Page 41 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 17
P. 41
Food Health
• A full length pdf illustrative dals, which are a manifestation • A concerted and multi-pronged
pictorial of the food scan- of the unsafe and toxic food pan-African effort, through
dals can be downloaded from system, must be stopped to Food Campaigns, like the
this link: https://grain.org/ allow Africans make informed current one planned by the
system/attachments/sourc- food choices that are aligned Alliance for Food Sovereignty
es/000/006/600/original/FSA- with their local food cultures in Africa(AFSA) and its various
finalEN.pdf and which enable them live Alliances, including Organic
healthy and fulfilling lives while Consumers Alliance(OCA),
The introduction reads: at the same time earning decent whose CEO and Managing
• “Food safety scandals are livelihoods from their farm Director, in the video below,
plaguing Africa. From contami- produce. makes a passionate plea and
nated meat to GMOs and toxic What is the alternative to these advises the UN Food System,
milk for babies, the dangers to toxic foods and the ensuing food governments, especially African
governments, to make informed
scandals?
people’s health from industrial policy decisions and a mind-
food production are real. Here • Safe, diverse, local and African shift from blindly promoting the
we highlight seven cases that Indigenous Vegetables (AIV) failed “Western food systems”
reveal how big food corporations are part of the solution to these towards sustainable time tested
generate new risks, increase the food scandals and the toxic indigenous foods and food sys-
foods they sell to unsuspecting
tems which make it possible for
potential for cross-border con- consumers. Recently, an inter- the entire ecosystem to achieve
tamination, and leave consum- national team of agroecological a healthy co-existence.
ers vulnerable to the fraudulent practitioners, including local • Have a listen to the benefits
actions that affect food safety.” universities launched a new of mainstreaming diverse,
book; a training manual on how local and nutrient rich African
• The toxic food connection to grow AIVs. Prof. Mary Abu- foods as part of the strategy to
with increased vulnerability to kutsa, a reknown indigenous combat COVID-19 in addition
COVID-19 as indeed other vegetables expert and nutrition to judicious(not mass) vacci-
infections and non-communi- advocate, was the guest of nation as shared by Dr. Peter
cable diseases (NCDs) is not in honor at the book launch, at Mokaya: https://www.youtube.
dispute. The weakened immune C-SHEP com/watch?v=yQGWnRs-
system and the body’s compro- • Here is a link to a free down- 1G_o&t=4s
mised ability to mount a robust load of the book: https://www. • If you found the article useful,
and effective immune response egerton.ac.ke/university-news/ feel free to share and comment
by producing antibodies against training-manual-for-exten- on our various social media
the infection, in this case, sion-officers-and-practitioners handles. Thank you, in advance,
COVID-19 is compromised • Need to strengthen natural for sharing.
resulting in more severe diseases immunity and the antibodies
manifestations. This phenom- it produces from consuming a
enon partly explains the higher nutrient rich variety of foods.
COVID-19 deaths in the USA Scientific evidence demonstrates
despite their higher vaccina- that natural immunity is superi-
tion coverage, as compared or to vaccine induced immunity
to Africa. The toxic industrial and the antibodies produced.
foods they consume weaken the There is increasing evidence
body’s immune system resulting that natural immunity, from
in more NCDs also referred to safe and healthy nutrition, is the
as co-morbidities, which in turn more sustainable and protective
make the population more vul- than vaccine induced immunity:
nerable to COVID-19 manifest- Here is the evidence: https:// Dr. Peter Mokaya is the D
ing as more severe disease and www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1
more deaths. 101/2021.08.24.21262415v1 irector/CEO of Organic
• Going forward, these food scan- Consumers Alliance, Kenya.
http://www.organicconsumers.co.ke/
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