Page 41 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 16

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climate – bad climate’ we give some
examples of what that could entail.

As it now stands, the actors in Afri-
ca’s food systems-- the pastoralists
and the butchers, the farmers and
open-air market vendors, the small-
scale fishers and street food hawk-
ers, the farm labourers and women
Fodder grass that was scorched by the persistent drought in Nakasongola preparing food at home-- are going
district, Central Uganda. Photo: Robert Guloba/PELUM Uganda to have to take matters into their
own hands. They need to urgently
adaptation is a secondary issue. It adapt to climate change but no come together, with the support of
should not get the outsized attention mention of how the exports and movements for climate justice, to
it receives in governmental circles greenhouse gas emissions from build and implement a vision for
when climate change and Africa’s Europe’s food system undermine how to respond to the climate crisis
food systems are on the agenda. The Africa’s food production and its and to the interconnected food crisis
single most important and effective capacity to weather the climate that Africa faces.
way to protect African food systems crisis (see box: The case of dairy).
from global warming is to cut global It is politically more expedient to This process is already well under-
greenhouse gas emissions. Given tell small farmers in Africa what to way. Africa’s rural social movements
that Africa, as a whole, contributes do (“no slash and burn agriculture”, have articulated and come together
less than 4% of global emissions “use ‘climate smart’ GMO seeds”) around a number of demands and
this is obviously something that has than it is to deal with the massive principles over recent years that
to happen outside of the continent. emissions produced by the big food can serve as a basis for a vision
And, because the industrial food and agribusiness corporations back for Africa’s food systems in an
system is associated with up to half home. era of climate crisis. The Nyéléni
of all global emissions, and is the Peasant Agroecology Manifesto,
leading cause of species collapse, African governments are unfortu- for instance, which was adopted
deforestation and habitat destruc- nately mostly singing along with this by numerous national and regional
tion worldwide, this reduction has to chorus. Instead of resisting, they are African peasant and fisherfolk or-
involve a wholesale transformation facilitating Africa’s integration into ganisations in 2017, provides a clear
of the global food system. the supply chains of the global food path towards food sovereignty and
Meaningful climate action in the and agribusiness corporations: keep- climate resilience.[34] The vision is
industrialised countries means an ing their borders open to the dump- already being put into action by so-
end to the surplus production of the ing of surplus food commodities cial movements in different parts of
food commodities that are dumped and ultra-processed foods, handing Africa, from campaigns to eat-local
in Africa. Meaningful climate action out fertile lands for industrial planta- to struggles against corporate land
in Africa means putting an end to tions of oil palms, sugar cane and grabs to fights against the entry of
the import of these surplus food animal feed crops and criminalising transnational supermarket chains.
commodities. The two actions go the practices of small vendors and Such interconnected actions are
hand-in-hand; the solution in the farmers.[32] There are some hopeful immediately required to break Af-
North and the South is food sover- exceptions, such as in Burkina Faso rica’s dependence on food imports,
eignty. where the government recently put advance food sovereignty and, in
in place a decree requiring public so doing, effectively deal with the
This is the uncomfortable truth institutions, such as school canteens, climate crisis.
that is always left out of high-level to procure only locally-produced
governmental discussions and policy foods. But a much deeper and com- GRAIN wishes to thank Andrew Adem,
processes. In this year’s report by plete reorientation of public policy Nyoni Ndabezinhle, Mariann Bassey,
the European Commission’s Task by African governments is needed Mamadou Goïta and David Calleb Otie-
Force Rural Africa, for instance, to facilitate and support the neces- no for their inputs into this report.
there is plenty of discussion about sary transition towards food sover-
how to help African farmers to eignty. In the annexed table ‘Good

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