell glass bottles to help other people to make more glass. They do thesame with paper, and they compost leftover food. They say that theyare planning, with other people, to plant trees, because they too havefound that many people cut trees down, and they want that to change.I have also heard that some of their friends are going to fix those facto-

In Bogotá, Colombia, there is anoth-er way to teach. Not just in schools, butalso in the streets and other places,people spend their time listening care-fully to storytellers. And now groups ofstorytellers are warning about ourimpact on the environment.

Every Sunday in Usaquen, a neigh-bourhood in the east of Bogotá whichused to be a small town, a group of people tell different kinds of stories. And every Friday, from after lunch until night falls, the best sto-rytellers go and tell their best stuff,sharing dreams – and facts – at ‘LaPerola’ at the National University. Thereare all kind of stories – stories of loveand madness; fairy tales and stand-upcomedy; and now environmental mes-sages. The storytellers who agree thatwe are destroying the environment aretaking action with a very strong weapon:words.

This is a new way to go into people’sminds and allow them to think aboutwhat we are doing to the environment.We have to take action about what wehave on our consciences. We have tocare about our present and our future –and those of our children and grandchil-dren. Stories are a good way to reachboth grown-ups and kids. We used sto-ries in some children’s workshops weheld last year to encourage awarenessof environmental issues. The resultswere amazing. The kids now have a dif-ferent point of view and they also paymuch more attention to environmentalissues.

Think differently. Think of other ways to share your ideas. Think of storytelling.

– one of the stories used at the workshopsPepita and Luisita

Let me tell you a story…

Kenneth Ochoa VargasOrganización Juvenil Ambiental – OJAand Caretakers of the EnvironmentInternational, Colombia Tunza Youth Advisory Council

20

6479 1011

321

Answers: 1a; 2c; 3a; 4a; 5a; 6a; 7b; 8c; 9a; 10a; 11b – the Mayas, ancientAmerican Indian peoples, who drank a bitter drink made from the cocoa beancalled ‘xocoatl’ or ‘chocolatl’

FOOD QUIZ –

12All the farmers in

the world produceenough food so

that, if it weredivided between

us, we could all eathow many calories

each day?

a. 1,600b. 3,200c. 2,700

A tomato is a

a. fruit b. vegetablec. herb

What is the mostexpensive spice in

the world?a. saffronb. turmericc. marjoram

From which countrydoes spaghetti

originate?

a. Chinab. Italyc. Hungary

What is the mostcommonly eaten

food in the world?

a. maizeb. ricec. wheat

Which vegetablereally helps yousee in the dark?

a. radishesb. carrotsc. Indian beans

5What food did the

Incas not only growand eat, but wor-

ship, in 500 BC,burying them with

their dead?

a. potatoesb. olivesc. cocoa beans 8Which country is

the biggestprovider of apples?

a. South Africab. New Zealandc. Russia

Which edible fruitis related to the

highly poisonousbelladonna plant?

a. tomatob. orangec. papaya

Which herb shouldyou eat to get rid of

bad breath?

a. parsleyb. sagec. coriander

Who first discov-ered chocolate?

a. the Peruviansb. the Mayan peoplec. the Mongolians

HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW YOUR FOODS?

ries where waste is thrown into the river:otherwise they will close them down andthe people will have to stop working.’

Pepita, having changed her sad face,replied: ‘Really? Oh Luisita, I am so happythat not everybody does awful things to theenvironment. Look, I would like to know ifeveryone can help?’

‘Of course!’ Luisita replied. ‘We canhelp all we want to. For example, if you seepeople doing something wrong, you cantell them so, respectfully. We can also tellour friends that damaging the environmentis not good, and that we have to thinkabout our future.’

‘Of course!’ said Pepita. ‘Now I will tellall my friends that we can help to take careof our house, our city or the place where welive.’

And Pepita flew away very happy, whileLuisita was preparing to be milked becausethe people she loved so much had justarrived.

ART BY DEIA SCHLOSBERG/PCI

ALL PHOTOS: KENNETH OCHOA VARGAS

22

7 food wonders

N3. From the rock

Imagine that your land was almost all bare rock, and little rainfell on it. Could you turn it into some of the world’s most pro-

ductive farmland? That is what the Dogon people of Mali inWest Africa have done. Seven centuries ago they fled from

invaders into the rocky granite and ironstone Dogon mountains,rising on the fringes of the Sahara Desert, which had only thin

patches of sandy soil amid the bare stone. But they have lookedafter the soil so well, planting every available square metre with spe-

cially selected crops, and recycling every gram of human and animalwaste, that they achieve yields that rival the world’s most productive farm-

ers and market gardeners.

1. Wonder womenAlmost all the world’s billion farmers are poor people struggling onsmall plots of land, but they are the true heroes in feeding the world– or, rather, heroines, since most of the work is usually done bywomen. These farmers make up about half of the world’s poor,but they produce four fifths of its food. They also produce muchmore food per hectare than the richer, more mechanized farmers,and have the biggest potential for increasing yield even further.Given proper support – including being able to get hold ofcredit – they could increase harvests worldwide by 5 per cent ayear, faster than the Green Revolution, and four times morerapidly than population growth.

2. Food forests

Everywhere rainforests are being felled to produce farm-land for growing food. But the land is poor and quicklyturns to dust. For centuries the peoples of the forestshave practised a better way – cultivating ‘food forests’,without cutting down the trees. The Lua people ofnorthern Thailand, the Laconda Maya of Mexico andthe Chagga people of Tanzania, for example, blend theircultivation into the forest at differing heights. The roof ofthe forest remains the tops of the tallest trees, as it hasalways done. Beneath that the Chagga grow 15 differenttypes of bananas and other fruit trees, then coffee bushes,then vegetables at ground level. As a result, more peoplecan live off a square kilometre of their land than anywhereelse in Tanzania.O

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PHOTO: PIET SABBE

PHOTO: TOPHAM PICTUREPOINT

23

J7. Magic mud

Our planet is not called Earth for nothing. For the earth is itsflesh, and all plants and animals on Earth – including us –

depend on it. But it is very fragile, and quickly washes and blowsaway if it is overused. Over two decades the world has lost some

500 million tonnes of topsoil, the same amount as covers the wholeof the United States. One quarter of the world’s farmland – an area

larger that the whole of the United States and Mexico combined – hasbeen seriously affected by such erosion. And about three quarters of the

planet’s pastureland has been degraded by overgrazing.

5. Take one camel…Fancy a blow-out? How about the world’s most daunting menuitem – roasted stuffed camel. It’s a sort of culinary Russian doll.

You start by cooking eggs, which are then are stuffed into fish. Thefish are then inserted into cooked chickens. The chickens are

crammed into a roast sheep. And finally the sheep is stuffed intothe camel. Then you get carving. The dish is still served very occa-

sionally for wedding feasts by the Bedouin tribespeople of theMiddle East. What they have for dessert in the desert to finish

off the feast is not recorded.

6. Researching rice The 3 billion people who depend on rice owe much to

the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in thePhilippines. IRRI – one of a network of 16 international

research centres around the world – was one of the pio-neers of the Green Revolution, where scientists used con-ventional plant-breeding techniques to produce high-yield-ing crops. Its first such rice, called IR8, staved off a faminepredicted for Asia in the 1970s. IRRI has produced manysuch new strains since, keeps a genebank of 90,000 vari-eties of rice and helped war-ravaged Cambodia become

self-sufficient in the grain.

4. In deep troubleMuch of the world’s harvest depends on a giant, unseen, underground sea. The Ogallala

Aquifer lies under eight US states and originally held 200 times as much water as theannual flow of the Colorado River; it waters one fifth of US irrigated land and is vital tothe harvests of the US Midwest which help to feed more than 100 countries. But it issteadily being depleted through overuse. Twelve billion cubic metres of water a yearare pumped from it, and very little is returned through rainfall. Already one fifth of

the farmers who once used the water can no longer do so – and irrigation hasbeen abandoned for over a million hectares. At present rates another 2 billion

hectares are expected to dry up by 2020.

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PHOTO: THOMAS LANG /UNEP/TOPHAM

PHOTO: GRIMALDO RENGIFO/UNEP/TOPHAM

PHOTO: CHIN KI AU /UNEP/TOPHAM

PHOTO: CCICCD

PHO

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NSE

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NEP

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PHA

M

how

do

you

get

yours?

PHOTO: DEIA SCHLOSBERG/PCI