Fighting Global Malnutrition Locally

Cross posted from Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet.

Every year, 5 million children worldwide die from malnutrition-related causes, including immune-system deficiency, increased risk of infection, decreased bone density, and starvation. But a variety of local efforts are hoping to turn things around.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a country struggling with internal conflict, food shortages, and poverty, thousands of lives are threatened by acute malnutrition. When a child is brought to one of the therapeutic Stabilization Centers at regional hospitals, run by the Congolese Ministry of Health with support from the organization Action Against Hunger, they receive rations of specially formulated Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF). RUTF—such as Plumpy’nut, a peanut butter-based food produced by the French company Nutriset—is infused with vitamins and minerals and is used to quickly rehabilitate children suffering from malnutrition.

RUTF is packaged and requires no preparation or refrigeration. It can be administered at home, allowing families to avoid having to travel to far-off medical centers or pay for long and expensive stays at hospitals. It is also very effective. After about 40 days of two or three servings of RUTF per day, a child can reach a healthy weight. During the 2005 food crisis in the Maradi region of Niger, the non-profit Doctors Without Borders treated 40,000 severely malnourished children using RUTF and saw a recovery rate of 90 percent.
In addition to obtaining Plumpy’nut from UNICEF or directly from Nutriset in France, Action Against Hunger purchases it from Amwili, a local producer that has partnered with Nutriset. By providing a local source of RUTF, Lubumbashi-based Amwili frees the treatment centers from dependency on supplies imported from Europe. Local production also improves livelihoods by creating jobs, and many organizations around the world are working to link local farmers to RUTF production in order to provide an improved and consistent source of income.

In Haiti, the Zanmi Agrikol Program, run by the organization Partners in Health, is improving agricultural capacity and household food security, in addition to treating malnutrition, by training and contracting with local peanut farmers who provide the ingredients for locally produced RUTF. Currently the project provides malnutrition treatment and prevention for 5,000 children; agriculture training and support to 1,240 families; and has contracts with over 100 local peanut farmers. Additionally, the organization Meds & Food for Kids relies on local ingredients and Haitian producers to make its own brand of RUTF, called Medika Manba or “peanut butter medicine.” Meds & Food for Kids saw a significant increase in demand for Medika Manba after the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti earlier this year, and many malnourished children were treated with a locally made RUTF that provides the additional benefit of helping to restore the country’s fragile economy.

Companies like Nutriset in France and Valid International in the United Kingdom offer instruction manuals for local production of their specific RUTF products and partner with local producers in countries struggling with malnutrition across sub-Saharan Africa. Action Against Hunger, for example, also purchases Plumpy’nut from a producer in Nairobi, Kenya, called INSTA—a partner of Valid International—to distribute RUTF to its programs throughout East Africa.

In Ghana, the New Frontier Farmers and Processor group is processing the leaves of moringa trees, which are high in protein and other valuable nutrients, into powder that can be manufactured into formula for malnourished children. This effort, along with other crop-processing projects, is helping to add value to small-scale farmers’ crops and improve the livelihoods of the nearly 5,000 participating farmers.

To read more about how farmers can produce ingredients for local products to improve livelihoods, nutrition, and food security see: Locally Produced Products for Locally Consumed Products, Using Small Businesses to Create Local Markets, and Protecting Wildlife While Improving Food Security, Health, and Livelihoods.

Alternatives to Antibiotics in Animals: Looking to Africa for Answers

Cross posted from Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet. Written by Alex Tung

A recent article and editorial in the New York Times addressed the dire consequences of antibiotic overuse in farm animals on humans, and what the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is planning to do about it.

Previously introduced legislation, most notably the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2009, have attempted to regulate antibiotic use in the agricultural industry. This week, the FDA has finally issued a “draft guidance” on the use of drugs in agriculture, especially antibiotics that have significance in treating human infections. The use of such drugs, the agency says, should be “limited to treating or controlling infectious disease in animals or to prevent infections before an outbreak occurs.”
 
Industry representatives such as the National Pork Producers Council continue to voice their opposition, citing the high costs they project from having to review “previously approved animal health products.” These same voices have been supporting the spread of the factory-farming model in the United States, building the perception that it is necessary to sub-therapeutically dose animals with antibiotics to keep them disease-free or to make them produce more meat or milk.

Nourishing the Planet co-director Danielle Nierenberg’s visit to pastoralist communities in Kenya reminds us of the importance of preserving traditional, hardier breeds that suit local conditions and allow natural resistance to pest and diseases. Maybe it is time to look to these communities and learn from their solutions.

To learn more about sustainable livestock-rearing practices, read: Livestock Keepers’ Rights: Conserving Endangered Animal Genetic Resources in Kenya, Creating a Roadmap for Environmentally Sustainable Meat Production and Consumption, Using Livestock to Rebuild and Preserve Communities and Happier Meals: Rethinking the Global Meat Industry.

Alex Tung is a research intern with the Nourishing the Planet project.

What does the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Uganda's New Vision newspaper have in common?

Both ran opinion pieces today written by Danielle!

The first piece called "Thinking Big by Starting Small" in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer was co-written with Stephanie Hanson, the Director of Policy and Research at the One Acre Fund.

Here is how it begins: "It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the fact that 1 billion people worldwide are going to bed hungry every night. And, in the United States, it is easy to look at sub-Saharan Africa—where the majority of people depend on agriculture for their livelihood but still do not get enough to eat—and want to just throw money at the problem. Or worse, to give up hope..."

Please click HERE to read more

The second article was written for Uganda's New Vision newspaper and was a response to a recent piece called “Only 7% of women own land."

Here is how it begins: "The article highlighted the incredible economic disadvantage and risk to food security women face when they cannot own land. More important than exposing this inequity, however, is recognising the need for innovative programmes and tools to improve access to land, resources, and agricultural training for women."

Click HERE to read more