The Food Fix

The country of Venezuela has been embroiled in political turmoil for most of the 21st century.

Economic mismanagement and political instability has led to food shortages for some of Venezuela’s most vulnerable populations.

Geoff Ramsey is the Associate for Venezuela at the Washington Office on Latin America. We talked about Venezuelan food shortages, the economy, and much more.

By Max Johnston

Here in the states we like our sweet potatoes fried, sweetened and tater-totted. But the nutritious sweet potato is more than just a side dish.

Sweet potato is also a cheap and resilient crop. While it’s a popular food here, it can be a livelihood for low-income farmers. Especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

But there’s a small problem, or should I say a big problem in a small package.

We may enjoy sweet potatoes, but so does the weevil--a small brown beetle that resembles an ant.

Brooke Bissinger is an entomologist at AgBiome, a biotech company in North Carolina. She says the weevil loves the taste of sweet potato.

“Weevil is the most devastating pest to the sweet potato worldwide,” Bissinger said.

Bissinger says the weevil likes to eat and live in sweet potatoes. But in the process, they ruin them for everyone else.

“The insect lays its eggs in the sweet potato itself and then the larvae or the immature weevils, feeds on the potato,” Bissinger said. “It also causes the potato to make chemicals that are both bad tasting and toxic to people and animals.”

Weevils can be especially devastating to African farmers because sweet potato is a ‘low value’ crop that doesn’t fetch much cash in the open market.

Here in the states farmers spray pesticides to kill weevils. While that’s effective here it’s not really an option for farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.

“It’s a very low-value crop they’re growing to feed their families,” Bissinger said. “So the cost for them to use insecticides in these African countries is much more than the crop itself.”

Because there are so many farmers in the region it’s very easy for weevils to spread and devastate other crops.

There are certain cultural practices to stop the spread of weevils, like rotating your crops and burning infested sweet potatoes. But those require a lot of work and time that those farmers might not have.

So Bissinger and her team at AgBiome are looking for cheap and effective ways to protect the sweet potato from weevils. They’re doing this by studying micro-organisms and bacteria that are already present in the sweet potato and the surrounding soil that can fight off the pest.

This isn’t an entirely new concept. There’s good bacteria all over the place. There’s good bacteria in your stomach to help with digestion. Even yogurt is made from healthy bacteria that ferments milk.

“So there are good bacteria that can control bad bacteria, or even other organisms. So there are good bacteria that can control insects,” Bissinger said.

Using good bacteria to fight pests has been done before. Bt, short for Bacillus thuringiensis, is a common bacteria in soil that kills insects.

“It’s super commonly used in agriculture and insect control, but Bt isn’t the only microbe that’s out there,” Bissinger said. “So we’re really interested in looking around sweet potatoes to see if there are other bacteria that are beneficial that could kill the weevil.”

If AgBiome finds bacteria that fight weevils in sweet potatoes and their soil, it could be used to give African farmers cheap and easy access to an effective weevil pesticide.

For the next three years AgBiome, with a grant from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will be identifying microbes and bacteria in sweet potatoes and soil from sub-Saharan Africa.

“Hopefully once we find something, we’ll go over to Africa and test it against the species they’ve got and work with partners over there to get it out to the growers,” Bissinger said.

As part of The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism’s two-continent, three-country training tour, we’re sharing stories that we’ve received through our global partnerships.

This story on the communicating research to the public was produced by Bernadetta Chiwanda from FM 101 Power Radio.

Chiwanda interviewed Dave Poulson, the Senior Director of The Knight Center.

Poulson says research is no good if no one knows about it.

FM 101 Power Radio is Malawi’s first independent radio station and covers all three regions of the country.

For more information on The Knight Center’s tour and partnerships, read more here: https://msufoodfix.wordpress.com/2017/08/20/bridging-food-scientists-and-journalists-with-communications-training/#more-1596

As part of The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism's two-continent, three-country training tour, we're sharing stories that we've received through our global partnerships.

This story on the relationship between Malawi's researchers and farmers was produced by Bernadetta Chiwanda from FM 101 Power Radio.

Emmanuel Kaunda is the out-going Acting Vice Chancellor at Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Fisheries.

He says poor communication between scientists and farmers cost Malawi billions of Kwachas, Malawi's currency.

FM 101 Power Radio is Malawi's first independent radio station and covers all three regions of the country.

For more information on The Knight Center's tour and partnerships, read more here:

https://msufoodfix.wordpress.com/2017/08/20/bridging-food-scientists-and-journalists-with-communications-training/#more-1596

As part of The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism's two-continent, three-country training tour, we're sharing stories that we've received through our global partnerships.

Stanley Kadzuwa from The Malawi Institute of Journalism (MIJ) FM Radio interviewed David Poulson, Senior Associate Director of The Knight Center and Professor of Journalism at Michigan State University.

Poulson talked about communicating research through journalism, the differences between Malawi and Michigan, and some stories from the training tour.

MIJ FM Radio has operated for over 15 years and airs programs throughout Malawi's three regions.

For more information on The Knight Center's tour and partnerships, read more here:

https://msufoodfix.wordpress.com/2017/08/20/bridging-food-scientists-and-journalists-with-communications-training/#more-1596

As part of The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism's two-continent, three-country training tour, we're sharing stories that we've received through our global partnerships.

This story on publishing research from Malawian scientists was produced by Rhoda Msiska from the Voice of Livingstonia.

Scientists in Malawi are coordinating with the media to spread the word of their research.

Some say research findings haven't been put to full use due to poor communication.

Voice of Livingstonia is a radio station operated in the Northern Region of Malawi, and reaches over 4 million listeners.

For more information on The Knight Center's tour and partnerships, check out our Wordpress:

https://msufoodfix.wordpress.com/2017/08/20/bridging-food-scientists-and-journalists-with-communications-training/#more-1596

As part of The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism's two-continent, three-country training tour, we're sharing stories that we've received through our global partnerships.

This story on increasing the population of goats in Malawi was produced by Rhoda Msiska from the Voice of Livingstonia.

Researchers in Malawi are trying to make healthier goats.

Innovations in goat productivity could potentially boost goat populations from 8 million to 50 million in Malawi alone.

Voice of Livingstonia is a radio station operated in the Northern Region of Malawi, and reaches over 4 million listeners.

For more information on The Knight Center's tour and partnerships, check out our Wordpress:

https://msufoodfix.wordpress.com/2017/08/20/bridging-food-scientists-and-journalists-with-communications-training/#more-1596

As part of The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism's two-continent, three-country training tour, we're sharing stories that we've received through our global partnerships.

This story on biodiversity in Malawian crops was produced by Rhoda Msiska from the Voice of Livingstonia.

Malawi is producing more cassava and sweet potato, which could boost dietary diversity in households.

In order to do that researchers are looking into making those crops more resilient to pests and crop failure.

Voice of Livingstonia is a radio station operated in the Northern Region of Malawi, and reaches over 4 million listeners.

For more information on The Knight Center's tour and partnerships, check out our Wordpress:

https://msufoodfix.wordpress.com/2017/08/20/bridging-food-scientists-and-journalists-with-communications-training/#more-1596

Today’s idea to make the world less hungry is to regulate and standardize the date labels on our food.

If you wander through your local grocery store, you’re likely to see a lot of labels with dates preceded by a warning.

“Best if used by,” this date, “sell by,” that date, “use by”...this date.

These labels can have different meanings, some are for freshness, others are for quality, but all these labels have one thing in common: they’re confusing.

The nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) estimates that 20 percent of food waste that occurs at home, stems from confusion over what these labels mean.

In other words, people are throwing away good food, because they think that if it’s past the “best if used by” date, it’s spoiled. That isn’t the case.

In this episode, you’ll hear why these labels cause food waste, and of legislation to simplify food labels.

Food finances are tricky. For example, funding food production in developing countries has been difficult for a number of reasons, according to Rebecca Toole, a policy expert in economics.

“Farmers may seem like risky borrowers,” Toole said. “They often don’t have a established credit history, they also might not have stores of capital they could use as collateral for loans.”

Heifer International, a global non-profit, has been using a method called ‘Impact Investing.’ That’s where you have the private sector invest in food production, with a smaller relative return to their investment.

Bill Foreman, spokesman for Heifer International, says the return can then be used for another investment.

“The idea is that you invest capital and you don’t really expect to get the same kind of return,” So we expect to get some capital back and then we use it for another project.”

In this episode of our ongoing series, "10 ideas to make the world less hungry,” we tackle the complicated issue of financing food, and the ideas that are making it possible.