I know that for some, just the mention of the word “food” coupled with the mention of Africa brings about unpleasant associations. I am told that many people throughout the world, as children, were forced to eat the foods they most hated by parents who insisted that, “There are children starving in Africa.  Children, just like you who would give anything for this food, so you’d better eat that artichoke right now.”

In all seriousness, during my youth, at least for a period of time, the food supply in Ghana was not scarce. It was, rather, quite abundant. The period of time I’m talking about was from 1972 until about 1978, during the tenure of Colonel I.K. Acheampong as Head of State. He launched a very successful programme called “Operation Feed Yourself,” whereby Ghana was completely self-reliant when it came to agribusiness and food supply. 

The government made a huge investment in our local farmers, and families, in all social strata and at all income levels, took to growing much of the produce they consumed in either front lawn or backyard gardens.

The programme was ingenious, but it was also hatched out of pure need because Colonel Acheampong had made an executive decision to not pay any of the country’s outstanding debt, so that effectively cut off international trade. We had no choice but to eat what was locally grown.

These days in Ghana, we have plenty of choices. Yet, with the consistently increasing food prices, and as I witness Ghana importing millions and millions of dollars of food that could easily, and perhaps even better, grown locally, I can’t help but wonder if we haven’t found ourselves too far on the opposite end of the scale.

With the globalization of food comes numerous essential questions that I believe must be answered if we, as a nation, and as a world, are to indeed transform the food sector in such a way that it is socially inclusive, economically responsible, and environmentally

The first and most important question being: “What is food?”

It is undeniable that in the current marketplace food has sometimes become synonymous, if not interchangeable, with product—often to the extent that it completely loses its original and primary intent of serving as nutrition for the human body.

Many nations are now attempting to enforce a clear differentiation between the two, food and product: As with packaged foods containing color additives “red 40” and “yellow 5”, which are artificially created from coal tar and petroleum; or pink slime, the paste used in many parts of the world to create hamburgers and hot dogs. Pink slime is made from meat scraps soaked in ammonia to enhance the color of the finished product—or food, if that’s what you care to call it.

Other questions abound: Questions relating to food safety as we see more and more outbreaks of food-borne illnesses and deaths from bacteria such as E. Coli, H. Pylori, and C. Botulinum, resulting from poor regulations with processing and preparation. Questions relating to the pasteurization and irradiation that is used to promote longer and longer periods of shelf-stability and supposed “freshness.” There are also plenty of questions pertaining to food labeling—its accuracy, transparency and the overall ability of the consumer to comprehend.

Michael Pollan, the author of the now-classic book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma refers to food labeling, with its deliberately confusing calculations, ingredients and advertising as a literary genre of its own, written in a language he calls “supermarket pastoral,” in which words and terms like, “free range,” “organic, “ “fresh,” “whole,” and “natural” are sometimes used to disguise and deceive instead of describe.

Finally, there is also the question of environmental sustainability, especially in the face of the very real threat of climate change. After my father retired from politics, he became a farmer, and one thing that I remember clearly from my youth is that farmers and fishermen were full of mythology and superstition.  They followed strict rituals that had been handed down throughout the generations about what you could plant where, under what type of sky, in which type of soil, when you could attempt to make a catch, on which day, in what part of the sea.

The more modern we’ve become, buying our fish already cleaned and gutted from stores instead of the seashore, and our vegetables free of dirt and neatly arranged in bins, the more we’ve come to think of those rituals as inconsequential nonsense.  But are they really?

About 8 years ago, there was a lecturer at the University of Ghana, an American woman who would often go out and swim in the ocean because she had a skin condition and the saltwater helped heal the sores and irritation.  One day as she was about to walk into the ocean, the local fishermen ran to her and said, “Not on Tuesday.  It is forbidden.  The seas are angry and the gods will curse you.”

She laughed at the ridiculousness of it.  Apparently, she was an expert swimmer, and had even won awards. “Oh, that’s rubbish,” she said to them, and she proceeded to walk into the water. Within seconds, she was pulled in and under; and within minutes, the sea spat her lifeless body out onto the shore.

Perhaps the fishermen understood something from their relationship with the water that modern science has yet to explain or has failed to respect. Perhaps the same is true with farming and modern food production.  I believe that it is possible, maybe even probable, that the answers to some of these questions I have enumerated, and the many more questions can be found within our elemental and indispensible relationship to the earth and its ability, with our care and respect, to ensure its survivability and our own.

By H.E John Dramani Mahama
President of the Republic of Ghana.