Famine food is supposed to refer to food that is consumed in times of great need and which can act as a indication of famine or extreme difficulties, but more often than not, famine food is a derogative expression for local food in remote places that rest of the world knows little or nothing about. The Famine Food Field Guide puts it like this:

For many years the importance of wild plants in subsistence agriculture in the developing world as a food supplement and as a means of survival during times of drought and famine has been overlooked. Generally, the consumption of such so-called ‘wild-food’ has been and still is being under-estimated.

The media exposure of Niger’s alleged famine in 2004-05 saw ordinary foods in Niger being labeled as famine food, and the daily habits of a local population were socially downplayed due to an appalling international lack of understanding and interest in the local food culture.

Copyright Eden Foundation 2005

Copyright Eden Foundation 2005

When BBC’s Africa correspondent Hilary Andersson came to Niger in July 2005, she wrote the following concerning Nigerien food consumption, which she called Niger’s ’silent hunger’:

Out in the deserts, people are eating leaves from brittle trees to survive. The land here has yielded virtually nothing. Even in good years, only just enough grows in this barren expanse for people to survive.

If one ignores the unnecessary drama, eating leaves is by no means spectacular in Niger, which is rich in both edible annuals and perennials. Different tribes have different preferences, as it is with all people, but regardless of one’s favorites, dinner in Niger generally consists of millet dough and sauce. In a country where meat is a luxury destined for a handful of highlights throughout the year, green leaves are an important ingredient to the sauce and add valuable nutrients. Those of us who claim to be enlightened should take great care not to downplay these valuable foods. White rice and foreign food handouts is not the answer to the upcoming world food shortages - but local edible perennials are.

Copyright Eden Foundation 2005

Eden has been active in the Tanout area since 1987, which is the northernmost agricultural zone in the country. Our field workers constantly meet women and children who are busy harvesting the edible leaves from the Eden trees growing in their fields, which will then be dried, prepared and sold at the local market or consumed within the household. The notion of famine food refers to something that people will only eat when forced to, but the Eden leaves are harvested just as much in good years as in bad years.

Copyright Eden Foundation 2007

Copyright Eden Foundation 2008

As I wrote in my previous post on Maerua crassifolia, it takes some skill knowing how to prepare the leaves, but the farmers of Tanout have it. I followed their recommendations, precooked the leaves and then dried them, before trying out my very own recipe of solar baked jiga bread. It was great!

I just mixed 1/5 of crushed dried jiga leaves (Maerua crassifolia), 2/5 of sorghum flour and 2/5 of wheat flower with a little bit of salt, peanut oil, baking powder and water and set it out in the solar oven.

A few hours later, I took it out, and voilà!

Out came this beautiful intriguing dark bread, which was both rich in both colors and taste! Those of you who’ve known me in Sweden, know that I am a big fan of making new bread varieties, and so jiga was just the thing for me!

I served it with some lemon mayonnaise, fresh tomatoes and a sprinkle of black pepper, and now my friends in Zinder are asking me to make some more so they can try it out… No social downplay going on here!

In my favorite Eden article entitled The Lost Treasures of Eden, the author Arne Garvi talks about the huge potential of the 78,000 known edible species available in the world (of which only 20 produce 90% of all human food) and the key role that they hold in a sustainable future. Written more than twenty years ago when Eden had just begun its visionary journey, the article is just as applicable today with the upcoming world food shortage that the media have been broadcasting lately.

We also know that species are dying out all the time, species of plants and species of animals, many times because of human abuse. Believing in Devolution does not make one disillusioned because the starting point is 78,000 plants. It gives us a positive and constructive sense of urgency about finding and utilizing key plants before they die out. Otherwise I do not believe that even the fittest of us will survive.

Now to breed a new super strain takes 50 years or so of intensive research. It is a much shorter process to find those of the 78,000 plants that are especially suitable for the arid lands of the world, and these will probably perform better under extreme conditions anyway. Devolution means that everything started from a high and has been slowly deteriorating ever since. So in our research it means finding these plants and the knowledge before it disappears. There are Tuaregs in the desert today who are radically changing their life style, but still are sitting there with a lot of knowledge that the West will never be able to get hold of if we do not hurry up. It could save 50 years of research. There is a need to respect these people and listen to them, get them to show us what plants they use and the way they use them, what ways they have used for survival and what they know about their environment. At least we need to get hold of seeds of all the species that are growing in the desert that have a potential for human food and start to reproduce them in quantities large enough for researchers to get to know these plants. Also the most promising of these should be made available for distribution en masse to interested farmers.

In its article Food crisis being felt around the world from April 2 2008, the National Post writes:

Aid agencies around the world worry they may be unable to feed the poorest of the poor.

I would have thought we’d have figured out by now that general food distributions are not going to solve the hunger crisis in this world, for apart from creating dependency, the Western world will sooner or later not even be able to afford it. So let us stop creating decencies and finding solutions that will enable the poorest of the poor to feed themselves. Believe it or not, but they may end up eating a more healthy and diverse diet than we do ourselves!

The world is at our disposal. Let us use it with respect and let us take of the solutions given to us so many, many years ago, before these solutions disappear and we are left crying for the poor. There is hope.

- Arne Garvi