My first experience at FAO: Food and Agriculture Association (United Nations)

Yesterday I was delighted to receive an invitation to attend the Symposium on Biodiversity and Sustainable Diets at FAO headquarters. This is a three day symposium with various guest speakers discussing research on a variety of topics from Conservation of Plant Biodiversity for Sustainable Diets to the Challenges of Overcoming Rural Poverty and Malnutrition in West Africa.

http://www.fao.org/infoods/biodiversity/

As I exited the Metro at Circo Massimo I was immediately greeted with ancient Roman ruins to the left, and the FAO global headquarters to my right. Security was reminiscent of an airport, with full body scans and x-rays of all our handbags. The staff were very friendly and when it was discovered that my badge had mistakenly not been created I was personally escorted to the door of the hall so that I had no problems getting inside. The hall where the symposium took place was exactly what I was expecting, microphones at each seat, delegates from all over the world and at the front a panel of experts and the chairwoman who lead the gathering.

I arrived just in time to hear two very interesting talks, one from a very elegant Ugandan woman who gave a talk entitled "Edible insects in Eastern and Southern Africa: challenges and opportunities". It was a very interesting concept that I had not really put much thought into before, and why? Because the consumption of insects is not part of my culture's diet, but as I watched her presentation I was really quite impressed with the positive health effects that insect consumption has on the body.

One point that was really difficult to ignore is that in many areas of Africa protein consumption is very low and causes negative health consequences. Many insects are very rich in protein and can be used for an alternative source of protein. Of course you must keep in mind that this is idea is used in the contexts of a population which already consumes insects as part of the diet and therefore they see no "ick" factor in the thought of eating insects. So the issue really comes down to storage and distribution so that more families have access to these resources, and of course education in terms of preparation and collection. Either way, it was a very interesting concept.  



Muniirah Mbabazi speaking about the challenges
and opportunities of Edible Insects

The second presentation was entitled "Fruit trees in home gardens of the Nuba mountains, Central Sudan, and their contribution to household nutrition and income" The presentation was by Katja Kehlenbeck of the World Agroforestry Centre in Kenya. I was very interested to hear what she had to say due to my interest in the exact same field and my work to improve food supplies by way of fruit trees. The information that she presented was certainly interesting but yet again I found myself wanting more. My purpose behind attending this conference was to take away practical information that I could use to enhance my already functioning projects. It seems however that the information was not what I was looking for. The entire presentation was simply an observation of what was taking place, such as documenting the amount of fruit trees and varieties for example. There was no mention of any projects that were taking place, what had been done to improve food security or recommendations. It seemed to me based on the information presented in the slides that the researchers simply went to the Nuba Mountains, looked around and wrote down what they were witnessing, there appeared to be no attempt made to improve the situation, just simply to observe it.

As I walked around the multimillion dollar building and glanced at the hundreds of glossy brochures written about food security I wondered how much of the funding is spent on marketing, and how much is actually spent on making an actual difference on the ground? Now I don't want to appear ungrateful, it is important to me to see what actually takes place but as the founding director of a grass roots charity who manages to stretch every penny of a $13,000 annual budget (I would love to increase that!!!) it in a way hurts my feelings to see so much spent on non-project expenses. I was stressing out because I spent $100 on a bicycle in Thembalethu, worried that I had broken my promise of not spending money on administration fees. It seems rather laughable now when I walk the hallways and see all the glitz and glamour of the FAO.

And for the record I donated that bicycle to a family in need when I departed Thembalethu......

A lovely sign outside of the room donated by the Canadian government, I think I was hoping for free samples of Maple Syrup and a few hockey lessons, but the plaque will do.