Africa’s Food Future
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29013095
September 2nd 2014
The issue discussed in this article was based on The African Green Revolution Forum planning and discussion of ways to improve Africa’s food security. The forum initially targeted to double food productivity and to halve poverty in Africa by 2025. Continuing with this motive, the meeting held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, will focus on establishing of an agricultural-led economy in sub-Saharan Africa, in which, almost 1,000 delegates are expected to attend the four-day extensive meeting. The article proceeded to discuss how the food industry employs more than 65% of all Africans. Therefore, improving agricultural factors were considered an “absolute prerequisite of prosperity for our continent ”.
This article is important because it addresses starvation, an iconic issue that has both shaped and is now shaping Africa’s reputation. One of the misconceptions we have learned in class was Africa’s ‘hunger’ and ‘poverty’. These issues clearly exist in Africa, but the media’s exaggeration has made people interpret the problem incorrectly; that hunger is inevitable and is not in the process of improving. The article stated that 200 million people in Africa are malnourished and 5 million die each year due to starvation. These statistics create a bad impression about Africa.
There are several keywords used in this article, such as ‘poorest’, ‘malnourished’, and ‘hunger’. Although these words cause a negative effect in the article, surprisingly, I found the text quite neutral. The author did not refer to Africa as a country, but clearly as a continent. Along with this, the writer also presented the article with actual quotes. For example, “I am proud that many African nations are becoming economic powerhouses, but without a viable agricultural sector and a strong rural economy, there cannot be a viable future for Africa,” This quote seems like a harsh one for Africa, but it is actually neither positive nor negative. It shows that if the continent focuses to improve its agricultural sector, it’s definitely possible to decrease hunger.
The source of the text was the BBC, which is considered to be a biased website. Grabbing the reader’s attention is the main goal for these types of sites; so news often gets distorted. However, I think that the article displays both the positive and negative side explored; not pampering the problem, but rather, focusing on improvement.
The only thing that bothers me is how the author mentioned the statistics on malnourishment and starvation, which makes the article more dramatic in order to grab attention, or maybe just to inform readers on how severe starvation is in Africa.
Personally, I think that this article is interesting. It is great to know that Africa is working hard to decrease the issue of hunger. Other people might think that it has neglected the issue because there are still many news articles and media displays asking for donations. The fact that more than 65% of Africa’s labor force is involved in the food industry surprised me as well. With this at hand, if Africa can scale up its agricultural sector to its full potential, it can slowly eliminate the problem of hunger and improve living conditions of rural citizens.